Donald Miller’s StoryBrand Framework focuses a lot on the importance of clarifying your message and using the right words on your website to convey your brand story. Yet, he also always says to take our finished website wireframes to a designer. Why bother paying a web designer if what really matters are the words? In short, because the two work together as a team. If you focus on one without the other, neither will be effective. Here are 5 reasons why you need a great StoryBrand website design to complement your clear marketing message.
5 Reasons StoryBrand Website Design Matters
1. A Professional Website = Professional Business
Although Donald Miller says that your website has about 5 seconds to tell visitors what you do and how you can help solve your customer’s problem, one study suggests that you may have even less time than that. Their results show that people are making decisions about your brand in only .05 seconds, just by scanning the design. They haven’t even gotten to your storybrand messaging in that amount of time!
We all know that sales funnels are an essential part of your marketing strategy. What you may not realize is that your website is a sales funnel in itself. Your design is the pretty doormat and decorations outside the shop that convince potential customers to take that first step through the door. A beautiful website design gains you those five seconds to pass the grunt test. A confusing or distracting design will feel overwhelming, causing potential customers to click away and keep searching for the right fit.
If you’ve taken the time to learn about StoryBrand and create a BrandScript, you are a professional who deeply cares about your business. You want your website to reflect that depth and professionalism. A quality website design will gain a potential customer’s trust while your consistent message will grow their confidence in your brand.
2. Bad Design is Distracting
We’ve all heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Yet, when we create our own websites, we usually aren’t thinking about the message our images are portraying. Often, we choose images that matter to us but confuse our potential clients.
Unless you are selling buildings or office chairs, a client doesn’t care about images of your office building. They want to see happy people succeeding in life thanks to your product or service. A StoryBrand Certified Guide can help you choose images that will keep your potential customers on a clear path toward success with your brand as the guide.
Although there are a lot of DIY StoryBrand website templates out there, no two websites are exactly alike. The goal of your site is to invite clients into a story that will lead them to take action. If the story feels jumbled or out of order, customers will get confused and decide to walk away. Businesses are not one-size fits all. Your business deserves a custom website design that is as unique, professional, and powerful as your business. That means you need to partner with a StoryBrand Certified Guide who will customize your website’s layout to fit your brand story and your marketing goals.
3. Consistency is Key
Branding. Are there any small business owners who don’t cringe at that word? You agonize over color palettes, fonts, and logos for so long that your brain threatens to explode. It all feels so important and so meaningless at the same time. Yet, you spent hours clarifying your messaging and you want your font and color palette to complement those words. So, you try out a few fonts here, a few colors there, just to see what takes off.
Unfortunately, your trial and error experiment will confuse people. You need the design of your new website to portray a consistent message as well. A large part of the human brain is dedicated to processing images and recognizing familiar objects. You want your branding to be just as much of an exercise in memorization as your one-liner and your tag line. You need a consistent color palette and font to help your website visitors get to know you and begin to recognize you. When they see those same colors and fonts on social media, a billboard, or packaging, you want them to be reminded of you.
Unfortunately, if you are using every color of the rainbow and every font under the sun, your design is creating just as much noise as your messaging once was. A clear and consistent design will showcase your brand story and ultimately help you grow your business and make more money.
4. User Experience Matters
Google, SEO, and potential customers love websites that are easy to navigate. The longer people spend on your website, the lower your bounce rate, which helps you rank higher in Google search results. Niel Patel illustrates the importance of ranking in web searches with a joke that goes like this: “Where should you bury something you don’t want people to find?”
The answer: “On the second page of Google.”
You don’t want a buried business. You want a flourishing, thriving business that is reaching its full potential and helps more and more customers each day. A high-quality website and good marketing can help you get there. The DIY route is a little more unpredictable.
The reality is that web design is difficult and time-consuming. Just like any craft, it takes a lot of practice to do well. Considering you have an entire business to run, I’m going to guess you don’t have that kind of time.
Unfortunately, if you do decide to go the DIY route, the results are often not quite what you’d hoped for. When you design your own website, it makes perfect sense to you but often feels like a jumbled mess to anyone else. You think the site looks beautiful because you’ve invested hours of your precious time and energy into creating it. Yet, your website visitors see a sub-par site that makes them question your credibility.
It truly will pay dividends in return to hire a designer who is an expert at creating stunning websites and putting everything in the right place. Plus, you save time and free yourself up to focus on what you do best, running your business.
5. Land More Leads
The last, and arguably most important piece of your website sales funnel, is a lead generator. An appealing design and a clear StoryBranded website work together to peak a potential customer’s curiosity. The customer spends some time scrolling your site and getting to know your brand. They like what they see but still aren’t 100% ready to click that buy now button. Having a compelling lead generator displayed on your landing page is a great way to capture email addresses and stay in touch with those leads. This is an incredibly valuable piece of your marketing strategy. In the Marketing Made Simple course, Donald Miller states that your biggest revenue potential is in your email list.
Those website visitors that would have just come and gone are now seeing your name in their email inbox on a regular basis. They continue to get to know you, and when they are ready, they will likely purchase your product or service. Yet, they never would have gotten to that point if they hadn’t first seen a beautiful design, then been captivated by clear messaging and tempted by a compelling lead generator.
You want more people to find your business, stick around long enough to get to know you, and ultimately decide to make a purchase. In order to make that happen, you need clear messaging AND a clear design. One without the other makes both ineffective.
You didn’t clarify your messaging to watch those words collect dust. Don’t fall into the temptation to save some money and DIY your website design. It will cost you much more in lost sales. Contact us today to turn your website into a lead-generating machine by giving it a clear design that expertly matches your clear message.
