I was enjoying a hot cup of cappuccino at my favorite coffee place when a mother-daughter duo came and sat at the table next to me. The mother and her toddler gave me a different perspective on marketing in terms of how commoners and people who do not work in the marketing space perceive brands. 

“Mom, is this a cannon camera?”, She giggled. By merely glancing over her mother’s phone, she could immediately recognize the brand through their website. 

Needless to say, I was baffled to see how deeply brands are integrated into our personal lives, regardless of the number of years we have been on this planet!

What SNKRS is to Nike and what blogging is to HubSpot is the kind of approach people should seek while creating a killer website. In this day and age where there are no bounds to competition, it is not sufficient to just create a website and call it a day. 

It is imperative to keep on updating and maintaining it as well.  

A lot of brands fall out in the digital space due to 2 main reasons – 

1. Not keeping up with the trends of the market

2. A bad SEO strategy

In both cases though, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. At Apric, we always tell brands to never hop on to a bandwagon just for the sake of “being in trend”. What may work for cult brands like Apple and Coca-Cola may not work for your brand. 

Your SEO strategy also needs to be cutting-edge. By trying to come up with exotic and unique product names to enhance their SEO, brands oftentimes forget that there are more than over 3814 distinct cultures in this world and some “exotic” words may be sacred to them. This ends up hurting the sentiments of the people and ultimately leads to a sloppy brand image. 

Marc Jacobs, a brand loved by many of us faced extreme backlash for cultural appropriation during the Spring 2017 fashion show wherein all 52 Caucasian models walked the ramp in rainbow wool dreadlocks. This tarnished their image in the industry. 

Many cultures also do not entertain a direct sales approach, they would need a meandering, not in-your-face sales strategy. We would suggest doing your research and seeing what would resonate with your brand values and offerings.

Now that we are clear on what your brand should do holistically, let us have a look at 6 things to remember when you are creating a website!

1) Website Responsiveness

If your website is not responsive in 2022, you really need to re-evaluate your entire strategy. Responsive web designs are practices and principles to create web pages that look great across all devices. It also automatically adjusts for various ALL screen sizes. This ensures that all your viewers/customers have the same and ideal viewing experience.

Let me explain the importance of web responsiveness through a personal experience of ours at Apric. Being subject matter experts in the realm of website design and development, we interact with brands on a daily basis. 

One such brand approached us and discussed its pain points. They had an amazing product and were making good sales on third-party e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal but their direct website sales were minuscule. 

Upon some investigation, we found out that the problem was with the site's mobile responsiveness. It was a mess on the mobile screens. Customers could not complete their user journey due to this issue. This translated into the brand losing a ton of money.

Upon fixing the issue, the brand recorded a steep elevation in their website sales.

2) User Experience

Let us give you 2 scenarios to explain user experience in a nutshell.

Situation 1 – You go to a restaurant and although there is a door, nothing is mentioned on the door on which side to open it. You try a couple of times to fiddle with it and try to figure out how it works, finally, after 10 tries you sheepishly figure it out and enter the restaurant. Do you think you had a good experience? We suppose not!

Situation 2 – If the same restaurant had push-pull written on the handles of the door vibrantly, the user would have no problem navigating their way inside the restaurant. This would subconsciously instill the feeling of ease and comfort in the mind of the user that will ultimately translate to a wonderful user experience.

User experience is key to your website’s growth. For your website to foster a holistic experience, it is crucial to see how the user navigates through various touchpoints. Successful experiences not only help in elevating engagement and traffic, but they also ensure that your user takes away a memory that would be embedded in his mind for a long time. 

Conquering the know-how of this is very important.

3) Site Load and Accessibility

Have you ever typed a URL that took forever to load? We have all been there at least once in our life! If you are anyone like me, you would get frustrated if a site does not load on time. I mean there is nothing wrong with feeling that way as new-age technology enables websites to run effortlessly. 

Any brand that exhibits a huge site load will not be able to portray its brand potential to its customers in full glory. We recommend you audit your website's performance regularly to check for the speed, load time, and formatting to eliminate this issue. 

Accessibility is also a key factor when it comes to your website. Keep your doors open to people with color blindness or photosensitivity and plan your website accordingly.

4) CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT!

I remember back in the day when the only way to consume news was through newspapers, I used to eagerly wait for the “Speaking Tree” article! It was always so inspiring and refreshing due to the way Jayant B Dave connected with his audience through content. 

Your content needs to be interesting and relevant to the user. If a user cannot derive value out of your content, he will click away and sway towards your competitors. Integrate relevant keywords for discovery, optimize your content with regard to the platform and write witty headlines. 

Make sure your audience is hooked at each stage. This will enable you to gain a loyal audience and build a personalized connection with them. Remember, poor content a day keeps the crawlers away! Trust us, no matter the level of acarophobia, you DO NOT want to miss out on these kinds of crawlers.

5) Hero Section

Did you know it only takes a user 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they will stay or leave? It is truly bonkers how the human mind works but hey! If you can convince your audience in 0.05 seconds that there is something he will miss out on if he clicks away, you’re sure to make big bucks!

Hero Section is the first thing your viewers are subjected to when they visit your website. It lays beneath your logo and menu. 

6) Personalized Call to Action

If you were to check out a brand's e-book on their website, would you prefer a “find out more” Call to Action or something more personalized like “Get my free access now!”. Although the first one works, the second one establishes a sudden urge to do the action and entices the user in a way that makes them feel exclusive. 

In the long haul, brand loyalty is of prime importance. Each page on your website should entice the user to take some form of action. E.g.: Sign up, buy now, download the e-book, etc. 

Keep all the important stuff above the fold as that is the area where you will most likely have a chance to capture the attention of your users.

Brands that have improved their websites over time

1) Domino’s Pizza

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2) Burger King

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3) Apple

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4) Starbucks

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5) Youtube

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The final call…

Creating the perfect website does not have a singular foolproof way. Although, following the above steps gives you a competitive advantage. Incorporate these pointers into your website development and see the magic unfold!

Stay tuned for more insightful blogs! Until then, Ciao! ☺