Just like your eyes are considered the windows to your soul, so is your website to your brand. When running or owning a business, the last thing you want to worry about is figuring out the order you should invest in your business.
You already have enough on your plate without having to think about ensuring that your website looks good and works well for your customers.
That’s why it’s important to get your branding right before you start working on your web design. If you’re not yet aware of what branding means for a business, this article will help you get some ideas you can use to your advantage.
What is branding?
Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your company or product. It’s more than just making a logo; it’s also about developing an overall image representing your brand.
It’s not just about looking professional, either. Your branding must be consistent across all aspects of your business, including your website, social media pages, email marketing campaigns, etc.
What is web design?
Web design refers to the process of developing websites. Web designers aim to create attractive, user-friendly websites that work well across different devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and smart TVs.
Working with a web design company can help businesses and individuals achieve their website goals, as these companies often have the expertise and resources needed to create high-quality websites that meet the needs of their clients. With the help of a web design company, businesses can improve their online presence, attract more visitors to their website, and ultimately increase their revenue.
Difference Between Branding and Marketing
Branding is a long-term strategy that helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field by helping you gather the trust of your audience.
On the other hand, marketing is a short-term strategy focusing on getting attention. It includes advertising, social media, web design, etc.
Branding as a Part of Building Your Website Visuals
Web design means an opportunity to take branding elements and bring them to life to really start the story of a business and its branding.
If you’re already planning out the look and feel of your site before starting any design work, this helps keep things consistent from start to finish.
To create an effective website, you must have these elements created (either a web designer who also does branding or a separate branding designer) to inform the web designer you’re working with on visually layouting and structuring your site.
If your brand is colourful and funky, it will give a clue to a website designer that they shouldn’t design a high-end and classy website for your business.
It also tells them how to solve your website issues. It can make all kinds of differences between having a bland site that doesn’t connect with your audiences and one that really does.
Branding As a Part of the Web Design Process
From a process perspective, branding makes web development so much easier. You may have read the stories of websites that take forever to complete. They’re hard to manage, and they’re even harder to execute.
Usually, when people start working on a new website, they tend to focus on making sure that their site meets the needs and goals of their project. Everyone involved in this project would be unhappy at the conclusion of this project.
It really sucks for both parties involved when they invest time and effort into building an attractive site, but nobody visits it.
Branding makes the process of designing a website so much easier. With the visual aesthetics of a business already established, the web designer doesn’t have to spend any extra effort creating an aesthetically pleasing design for their clients.
It eliminates about half of the issues arising during a web development project. You don’t need to worry about the visual appeal of your site; rather, you can focus on its functionalities and user experience. You’ll be able to perfectly achieve the desired result much faster once you’ve established your brand identity.
Why Does Branding Matter?
Apart from helping you use effective strategies for using marketing techniques to your benefit, brand building also allows companies to establish long-lasting relationships with their consumers.
Continuous advertising is indeed necessary for a business to succeed, but brand building creates the long-term connections a company needs to survive in today’s marketplace. Promotional techniques can certainly attract people’s attention, but after that, they’re left with nothing.
If your brand doesn’t know where it stands, then connecting with it gets harder for consumers — and they’re likely to choose other brands instead.
To ensure that consumers will always choose your business, it’s best to focus most of your efforts on creating a brand that people can rely on and connect with first.
How Does This Help You, The Client?
Getting started early on brand development before starting any web designs is important. Here are three ways branding supports web design and not the other way around.
A brand is a visual foundation for creating a website. This ensures that your website remains consistent with the rest of your business when you’ve already established your brand identity in advance.
Moreover, as your brand grows over time, your website can also grow with you. It was designed using the same visual foundation.
Your web developer and designer will be able to provide you with benchmarks for determining whether your site looks good enough. You’ll get your site up quicker because your web developer won’t have to spend time figuring out which design elements would look good on your site.
You’ll spend less time and money by creating visual assets for your business that complement one another. You won’t need to spend money rebranding something that isn’t in line with your brand.
