You’ve done a gazillion hours of research, and you’ve finally got your dream website developer lined up and ready to go. You’ve seen the work they’ve done for other businesses, and you can’t wait to upgrade your own website (because your current one’s looking a bit embarrassing tbh).
It’s so, so tempting to just press go, and leave it in the hands of the developers, because they’re the experts, right?
And whilst they definitely are the experts in web design (if you’ve picked a good one), they’re most probably not an expert in everything you need to build a brilliant website that your ideal customers will love.
And how will they, you, (or the fancy copywriter you’ve hired) even know what words to use on your new website, if you’re not clear on your Brand Story and the message you’re trying to get across?
So, before you even think about starting to build your swanky new website, check you’ve got the following three things in place first:
1. Get clear on your Brand Story
The very first thing you need to do before you get a new website designed is get clear on your brand story .
Right about now you’re probably thinking: ‘Uggh, but I just want to get the website finished.’
And I get you. But I’m going to ask you one question: “Do you want a website, or do you want a website that attracts your dream customers, and makes you more sales?” The truth is that a lot of businesses don’t do work on their Brand Story before they create their website. The result is a pretty bland website that doesn’t connect with or attract their ideal customer, doesn’t stand out from their competitors and doesn’t show what they really stand for.
Definitely NOT a recipe for business success.
If you’re spending a lot of time and money on a new website, isn’t it worth taking a bit of time up front to get clear on what you want it say to your potential customers, so that your new website can be the website version of the a deluxe hot chocolate, topped with marshmallows?
The good news for you is that you’re in the right place, Brand Stories are my *chef’s kiss* speciality. Every day I work with businesses like yours, to help them get clear on their Brand Stories.
So, let’s make it super simple. Grab the nearest scrap of paper and answer the following questions:
Brand Story Quick Fire Questions:
- What’s been your journey so far?
- What does your origin story look like? How and why did your business start in the first place?
- Who’s your ideal customer?
- Who are they? What are their fears and dreams? What one thing can you help them to do?
- What’s unique about you compared to your competitors?
- Maybe it’s what you do, maybe it’s the way you do it?
- What does your business stand for?
- What are your values, purpose and vision? What is the unique essence of your brand, the very elements that make you unique, if you were a syrup being bubbled down to your barest essence?
Answer the questions above and – baboom – that will give you a very basic idea of what your Brand Story is about.
Want more? Wrap your eyes around my FREE Brand Story Canvas template – you can download a copy here. Using the template is a really simple way to get down into the nitty gritty of your brand story and bring it to life on a single easy-to-read page. Either devour it all in one go, like a massive Easter Egg binge, or break it down, and savour it, completing a section every day (for 10 days).
(Psstt: I’ll tell you a secret. Doing this important work on your Brand Story will not only help you create a totally brilliant website, it will also help you make better decisions, delegate to your team more effectively and communicate more effectively about your business on all platforms. So, it really is worth taking the time to work on your Brand Story.
2. Bring your Brand Story to life visually
The next thing you need to do before you go and create your website is to think about how you’re going to bring your Brand Story to life visually.
The biggest mistake heaps of people make when they’re hiring a web developer is assuming the developer will also design your brand for you.
It’s unlikely your web developer also had a whole secret career as a graphic designer before they set up their current business. So, if you want to make sure your website looks good, it’s worth spending a bit of time upfront to think about what your Brand Story looks like. The best way is to work with a graphic designer, but if budget is tight, here are the basics you need to get clear on:
Brand colours
These should NEVER be picked randomly, and should represent your Brand Story in some way, as well as help you stand out from your competitors. Don’t fall into the same trap as so many organisations do – to pick colours that are deemed ‘safe’ for your industry. You’ll just end up blending in and make marketing yourself a bazillion times harder.
I chose bright and vibrant colours for my colour palette, as one of my values is ‘energy’ and these colours represent that for me. There aren’t many people in my space with such bold and vibrant colours, so my colours also help me stand out. (In fact, this is one of the first things customers comment on when they come to work with me, and say it’s one of the things that attracted them to me.).
Check out coolors.co as a great starting point for generating colour palettes from scratch. To identify your Brand colours precisely, you should use a HEX code (it’s a 6 digit combo of letters and numbers that starts with a #).
Brand typefaces (fonts)
You want your customers to instantly recognise your Brand. Your brand colours will help with that, but you’ll also need to make sure your typefaces/ fonts are consistent too.
Try and choose fonts that are available on all the software that you use (for email marketing, design, website etc). Google fonts are free and good to stick with, but if you want a more snazzy font for a heading (to help you stand out), you can supplement with extra fonts on websites like Creative Market
As a minimum, you need to choose three standard fonts: Heading, subheading and body text.
Other design work e.g. logos and design workYou’ll almost certainly need a logo for your website, and you may like to also incorporate other illustrations and design work or icons as well. This is an entirely personal choice, but make sure everything you create is aligned with your Brand Story. It’s always worth working with a graphic designer or illustrator as they are the experts on this.
3. Get some stunning photos
The final piece of the website planning puzzle? Getting some top notch photos taken. Photos that are high quality (to show you’re the real deal) and also tell your Brand Story visually. Photos can make or break your website…good ones can elevate your Brand, communicate what you want to say and grab a customer by the eyeballs instantly. Bad ones? Well, they lead to unwelcome assumptions about your business, like you’re low quality and a bad fit (all before you’ve even had the chance to say, “Hel…
Not a good look.
It really is essential to invest in good photography if you want a great website. Yes, supplement with a few stock photos if you need to, but your key images should be bespoke to your Brand Story, and created by a skilled photographer.
I recently had my website photos taken by the amazing Kate Hollingsworth and I’m not joking when I say they transformed my website completely.
A great photographer, like Kate, will take all those rich nuggets you excavated in your Brand Story research, along with the colour palette you’ve decided on, and turn your story into a masterpiece worthy of Da Vinci (if he was a Brand Photographer).
When they understand who you’re trying to attract and connect with, what’s different about what you do, what you stand for and the colours you’ve chosen for your brand (all the stuff you got clear on in your Brand Story), they’ll be able to infuse this into a set of stand out images which will help you stand out amongst your competitors.
Summary
So, there you have it, the top three things you need to get clear on before you so much as start thinking about your website : your Brand Story, Design assets and Brand Photography.
As you can see, everything hinges on getting your Brand Story right…you get clear on that, and the rest can follow. It holds everything together, like the carefully constructed base tier of a wedding cake (complete with sturdy base and perfect piping).
Your Brand Story really is the foundation of your business, and can be the difference between creating a Brand that stands out, and one that fades away.
For support with this check out my small business brand story package where I can help you create a Brand Story that really works and will help you create a website that really does the business for you.
