As a Small Business Owner, you have a unique story. You probably started your business to reflect a niche portion of the market, or it was an idea that you’re exceedingly passionate about. At Sites n Stores we find this incredibly inspiring, and want to help you bring your vision to life.
And what better to tell your customers about your unique story than through a unique, custom designed website?
The short answer to this question is, there isn’t one. In reality, a template design simply won’t cut it when it comes to reflecting your business as the individual entity it is. A custom designed website, however, allows you to portray your voice, your brand and your business identity exactly how you want to.
So, let’s take a deeper look into the ways custom design helps reflect your unique brand.
1. It Emphasises Your Individuality
Both your business, and yourself for that matter, are completely unique to everyone in the world. This is an important thing to understand and embrace as a Small Business Owner, because this means you have so much to offer your customers. Embracing your uniqueness will enable you to truly understand your story and how you got to where you are today.
One of the best ways to embrace this and reflect your individuality to potential clients is with a custom designed website. It puts a unique stamp on your business, marking it as something different, something exciting and something that stands out against the digital masses. A custom website acts as the perfect vehicle through which to project exactly who you are, what you do and how you do it differently to everyone else.
Remember, you are unique and you should make your customers aware of this. It will make you stick in their minds and entice them to your services.
2. It Establishes Your Voice
Part of telling your story, no matter what platform you use, is about finding your perfect business voice. The voice of your business can either be your own personal voice, or that of a character, which helps grow the human aspect of your brand and strengthen your relationship with your customers. The more they can identify or relate to your business and its voice, the more they’ll feel as though they’re getting to know you. This increases trust and endears you to your audience.
One of the most helpful ways to create your businesses voice is to consider your audience. Who is your ideal customer? From here, you can choose whether you should be funny and witty, informative and calm, or perhaps exciting and charismatic. Whatever you chose, your individual voice is pivotal when it comes to establishing your businesses identity.
Of course, once you have established your business voice, one of the best ways to circulate it and enter it into the online conversation is through a custom designed website. It is through custom design that you will be able to create content that is consistent across your entire website and marketing efforts. Your voice can carry through everything from your monthly newsletter, website content, social media or even hard copy leaflets and brochures.
3. It Helps You Create Your ‘Look’
When it comes to telling your story as a business online, appearance counts for a lot. Visitors to your website will make immediate judgements about your business as soon as they land on your site based purely on what they see.
While template-based websites will look generic and bland, a custom design website can be tailored to suit your businesses visual needs entirely. You can select the kinds of colors, fonts and graphics that best tell your story and emphasis your chosen business voice. Whether you want to look professional with clean lines and soft colors, or energetic and fun with vibrant graphics, the sky really is the limit when it comes to custom design.
By establishing a strong visual presence for your business online, you are essentially able to strengthen your brand, better inform your target audience and really bring your business to life.
4. It Gives You Flexibility and Control
Customizing your website provides so many options to properly reflect your business, no matter what stage it’s at. Custom design gives you the control to change your website alongside your business as it grows and develops over time.
Building a business is indeed a journey, and your website should reflect this – your business is changing, so your website should too! You want your growth to be portrayed online, so that your customers know exactly what stage you’re at as a business. Template-based websites allow none of this flexibility or control, meaning your online presence will remain stagnant and unchanged. As this is likely the only point of contact your potential customers will have with your business, then this is how they’ll see you – as lifeless and inactive.
5. It Strengthens Customer Relations
By really understanding who your business is and building a website to reflect this, you are going to increase customer engagement and relations. A custom designed website allows you to accurately and truthfully reflect who you are, which will build trust, authority and a feeling of connectedness between you and your customers.
Think about it in terms of real human interaction. If you meet someone for the first time and they are confusing and a little hard to ‘pin down’, you’re much less likely to connect and confide in them. Alternatively, if you meet someone who seems open, genuine and shows you exactly who they are, you’re likely to want to get to know them better and become friends!
And this is exactly the kind of relationship a custom designed website helps you create between you and your audience. It is custom design that allows you to tell your business story, reflect who you are and establish your brand’s character.