8 Reasons Why Branding Comes First Before Web Design
Branding is one of those things that most people overlook when they start their businesses. They think that once they have a great idea for a business, they can just jump into designing their website. But if you do that, you might end up with something that doesn’t represent who you are as a business.
Here are eight clever reasons you need to create a brand before web design:
1. A strong brand helps build trust
Your brand stands as the face of your business. It’s how people see you and the impression that you leave you behind. When people see your brand, they immediately form opinions about you and your business.
So, before creating your website, you need to figure out exactly what kind of brand you want to project. This includes everything from your name, logo, colours, fonts, images, etc.
2. It’s easier to create websites if you already have a brand
If you already have a brand, creating a website that reflects your brand is much easier. You won’t have to spend time developing ideas and concepts for your site because you already have a clear course of action and vision of what you want it to look like.
Let’s say you want to create a website focused on helping people lose weight. You would probably come up with different designs based on the type of content you would include on your page.
3. Your brand is who you are; your website is your shop front
Once you have created a brand for yourself, you can use it for marketing your products and services online. The best part is you can use your brand to promote your business, even offline.
For example, if you have a blog about health and fitness, you could use your brand to sell supplements and other healthy lifestyle products.
4. Branding creates loyal customers while web design attracts new ones
Our brand represents the face of your business. It’s who you are and what you stand for, while web design helps you reach out to new customers.
Branding comes first because it helps you establish yourself as a trustworthy person. Once you have established yourself as a reputable business owner, selling products online will be much easier.
Web design comes second because it helps you reach out to existing customers. By having a good website, you can increase sales and generate more revenue.
5. If you don’t have a brand, then you’re missing out on potential profits
When you launch your website, there’s no guarantee that you will get any traffic. And even if you get visitors, many of them will bounce off your page without buying anything.
It’s very difficult to convert these visitors into paying customers if you don’t have a brand–one of the reasons why most startups and small businesses fail.
6. Building a brand first makes it easier to grow your business
One big mistake entrepreneur commits when starting a business is not thinking about how they plan to scale their company. Most people assume they will just keep growing their current business until it becomes big enough to hire employees.
But if you start building a brand first, you can easily expand your business in ways you never thought possible. For example, if you started a blog about health and wellness, you could eventually turn it into an e-book or maybe even a book.
7. A brand gives you credibility as a business owner
Another big mistake people make when launching a business is assuming they know everything about running a successful business. After all, you don’t become a millionaire overnight. Instead, you need to build a reputation over time.
And the way to do this is through branding. When you have a strong brand, people will trust you and believe you know what you are talking about. This means they will be more likely to follow your advice and recommendations.
8. Your brand can be a big help in designing your website
Many think that designing a website is a simple process. After all, you just open up Photoshop or SketchUp, create some designs, and upload them onto your server.
But the truth is that designing a website isn’t as easy as it seems. There are a lot of things that you need to consider before you launch your website.
So, creating a brand before your website will give you a head start. You can use your brand to help you develop ideas for your website.
Making It Work
Building a strong brand isn’t easy; creating a marketing strategy that simultaneously builds your brand and sells your product is even harder.
Marketing is an investment worth making regardless of whether it’ll be done through paid advertising, organic social media posts, or even free content creation.
If done well, these efforts can be worth far more than they cost. But if you want to get the most from your investment, it’s better that you collaborate with experts who know their way around brand management and digital advertising!
Both branding and marketing are important parts of any business. They’re both great investments that add even more to your business!
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a startup or a large corporation. The best thing to do for yourself and your company to improve your chances of success is to start by developing a brand.
Your website is most likely the first-time people experience your company, so you must have your branding right. You need to build your brand before looking for ways to improve your website. If you think it right, then you’ll get it right.
Consider hiring a reputable and professional graphic designer to create your business’s logo or provide you with a complete brand identity design.
Remember that branding is about much more than just designing a logo. Your brand is what makes your business unique. Make sure you invest some time in developing your brand before starting your website.
