When site visitors land on your site, you have a few seconds to make an excellent first impression. Since consistency is critical, it’s essential to make sure you represent your brand consistently online and offline.
There are approximately 1.84 billion websites on the world wide web. That’s a lot of noise competing for the attention of internet users. While you may have a narrower niche, you still have to overcome people’s propensity to spend time on social media or doing a million other things besides visiting your website.
Once you drive traffic to your page, you must immediately show users who you are and what your brand is about. Make sure every element of your website screams your branding. Here are the top things you can do to be memorable.
1. Revamp Above the Fold
According to the Nielson Norman Group, users spend about 80% of their time above the fold. While the entire page is important, you may want to pay particular attention to what visitors see when they first land on your page.
Take a step back from your computer screen and see if everything aligns and looks visually pleasing. Does anything run together? Perhaps you need more white space around some elements.
If you have a few seconds to make an impression, do you accomplish it at the top of your pages?
2. Use Big, Beautiful Images
Make sure you include image specs in your style guide. You should know the overall colors you want to use in your images, the angles, the resolution and sizes.
Some sites use more images than others. You likely also use images on social media and in advertising. Make sure you have some standards, so if a person visits your website, they see the same thing they see in other places. You want that consistent image across platforms.
You can even decide if you want a limited number of images on a page and define a size hierarchy.
Note WAC Lighting’s beautiful design. The images all have a modern look that evokes a feeling of contemporary elegance. When someone lands on the page who has never seen the company’s lights before, they are immediately captivated by the possibilities. The images grab user attention and keep it.
3. Use Brand Colors
If your brand has a specific color palette, repeat those shades on your website. People come to recognize your brand by its colors. Think of companies such as McDonald’s. What would they be with green arches instead of golden ones?
There is an entire psychology behind color choices. Using red generates feelings of excitement. Dark blue might evoke trust. While there are rules of thumb for what feelings different colors create in people, understand your target audience might be diverse. Know your users well enough to know how different hues impact them.
4. Use Excellent UX
User experience (UX) can make or break your website. You can have a beautiful design, but if it isn’t functional, you’ll lose customers. Think about the function of your site. Is the goal to get people to convert by signing up for a mailing list?
Once you know the page’s goal, it’s much easier to ensure the UX matches the objective. Everything on the page should point the user to the next phase of the buyer’s journey.
Light My Bricks grabs the user from the minute they land on the page. The images showcase what the product does. The headline sums up the purpose in eight short words. They also have a bright call to action (CTA) button to encourage the user to move into the sales funnel.
5. Create Captivating Content
Think about the reason people come to your website in the first place. Your typical customer likely has a pain point that drives them to seek a solution. Once you understand the problem, you can address it on your page.
Provide videos, articles and webinars helping people overcome the issue at hand. For example, if you sell ponchos, then worries about getting drenched during an outdoor event drive your customers to your page.
Think about how to offer advice to help. Is there a way to refold the poncho after use when the sun peeks out from behind the clouds? Perhaps you can share the various items one should carry in a backpack for a fun day at an amusement park.
The more useful and unique your content, the more site visitors you’ll attract. Excellent SEO requires smart articles and material answering the top search questions users have. It takes a bit of research and creativity to find the right keywords and answer them, but it is well worth your time investment.
6. Add Interactivity
Do you want users to engage with your brand? You must find ways to grab them and get them involved on your landing page. If you can keep them reading, scrolling and clicking, they are more likely to hang around long enough to become a lead.
The last thing you want is to spend time and money driving traffic to your site only to have people bounce away immediately. If you engage them from the first minute they arrive, they’re more likely to convert into customers.
Jelmyto is a specific treatment for tumors in hard-to-reach areas of the pelvis. The site uses a virtual booth to show how the technology works and give potential users some peace of mind about the process and effectiveness.
As you scroll down the page, the images morph into place. The CTA buttons are animated as you scroll over them. You can adjust the temperature to see what the substance does inside your body, view how it’s administered and watch videos.
7. Check Mobile Responsiveness
More and more people use their smartphones to get online. If your site isn’t responsive to smaller screen sizes, visitors might assume you aren’t up on the latest trends. They might also think your business is behind the times.
It’s essential you reach all users on their level. Make sure you test your site thoroughly for different browsers and systems. In addition to checking how well text, images and navigation translates for mobile devices, double-check your site is viewable in less frequently used browsers, such as Opera.
If you want your website to be memorable, you must offer a seamless experience no matter what device customers use to access your website.
Look at All Aspects of Design
Every day, new sites appear online. Your website must stand the test of time while meeting consumer needs. You have to look at the visual aesthetics, the user experience and how well the page showcases your brand.
It isn’t easy to create and maintain a site that hits all the high notes. You’ll have to review your page’s elements every few months, know what trends are popular and be ready to make changes on the fly. However, with a little attention to detail, you’ll have a page your customers can’t wait to visit and share with others.
