Louise Urquhart
Creating a new website isn’t just a case of designing something that looks good. It should be a strategic process that takes into account your building product brand and Value Proposition at every stage.
Having a poor website which creates a bad User experience and doesn’t serve your Customer’s needs can negatively impact your Company sales and de-value your brand.
Here are some aspects you should take into consideration when going through a website redesign.
#1 Don’t Neglect The Research Process
Research is the seed from which your site should grow. You may have ideas of what you want your site to achieve, but have you stopped to ask your customers what they need or want from your site?
Your opinions and those of your site’s potential Users are often very different.
There are various stages in the research phase of a website, though the ultimate aim is to establish your Website’s end goal.
Competitor Analysis
Take a look at your direct Competitors’ websites to see what they are providing to their Users. What tools are they using online to help them sell or promote their products or services?
Do they offer a vast amount of technical information and downloads to assist with specifying? What mediums do they use to get their message across?
While it’s not advisable to copy a competitor’s site, note what’s working for them, take inspiration from that and adapt those ideas to fit with your Users.
Client/Customer interviews
These are an integral part of establishing what you need your website to deliver. By interviewing a cross-section of Customers and Clients, you can begin to build up a clearer picture of what they’re looking to get from your site when they visit. Ask leading questions like:
- Tell us a bit about yourself and your work…
- Explain a bit about why you use our website…
- Talk about any elements and features that you find useful on our current site…
- Which features could we incorporate to help you achieve what you set out to do on our site?
It’s only by speaking to your clients and customers that you can build a picture of how to best serve their needs.
You can also ask them which keywords they use when searching online for similar products or services and use that as a basis for keyword research.
The avalanche of insight you gain into your customers from this process should rise…
The User/Buyer Persona
This is a representation of your real target audience, created from the data and insights provided in your Customer Interviews. Personas are indicative of your website’s typical users, and broadly illustrate the needs of your target audience.
A User Persona is an essential tool to help guide the content strategy and UX of a website. Without it, everything you do is simply guess work.
#2 Understand Your Value Proposition
Too many Companies, over the years, lose sight of what they set out to achieve. Their Value Proposition becomes diluted or maybe it just doesn’t stand up in the modern world.
Before relaunching your website, take the opportunity to revisit your Value Proposition. Test it against the feedback you received during your Customer Interviews.
Does your idea of what your Company stands for correlate with your Customer’s perceptions? If not, it’s time to re-evaluate.
Your Company and Colleagues should live and breathe your Value Proposition and it should also directly feed into your website. Have the VP in a prominent place for all to see and use it to guide content choices and brand direction.
A carefully considered Value Proposition that saturates every aspect of your Company, its people and its communications to the public, will ensure that you’re establishing a cohesive brand image.
#3 Make Sure Your Site’s On Brand
It’s no use having the most beautiful site in the world if your Brand isn’t instantly recognisable from the design and aesthetics of the site.
Logotypes
Ensure that your logo is prominent on every page and that your colours reflect your brand and are cohesive throughout. Using too many colours will dilute your brand and leave people wondering whose site they’re on.
Fonts
Never underestimate the importance of a good font. Distinct fonts can be instantly recognisable - take Coca Cola as an example. Company fonts should be used wherever possible and should embody the spirit of the Company, be it playful, formal, stylised or traditional.
Imagery
Consider the type of imagery you’re using. Is it appropriate for your brand? Does it convey the right message to your users? It’s always better to use your own photography where possible. Users enjoy seeing real pictures of real situations, rather than Companies hiding behind too much cheesy stock photography. It builds trust and enables Website visitors to engage more.
Tone of voice
Your company personality should also be evident in the tone of voice of your Website’s copy. Be friendly. Personable. Informative. But also use vocabulary that speaks volumes about who you are.
#4 Use Striking Imagery and Aesthetics
Get yourself noticed. Invest in good custom photography and your website will thank you for it. Use contrasting (but on Brand) colours for CTAs and areas you need to stand out so that your Users can clearly see where to go next.
Use your visual design to guide the User through your pages. Avoid large blocks of text, instead favouring smaller blocks interspersed with images, icons or dividers. Oversized type can help draw attention to key messages and can create areas of visual interest too.
#5 Leave Room For Your Website To Grow And Evolve
A new website should be seen as a springboard. It’s a starting point from which to grow. Once launched, a new site is in its infancy and should develop over time.
User testing can help you to establish what is and isn’t working for you online and you can use this knowledge to help your Content change, grow and develop in order to better suit your Users.
Keep speaking to your Customers and Clients about what they like and dislike about your site. Use their input to improve features and usability and ultimately they’ll thank you with repeated visits!
#6 Optimise SEO
What good is your lovely, shiny, new website if no-one can find it? SEO is key to ensuring the success of your website as a marketing and lead generation tool.
Firstly, set up google analytics and add the GA tracking code to the header of your site. Analytics can help you to identify what is and isn’t working on your site as well as the demographics of who is using your site.
Do your keyword research. Establish the keywords that you want to focus on and use them cohesively on pages in the URLs, the headers, the copy, the image alt tags and image names.
Input meta descriptions and page titles with relevant keywords on every page, so that people searching on Google are confronted with a well-considered description of the website page they’ve found.
And of course, don’t forget to….
Blog.
Frequent blogging can drive traffic and quality leads towards your website by giving your Users the information they want or need.
According to demandmetric.com, 59% of B2B Marketers consider blogs the most valuable channel, while on average, companies with blogs produce +67% leads per month.
Blogs create a connection with your reader and help to establish you as a powerhouse of knowledge in your chosen field. This ultimately helps establish trust in your product or service.
Conclusion
And there you have it: 6 tips for your building product brand’s website re-design.
If you’re in the market for a new website, why not speak to an expert directly? As specialists in building product websites, we can help you achieve your brand’s visions with a specifier-friendly, lead generation website that acts as your additional salesperson.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our latest Buzon UK website case study.
About Insynth
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.