I speak to just under a hundred of people on a monthly basis (sometimes more, sometimes less) and honestly it so beautiful when I hear about their achievements and what they have put in to their business in order to grow and win sales, no honestly I almost feel embarrassed at how I approach them thinking they are so new and just starting out when in actual fact they may have had interactions with extremely well known people. Why did I think they were just starting out or very new to the game? Their website. It’s simple, have you heard of that phrase you are what you eat? Well you’re business is what people see.
If you’ve read my blogs before you know I like to help you visualise, so visualise this, a food business, let’s call it raji eats, the business sells indian cuisine, now let’s say you check out my website, and it looks very basic, I’m using a couple of colours on there for no reason but because I like them and tbh you can tell i’ve used wordpress, now imagine my images are from google, actually I have taken a few which you can find on my Instagram. What is your opinion of me? Have a think. Now my competitor called James eats who sells a completely different cuisine to me but is getting more customers, now his website looks a lot fancier than mine, he has done market research so he know his target market, the branding fits in so perfectly and he even passed me a beautifully branded business card when I ordered from his website. Who would you buy from?
I spoke to a woman the other day in the free branding workshops that we do to help educate businesses on branding, and she had a pet shop. Her regular buyers in the store were lawyers, nurses and working professionals, covid happened so she had to sell online. She wasn’t growing or making money, she said its because she didn’t have enough people to her website, we checked her SEO (search engine optimisation) it was fine, she actually had more than most people visiting her website, I asked her why she thinks she wasn’t growing, she said it was because of covid, the more we digged deeper, the more she realised what the issue was, when they were going to the website, something was stopping them from contacting her. Her target market was working professionals but the website said far from this. People really think about things before they part with their money, the more they spend the more they trust you.
Website development is not just about SEO, or putting a few features and sections in place, it’s not just about popping a few images on there, and it’s really sad when I hear ‘my website is just there to show we exist’, if that resonates with you then branding isn’t for you, i’ll be honest, this is for those of you who want to grow. The best coding is nothing without a strong visual identity. Website development when done correctly can bring huge success to your business and its growth. Just like a car, imagine a car with 4 wheels, and all the relevant parts but the outside looked awful, would you try it out? Would you show it to people and would you be proud of it?
Before you try a product or service, you can only see it, before you try, you buy, but a big part of what makes consumers buy is what you look like. Trust. Professionalism. Relatability. Story, Does your website tell a story? Would I spend my hard earned cash on your product or service before I have even tried it? Go have a look, from a fresh perspective and let me know.
Change branding – building a better you, builds a better us. Bringing big life to your small business.