REFRESHING YOUR WEBSITE
A brand refresh is a light update that will give your website a new look and feel while retaining its core elements. You’d typically keep the main aspects of site while adding small stylistic changes. Perhaps you might go for a more neutral color palette, or shift from a classic design to something more modern. You might adjust your messaging to try new key phrases, and update your voice for a tone that connects better to your target audience.
A website refresh will help focus your message and revitalize your image. It can also help you adjust your approach to align better with market conditions, or draw in a demographic that you’re not connecting with.
You should consider refreshing your website if:
- Your site is older and you feel it needs updating for a more modern audience
- Market conditions have changed in some significant way
- Your products or services no longer align with your online presence
At Hatfield Media, we feel that it’s best to avoid going overboard with current trends that may change in a heartbeat. Timeless is better! It’s very likely that you still have valuable brand equities at your disposal. The key here is to build on those equities with the goal of creating something that truly will connect with your target consumer through web.
Below is an example of a website redesign we did for our client, Learn Lennox. You’ll see that the brand’s core features have been retained, while the design itself has been given a sleek, modern aesthetic:
Creating strong brand signals more often than not occurs on your own turf, and most of the time, these signals are the reasons that make your visitors share your content through their networks (utilizing the grass roots method of word of mouth), and/or buy your products or services. To this point, our team worked hand in hand with the Learn Lennox Marketing Team based in Dallas to create an interactive and responsive experience for visitors to their site.
The following are several ways we optimized the Learn Lennox website to maximize its traffic’s overall site/brand experience.
VISUALLY APPEALING WEB DESIGN
A strong and recognizable brand has to have the knack to grab its audience’s attention instantly, and one of the most efficient ways to be successful in this area of persuasion is through effective design and uniqueness of identity. Shining a light on Lennox as a company based on trust, innovation, and quality was at the forefront of our mission.
Optimized Page Titles/SEO
Incorporating their brand name in all of their site’s title pages, especially on pages that can constantly acquire social shares and can obtain better search rankings for highly searched keywords, helps in sending out massive brand signals. Their pages are going to be able to make their brand name more visible in different channels such as Google and other social networking sites (when people are sharing Lennox’s content).
IMAGERY
Certain elements on your website are going to detract from the value and message you're trying to convey. Complicated animations, content that’s too long, stocky (and obvious!) website images are just a few factors on the list.
With an audience that only has an attention span of 8 seconds, you need to create a clear first impression that easily gets the main points across. This should be done with short, powerful sections of content and applicable photographs/icons that are sectioned off by clear and concise headers.
With the new Lennox site their Dealer Programs and Products/Services were able to hold the spotlight. Their company was built on inventiveness, so it was crucial that we built on their outstanding reputation by showcasing the reasons customers choose Lennox.
The key for effective brand management through web design is creating a positive and memorable brand experience for customers. Proud to have joined forces with Team Lennox on this project!