
Branding
Should I rebrand my business?
A rebrand takes a lot of soul searching, hard work and a splash (or more) of wine. It begins with thinking about who your company is. Are you ready to rebrand your business?
A website is a flexible, highly adaptable marketing tool that can generate business, is easy to update, and can expand as you grow.
You may already know it’s the best place to share your brand story, connect with customers and showcase your products or services in a beautiful way, but it also has some powerful potential beyond just being your brochure or store.
Here’s a few things that could really put those websites to work.
This feature is pretty cool if you have multiple locations or dealers. If your head office is in Vancouver, but someone who lives in Edmonton visits your site, your website can detect their physical real-world location and instead of the Vancouver information, your website will serve up information specific to that location.
It’s your original main site, just that the information given is location specific. So, for example, Edmonton visitors could see the Edmonton phone number, a unique headline or copy for that area, even photos and a contact form could be directed to that location.
Using geolocation allows you to display your local dealer or office, basically using one site instead of creating a new site for each location. This is a brilliant use of your budget and creates strong brand consistency, as you will keep one URL across Canada (or really the world) but have it display the local information, all editable with your primary login.
Text-to-speech has been around for a while but has been gaining popularity recently. Originally meant to assist those with sight impairments, this feature is also great for users who prefer to listen to content instead of reading, those with dyslexia or other learning disabilities, or even children learning to read.
Beyond that, think how easy it would be to have Siri read a website while driving or doing other activities. The trick here is to make sure your site is set up correctly for good flow and comprehension, which takes a bit of extra development time to get right.
Learning how many, and how much, incoming business your website generates can all be an automated task using Google Analytics together with Google Tag Manager.
This allows you to allocate a dollar figure to certain events that happen on your website. For example, if you know that someone who fills out your contact form has a 30% chance of turning into a customer, you can figure out an average sale value, and assign that amount each time the contact form event is triggered in Google Analytics. What’s extra cool is that you can set up multiple events, all with a different value.
Your analytics report would then give you an accurate dollar figure of how much money your website generated for you that month. If 19 lead forms were filled out this month, and your close rate is 30% at $5000 per sale, that would mean your website generated $28,500 of business. Pretty cool to know that, right?
Don’t worry about developing an app, use your website! This is a great feature if you have a robust product database or store. Basically your users can access information offline, you can send them notifications, and it’s mobile friendly.
You can add the icon to your home screen and bypass the need for opening your browser or typing in a URL in the address bar. Perfect for an online store or a user portal.
You know what always gets thrown in the garbage? Business cards. That’s why having a digital business card is a game changer. By creating a page on your website with your information and links (such as directions, website or phone number), you can exchange information with others by simply scanning your unique QR code or NFC chip.
Instead of handing out a paper card, simply have the other person scan your code, and Boom, with some developer magic, it goes directly into the other person’s contact list on their phone. The NFC chip can be embedded into FOBs or plastic cards that you can attach to a keychain or lanyard or simply store in your wallet like a traditional business card.
Our web developers made me add this, because, well, they are magical beings who have the skills to make a website do almost anything you can imagine. Translation, HR integration, product catalogues, appointment calendars, animation, customer portals—the opportunities to add custom features to your website are endless.
All it takes is a plan, and a really great web developer.