Did I just say you can “brand” your website?
If by that you read “slap a logo on it,” you’re off to a false start. As we discussed in our previous post, branding is about way more than your logo. It’s about the experience people have whenever they interact with your organization. That includes your staff, volunteers, board, and members. Your brand is formed of the associations these people make with your brand. And because most people’s first contact with your brand will be online, your website plays a crucial role in creating positive associations.
Maintain a consistent tone and manner.
How do you want to communicate with your users? Are you professional and elite? Casual and maybe a little dorky? Ruthlessly sincere?
However you decide to communicate as a brand, your website gives you multiple opportunities to express this. Whether it’s through the copy on your website, the imagery you choose, your fonts and color palette, you want to be sure you maintain a consistent feel.
Where do people make contact with your brand online?
Do you have a strong presence on social media? A popular blog? An email mailing list? All of these are connection points with your brand. And more likely than not, all of them lead back to your website in some way or another. If your members, users, staff, or just the generally curious folk of the Internet find your site frustrating to use and difficult to navigate, they will attach those negative associations to your brand.
How do you want your website to be used?
Prioritize usability first and foremost when you design your website. Make sure that any features or tools are functional and that your members can find the information they need. Part of ensuring good usability involves putting some thought into how you want your users to engage with your website. Is your website primarily informational? Do you hope to be able to attract new members? Or perhaps you have specific features you want to build into your website, such as an events calendar or a fundraising plugin.
However you want your members to use your website, we can help. We have extensive experience building websites for membership organizations, and that means we can help provide many of the functional tools you want to use. If you would like to hear more about what we can do to help brand your website as a membership organization, be in touch today.