One of the most common questions that we get from our clients is, "Do I need a custom designed website or can I use a template?"The simple answer to that is: if building a brand is your top priority, go with a custom designed and developed website.To explain this further, we're going to get a little scientific on you.
People Are Emotional Creatures
Building your business' brand is all about making connections with your customers through whatever you do. The target of building a strong brand is to make these connections emotional. That means whenever a customer thinks of, speaks, hears, or talks about your company, it invokes feelings within them (hopefully positive ones).The types of emotions you want your customers to feel depends on your individual brand. For example, Mercedes aims to associate their cars with feelings of living a luxurious lifestyle. Nike inspires their customers to feel confident while wearing their clothes, demonstrated by the infamous "Just Do It" campaign.If you can use your website to make a memorable first impression by making your customers feel something positive about your company, you have a pretty damn good chance at converting them into a customer.
The Science of Why First Impressions Matter
According to the Harvard Business Review, 95% of our decision making is made unconsciously. That means way deep down in your brain, even before you have the chance to compare the entire list of pros and cons about a particular product or service, your brain is already almost done making its mind up about what option you should select. This mental shortcut that your brain is taking is called a heuristic.One type of heuristic, called the anchoring heuristic, states that the initial exposure to a particular object or idea serves as the reference point and influences subsequent judgements about the value of the object.When someone visits your website for the first time, your business will always be subject to this type of judgement. Within the few seconds of entering your website, your visitors' brains are going to be using heuristics to make a judgement about your business. If the design, message, or user experience is off, mental shortcuts will trigger a "it's time to leave and go somewhere else" reaction.Obviously, this reaction isn't a desirable one, but the ramifications of not paying attention to the importance of first impressions should be noted: you only have one shot at a first impression, so you better make it count.
Setting The Right Branding Objectives For A Custom Web Design
Let's take the example of aCan't I Use A Template Site and Still Build A Brand?How Much Does A Custom Web Design Cost?
