Building Brands and Building Websites

A friend took a look at our Client Questionnaire today, and straight away she asked the same thing most of our clients ask: “What the hell is that celebrity question all about?”¹

Whenever a potential client comes along and asks us to do a website design or some copywriting (or both), the very first thing we do is send them a list of questions to answer. The reasons for this are myriad, but it does two major, important things. First, it tells us exactly what the client wants from their new site. Second, it tells the client exactly what they want from their new site. The second part is the hard bit because, although most clients come along with a good concept for their website and a lot of theoretical ideas, they often find it surprisingly difficult to pin down the practicalities: what the site actually needs to do, and who for, and how.

After ten years of successfully designing websites – with some failures, arguments and very acrimonious client relationships along the way – our Client Questionnaire has been honed to work really well for us. It helps to smooth down the potentially rough edges of client-designer communication and gets everyone working to the same design brief. A lot of the time, it protects both parties from costly mistakes down the line. It’s just that when we ask people what famous person their company is most like – and who it would most like to be like – people tend to think we’ve fallen completely out of our tree.

So why do we ask?

A company’s website is their shop window. It’s their opportunity to make a first impression. But more than that, it’s their chance to engage with their customers; more so than through any other avenue of communication. A good e-commerce website has nothing to do with selling people stuff and everything to do with forming a bond with your customers. Make a genuine connection with them and you give them reason to give you their trust and loyalty. In an age where the next website that sells your goods is just one click away in a Google search, brand loyalty is really worth fighting for. But to build brand loyalty, you’ve got to have a brand.

Asking our clients to think outside the box about their companies encourages them to start developing a stronger brand. We’re asking them to think of their business as a living, breathing entity with its own likes and dislikes, needs and wants, looks and persona. Only once they start thinking that way can they figure out what sort of a personality it has and what sort of voice it uses to speak to its customers. Customers are much more likely to engage with a company if it knows them, understands them, empathises with them and talks to them as an equal.²

Of course, a couple of questions in an email isn’t in the same league as getting paid help from a brand marketing consultant, but when you’re working mainly with SMEs and small boutiques, a lot of them just don’t have the Benjamins to spend on a major marketing campaign. Getting them thinking about their brand before they build their website is going to increase the chances of them getting it right first time.

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¹ Yeah, we totally stole the celeb question from Paul Boag. Sorry Paul; it was just such an ace idea that we had to nick it! Don’t hate us.
² You can go too far with this, though. I’m looking at you, Innocent Smoothies (a company so overly happy and friendly that I have to kick kittens in the face to return balance to the universe).³
³ I don’t really kick kittens in the face. Don’t write in.