After learning about a new business, most professionals reference your website as a credibility check before following up. Your credibility diminishes when your website does not match the perception you gave nor your business card. The overall look and feel of your website must align with your overall brand.
Align Your Website with Your Visual Identity
To align your website with your brand, you should design your website to fit your visual identity. Your visual identity encompasses your logo, colors, typography, images, and media channels.
A few questions to consider:
- Does the logo on your business card match the logo on your website?
- Do the brand colors remain consistent from print materials to your website?
- Is there a consistent use of typography on your business card, print materials, internal documents, and website?
- Is the use of images and photos consistent? Do the images align with your brand?
- Does your use of media channels align with your visual identity?
- Which media channels fit your brand and your audience?
You want to ensure consistency with your logo, colors, typography, images, and media. To be consistent, the colors must much exactly. Close is not good enough! All to often, entrepreneurs make the mistake of using a color that looks close enough. Don’t eye-ball it! Write down the specific color code for CMYK, RGB, and HEX to keep things consistent.
Integrate Your Voice & Attitude Identity into Your Website
Not only do you want to design your website to fit your visual identity, but you also want to integrate your voice and attitude identity into your website. Your voice identity encompasses your tagline or slogan, mantra, mission or vision, tone-of-voice, word choice, key messages, calls to actions, and product names. Your attitude identity pertains to your value proposition, values, personality, and company culture.
A few questions to consider:
- Does the tagline on your website match the tagline you use to close your elevator pitch?
- Does the About page highlight your values, mission, vision, company culture, or personality?
- Does the About page tell your story? Does it highlight your value proposition?
- Does the tone of voice align with how you and your sales force speak to your clients?
- Is the word choice consistent across traditional and digital marketing channels?
- Are your key messages and calls to action consistent between print and digital?
- Does your use of images reinforce your key messages?
You want to ensure consistency with your voice identity. When someone reads the content on your website, they should feel as if they are talking with you not an entirely different person. Your voice identity should be reflected and consistent across channels.
Align Your Website with Your Physical Identity
Not only do you want to remain consistent with your visual, voice, and attitude identity, but you also want to incorporate your physical identity into your website. Your physical identity encompasses product packaging, store or brick and mortar location, office design, uniforms or dress code, and everything related to the physical appearance of your brand.
A few questions to consider:
- Does your website include photos of your storefront or office to help customers recognize your place of business when they are trying to find your location?
- Do the product images on your website align with your in-store product packaging?
- Does your website include photos of the founder/key employees to promote recognition?
- Does your physical appearance align with your brand identity? Are uniforms appropriate?
- Do the colors of the employee uniforms align with the overall visual identity?
- Does your office or store design align with your company culture and attitude identity?
- Do your office design reinforce the values listed on your about page?
- Does your storefront sign include your logo and fit your visual identity?
For the physical identity on your website, you want to integrate as much as possible to make it easier for customers to associate your place of business with your website and overall brand. There should be consistency between the building, interior layout, uniforms or dress code, product packaging, etc. After all your storefront sign is a 24/7 marketing tool, just like your website! Make sure both are working together.
Be Consistent with Your Branding
Not only do you want to integrate your brand and keep it consistent across channels, but you also want to make sure the brand elements reinforce one another. Your designs and communications must remain consistent from owner to employee, from brochure to website, and from website to social media. When your brand identity matches your website, visitors will instantly associate your website with your business. Consistency promotes brand recognition, increases trust, and fosters loyalty.
A brand identity guide is one of the simplest ways to define your brand and ensure consistency between employees, contractors, and service providers. A brand identity guide defines the proper use of the logo, colors, typography, messaging, voice, etc. A brand identity guide can also provide guidance on how to ensure that the color on your business card matches the color on your website. Consistency is the first step towards brand recognition and eventually brand equity.
This post is inspired by a guest presentation on “Ask the Tech-perts.“
