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Branding, storytelling, and user experience – the holy trinity of a winning digital presentation and the foundation of your company’s long-term growth strategy in the online realm. When you bring storytelling and impeccable web design together, no matter if you’re building a blog site or an Ecommerce store, you’re effectively imbuing your online presentation with form and function. In turn, these two traits will allow you to attract customers, establish a meaningful connection, and convert them into lifelong brand followers.
To achieve this, though, you need to implement both storytelling and UX from the get-go, and allow them to complement each other in order to create a seamless browsing experience all the while portraying your brand’s identity in the best possible light. Here are the five steps you need to take in order to enhance your brand online.
Design with the outcome in mind
A good way to start the ideation process and fuse user experience into a compelling brand narrative is to design your website around user outcomes. What are user outcomes? Simply put, these are end goals you want your site to achieve when visitors and potential customers are interacting with it, according to the specific purpose of each page. You see, there are many outcomes you might like to take place, as conversion shouldn’t be your only goal.
For example, you would want your landing pages and CTAs to generate conversions, but as for your blog page, its goal should be to build engagement, boost shareability, and improve brand word of mouth. Following the same mindset for each and every page, be sure to define user outcomes and then proceed to design each page and integrate compelling storytelling accordingly. The design needs to be intuitive, and it needs to guide the user to the end goal, while the storytelling needs to capture their attention and inspire them to follow the path you’ve laid out.
Weaving the brand’s identity into the design
Most importantly, be sure to weave your brand’s identity into the copy and overall design of your website. Every page and every product description, every service and every footnote – all of these elements need to portray the brand and its unique personality in order to create an emotional connection with the user. Naturally, this means that you need to create a brand strategy that uses storytelling and visual elements to convert, generate leads, and of course, boost user retention.
Here are a few key things to keep in mind:
- Make sure your brand’s values permeate the entirety of your site. Focus on values that resonate with the needs and wishes of your audience, and for God’s sake, avoid clichés the likes of “quality” and “dedication to excellence”.
- Your visual identity needs to correspond with your brand’s personality. Are you quirky and innovative? Go big on vibrant colors. Are you all serious and corporate? Stick with minimalism and neutral hues.
- Develop a unique voice for your business that people will instantly associate with your brand. This will set you apart from the competition and establish a more personal relationship with your audience.
Building an organized site structure
If there is anything that can drive potential customers and clients away faster than a slow-loading website, then it’s a poorly optimized site structure. When people have to rack their brains trying to find the products and services they need, or if they have to figure out your checkout process all on their own, you can bet that they will leave your site never to return. What’s more, they will tell their family, friends, and colleagues about their subpar experience.
To avoid this, you’ll need to create an amazing site structure that’s intuitive and easy to navigate. Here are a couple of steps:
- Make every category clearly visible from your home page. Display links to products, blogs, contact info, and other crucial site categories and make sure to use drop menus for easier navigation.
- Organize your products and services so that your customers can sift through them easily. Use the hover function to allow them to see what the product or service is all about without actually clicking on the icon.
- Link relevant products, services, blogs, and other site elements throughout to give your customers a comprehensive overview.
- Don’t forget to put a sitemap at the bottom of every page.
Use UX and storytelling to resolve customer issues
Customers have problems and pain points, and they expect your brand to resolve them, that’s why they’re on your site in the first place. Now, you could be like any other company in your niche and implement the best current practices, or you can research your competition and your customers in order to discover innovative ways to resolve these pain points.
Use clear and compelling storytelling in combination with seamless UX to help customers find the solution they’re looking for, and guide them on a journey when browsing your website. You might not be all that different compared to other companies in your industry, but what can set you apart is how you approach the challenge of solving customer problems. Research common pain points, see how your competitors are trying to resolve them, and then use UX and storytelling to enhance the visitors’ experience on your site.
Final thoughts
Storytelling and UX are the two foundational elements of a wining brand identity, and a winning online presentation. Remember, you want your site to achieve much more than simply convert incoming traffic, so be sure to follow these steps to enhance your brand, boost lead generation, customer retention, engagement, and more.
