No matter how great your products are, if you don’t have a strong business design – a strong brand – you may struggle to get customer’s attention.
Everything your business does is a form of branding. So every time you make any form of contact with customers you need to think about how your presentation or behavior is reflecting your products and services.
Here’s how to create a business design for your website that accurately represents your business.
Building a Website
Online marketing is an absolute must for any business, big or small.
The first step on your marketing journey is to build your website – and make it both as usable and unique as possible.
All websites must be usable – user frustration results in user drop out, losing you valuable leads and sales for the sake of your business design.
In a sense, you must prioritize functionality over aesthetics when designing online, so that your users can browse and choose products and services without an issue.
For example, if you’re selling mens workout clothes, you don’t want to distract your shoppers from the products with flashy sidebars or irritating navigation tools. Or with semi-related adverts that take up too much of the page. Let them get the kit they want, hassle-free.
Physical Stores
When it comes to branding your physical stores, you have a bit more room to play. It’s important to entice people into the shop in the first place.
But you still need to target carefully to your particular audience. A kooky display might be fun for a children’s toy shop but might not work so well for a formal attire shop.
The way your shop is laid out and stocked says a lot about your brand too.
Sparse layouts with only a few items on the floor tend to work well for luxury brands, as it creates a sense of exclusivity around your products.
For a more affordable shop with lots of regular customers, it’s better to keep the floor well-stocked so that everyone can find what they need.
What About Your Products and Services?
Your products and services could be seen as the ‘end point’ of your design.
What we mean is that they are what the rest of your branding is driving the customer towards.
This reinforces the point that you need to carefully ensure that your branding matches up with what you’re selling. If there’s any confusion, customers might be unsure.
Uncertainty results in a customer not making a decision. This loses sales.
So keep everything as closely lined up as you can.
Your Overall Business Design
Above all else, your brand must appear cohesive across all the mediums you operate in.
That means thinking carefully about how you’re communicating, in terms of the words and images you use, and the ‘big picture’ you’re trying to convey about your brand to customers.
If you liked today’s post, check out these posts on design tips to copywriting. We’ve got all the advice you need on creating a solid business design, right here on PSD Learning.
