Branding is very important for any company or business, big or small. It’s highly recommended to have your brand established first so that a web developer knows how to go about creating your website. What is a web developer? A web developer is a person or company that you hire to handle the tasks associated with developing websites for hosting. The web development process includes web design, web content development, and network security configuration, among other tasks. Here are some reasons on why you should have a brand first before creating a website for your business.
Who/what you are
The first reason why you should have a brand before reaching out to a web developer is because it establishes who you are, what you are, what you represent, and what you stand for. When people know a little more about a company they’re more inclined to reach out to you. For example, if some random stranger came up to you and started talking to you without introducing themselves, you wouldn’t want to talk to them right? But if they first told you who they are and what they’re doing then you’d feel more inclined to talk to them, same thing goes for your brand.
Authenticity
When coming across a brand you want them to be authentic or legitimate because you want someone you can trust. According to a report done in 2017 by Consumer Content Report, 86% of consumers (including millennials) want brands that they come across to be authentic, because it is the most important factor to them when deciding to work or buy something with the brands. Another study done by Bonfire Marketing shows that 91% of customers are most likely to support brands who are authentic in their social media posts. Another reason why authenticity is important to a brand is because consumers are tired of BS. If you think about it, before the digital age brands had more control influencing the purchasing behavior of consumers. The old school way of marketing with TV, print, & radio was the order of the day, consumers had no choice but to sit back and take whatever was given to us.
References
When people find you online, they become interested in your products/service to the point where the customer wants to do business with you. Once a customer does business with you and are satisfied with your services, they’ll want to speak about you to other people that they know creating, word of mouth. Then when customers create word of mouth they’ll want to look for more information on you, and what better way to do that then your own website.
Digital Marketing
If you want to market your business online you can use your website as a tool to help market your business and sell your products/service. Web developers have access to a website’s performance/demographics like how many people visited your website, how many people made purchases on your items, when/where people are buying your products, etc. Using this information can help you with running digital marketing campaigns because it helps you better understand your customers and how to sell to them.
Vision, Strategic Content, & Consistency
The next couple of reasons I’m going to put together, because they all play off each other and it’s hard not to talk about one of these reasons without mentioning the other. Having content is important to have on a website and you need to know what you want on your website as well as what you need. One of the ways to go about this is vision. Knowing how a brand works, & the way a brand is going to be visually presented is important to the web developer because it helps them with picking variations of logos, color palettes, typography/fonts, imagery, product packaging, and brand goals/values. All these items help provide a direction for the web developer. Another reason is strategic content. Knowing what content to put on your website depends a lot on your brand. You need to know what content goes along with your brand as well as your products/service. This will help the web developer to know what to put on your website and make sure it looks nice and clean. If not done right then customers might get confused and will not want to buy from you. Now the last reason that ties with the other 2 reasons I gave before is consistency. If there is no consistency in your website design, the user experience won’t matter much. For example, if one page of your website has pictures but there’s no pictures on the page where the products are then that’s inconsistency. Inconsistency can impact the trust a customer puts in your brand/company.
Uniqueness
Another reason it’s important to have a brand is uniqueness. You want your brand to be unique from your competitors. If you copy your competitor’s brand it won’t look right for many reasons. 1. It might not work, how do you know if it’s working for them? It may seem like it’s working but on the marketing side it could be failing. 2. It’s not original copying someone else, customers will recognize you’re trying to copy another brand and it shows that you lack creativity and will not want to buy from you. Now the last reason is because it’s confusing. When you copy your competitors’ creativity you don’t help your brand at all, you’ll confuse potential clients because you & your competitor have the same style & messaging.
In conclusion it’s very important to establish your brand and know how it works and have some uniqueness to it to help standout from the competition. Once you have everything you need to establish your brand then you can hire a web developer and help make their job easier.