Having a website is a lot of work and there are a lot of nuances that can make or break the success of your website. You may be looking for a way to keep your website looking cohesive, but how can you ensure that your website stays visually consistent?
In this article, we will discuss the importance of branding and brand image, as well as how to make your website show off your brand in a consistent and professional way.
Let’s jump right into it.
What is a Brand Image?
First and foremost, let’s discuss what a brand image is. This is a crucial component of your business and should translate to your website as well. Branding is something that you should ideally do before you launch, but rebranding is always an option.
Brand image is the impression that your customers or viewers have of you and your products and services. This includes messaging, colors, products, story, and quality of products. How the public perceives your brand is what your brand image is and this includes visual consistency.
Why is a Brand Image Important?
Brand image is important because it is how you are recognized online. Brand image is crucial to the potential for success of your website and business. If you have a negative brand image, you are not likely to sell as many products.
Since you are looking for a visually consistent website, you will need to prioritize your brand image. Maintaining a consistent brand image is the key to having a visually consistent website. As long as your brand image is clear and well-defined, your website will follow.
However, if you don’t already have a concise brand image you will need to make some changes to your brand image and then to your website. Let’s go over what you will need for your brand image in order to apply it to your website.
What Does a Brand Image Need to Include?
Your brand should have many components in order to have a clear brand image. We will go over three of the components of brand image in detail to help you determine if you have a brand image that will help you maintain a consistent brand presence online.
Brand colors
These are the colors that you use when posting online or on your products. Brand colors are crucial for brand recognition, especially on your website.
Do you already have colors for your brand? If so, you will need to use them throughout your website. Do not use other colors outside of the set colors for your brand on your website if you are trying to maintain a consistent presence online.
If you do not have brand colors that are set, you will need to do some additional work. Ask yourself what colors are currently used for your website. How about the packaging of your products? What about your logo? If you are using consistent colors in this way, you should make these your brand colors. If not, you should go back to the drawing board and decide on a set amount of brand colors that will define your brand image.
Whether you have brand colors or not, it is imperative that you add these colors to your website and work within a set color palette when you are posting content on your website. Having colors that contrast or conflict with this will only add to confusion and visual dissonance.
Brand personality
Brand personality refers to the tone and attitude of your brand. This part of the brand image can be reflected in both images and written content. The elements of visual consistency in a website include the written content on your website.
What is your brand personality? Does it align with your branding overall and do you maintain this personality consistently throughout your website? It is easy to forget about brand personality, but it is an important element of your branding and your website content.
Does your brand need to be friendly and approachable, or does it need to be more serious? Providing a mix of the two can be confusing and can easily result in a visually confusing and unappealing website.
Target market
Another aspect of brand image that can impact how your brand and website appears online is who you are talking to. If you are undecided on what your target market is, this will reflect in the other aspects of your branding online.
To put it simply, it is very hard to market yourself to both children and elderly people. It’s possible, but if you are not doing it in a structured way, you may have a visually inconsistent website because of this.
Ask yourself who you are selling to and what problem you are trying to solve for them. What is your demographic? What type of people do you want to access your website?
As a piece of homework, write down the personas of potential customers of your products and ask yourself where they live, how old they are, what gender they are, what they do for work, and so on. This will help you to identify your target market and target audience. This is a great tool for defining the target market of your brand to redefine how you present your content on your website.
Conclusion and Takeaway
All in all, the key to having a visually consistent website is to have a consistent brand. If you are struggling with your brand image and your brand story, you will be struggling to maintain a consistent website presence.
In the digital age, online presence is extremely important. While this article may have given you a lot to consider about your business, we encourage you to invest the time into providing clarity for your business and taking the steps to clarify your brand image and your web content. Clarify your brand image and make the proper changes to your website in order to improve your website.
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