A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR BRAND ONLINE

Most start-ups and young businesses face the challenge of getting their brand online. They don’t know where to start and end up doing it all wrong.

This guide is specifically created to bridge this gap for entrepreneurs and help them build successful online businesses.

A logo is such an important, yet often overlooked aspect of a young business. Most people don’t want to spend money on getting the right logo and end up with something that does more harm than good.

view our logo designs here…

Now that your logo is sorted and you have clarity on the products/services you are offering, the next most important thing is to compile your content for online and offline purposes. People need to understand what you do and how you will cater to their needs. Focus less on yourself, and more on how you can help potential customers.

Don’t make the mistake of writing pages and pages of content. It is proven that people don’t like reading long pages of text online. They scan through text, so keep it short and to the point.

The Home Page is one of the most important aspects of getting your brand online – it is generally the first page that people view on your website, which gives you the opportunity to leave a lasting impression.

The content on this page has to be short and to the point – people get bored with too much text. You need to be able to convince someone in 2 to 3 sentences that you are the right solution to their needs. Place your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) at the very top of your home page – this way, potential customers will be able to see what you offer, without having to do any scrolling or searching.

If you do not have a UVP, we suggest enlisting the services of a copywriter to assist you with this.

The about us page must provide more information about you and your business. Who you are, where you are from, why you do what you do and how you do it. You can also talk about some of your partners or clients and even give some client testimonials if possible. This should also be kept short – again, people won’t be reading pages and pages of content. They want the short version. Keep it between 200 and 400 words.

This is not the place to write about your love for cats and what you do on weekends – keep it business-orientated and only provide important info which will convince people that you have the expertise and experience that they are looking for.

WHO     WHERE     WHY     WHAT     HOW

Potential clients need to know the quality of your products or services and this has to be accompanied by some visual elements, whether an image, graphic or just an icon, you have to make this page look and feel professional.

The ‘Our Team’ page is not a must-have, but if you have a great team and you would like to talk about them, add one. All you need is a professional photo of each member with a name and a short bio to go with it.

People like doing business with people; adding faces to a website is a great way of making it more personal and trustworthy.

CARL WALLACE
CEO

Carl is a passionate tech entrepreneur driven to change the worlds of small business across Africa by providing them with tools and knowledge to build better businesses.

Email | hello@design.digital-hq.com

 

view our website portfolio here…

Images can easily make or break your website. We have come to learn that most people don’t even know the difference between good and bad images, so we have provided you with some examples to illustrate the difference between a good image and a bad image.

Make sure your images aren’t stretched or warped like the image above. Images that are the correct aspect-ratio looks much more professional.

Make sure the lighting of your images looks good. Over-exposing an image does not offer the professionalism that your brand deserves.

Pixelated images will make your business look unprofessional. Make sure you only use high-quality images that are the right resolution. Web images won’t work for print documents, use higher resolution images when printing.

This image has the correct aspect ratio, resolution and the lighting looks professional. Your website and other branding elements will look much better if you use images like this.

When you compile the content for your website it is important to remember that the majority of people will view your website from mobile devices. Your website should be responsive and all your content should scale according to the device being used.

The domain name is a very important aspect of any website. Some might think it goes without saying, but make sure your domain name reflects that of your business name, and does not include extensions like .blogspot or .wordpress – host your website on your own personalised domain and do the same for company email addresses.