When strategizing an integrated marketing plan for your brand, the right web design is essential. The standard for web design is no longer just function or visibility; it’s all in the details that lead to how a user will engage with your brand. From layout to color, these critical elements work together to build a digital tool that, when strategically used, can improve online marketing campaigns significantly.
It is clear that a high-quality brand website is now an integral component of any effective digital marketing strategy, and that consumer standards for web design are higher than ever. According to a 2019 Gartner report, “88% of surveyed B2B customers report that the information they encountered during a recent successful purchase decision was high quality.”
And it seems that, no matter what the industry is, a website that is up to date, informative and aesthetically pleasing builds trust with potential clients and, therefore, can impact customer acquisition and conversion rates.
Digital Marketing Is More Important Than Ever
A well-crafted website can benefit a business in many tangible ways, including increased sales and leads. Effectively, a great website is its own campaign, constantly working to support the brand. What’s more is that in comparison to other marketing initiatives, a website is easily trackable, allowing brands to better understand consumer behavior and providing insight into what is and isn’t working. But how can a company get there?
Our digital agency is asked this question on an almost daily basis. Below, we’ll explore some of our implementations, best practices and ways in which website design can impact the marketing aspect of a brand.
Differentiation
It is important to differentiate from competitors. And when a website is outdated and clunky, that website will more than likely experience high bounce-back rates. It may seem tempting to build a website within a template and plug your business information in and be done, but it isn’t that simple.
In our experience, a custom website with a storytelling perspective and aligning visuals makes an impact with both the market and the consumer that won’t soon be forgotten.
User Experience
A well-designed website will create a journey for the user to engage, explore and interact with the brand. Building meaningful first impressions — from brand to consumer — impacts the bottom line and overall objectives for a brand.
User experience has become an essential investment for a brand, with users expecting an authentic and intuitive website that reflects the brand’s vision, perspective and service level. Ensure the ideal user experience through strategic plans such as user testing and A/B testing, which are critical to determining the success of a website.
SEO
SEO is utilized for a website to appear in chronological order, from most engaged, in a search engine. Good SEO practices include linking your website with keywords that apply to what your target market is searching. It is very important to incorporate SEO into website design for users to properly interact with a website.
Best SEO practices include researching what links and keywords should be implemented into a website, continuously updating these links to stay relevant and consciously, actively positioning content to increase visibility in search results.
Conversion
Monitoring conversion rates when analyzing metrics of how a website is performing is critical to offering the ideal customer experience (CX). Because a conversion rate is correlated directly to how a user engages with the website, it is a hugely important factor for a company to leverage in making marketing decisions.
Web design, when properly strategized for conversion, directly impacts conversion rates. While the idea of a website template solution seems simple and low cost, this can cause a huge negative impact on the user experience of a website and overall conversion rate.
If a user is exploring a website and is not able to locate the information they are looking for as a result of a poorly placed call-to-action button or unclear navigation, it’s likely they will quickly leave and go on to another website — maybe even a competitor’s website.
Brand Influence
By nurturing a consistent relationship with customers and users, a brand begins to build influence, which, in turn, becomes brand loyalty. Brand loyalty and trust occur when your consumer is loyal to your brand, not simply the products.
Many variables impact this influence, and increasingly, the presence of digital marketing is facilitating these connections via a digital ecosystem. Brand influence is an integral part of building a brand — especially marketing to millennials and Gen Z. These generations are looking for brands they can relate to and feel good about being associated with.
If your customers are converted into advocates, this will help immensely with launching new products, keeping retention up and impacting the overall bottom line, particularly through online community engagement.
Understanding that an increasing number of consumers will engage with brands online before making a purchase, it’s clear that an integrated website marketing strategy is essential to reach and convert leads both on and offline.
With a solid digital foundation in place, anchored by a well-strategized website, a company can effectively leverage positive brand image to increase sales, build PR, generate a robust social media presence and create a top-down marketing campaign across all media.