The Power of Storytelling in Website Design and Branding

Every life is and every endeavor has a story behind it. Stories have captivated every culture and people over the centuries. But only great stories are well-remembered for they inspire readers to act and change their lives for the better. Such is the power of storytelling in website design and branding. It plays a crucial role in the success of a website. How crucial? Let me detail how.

Harnessing the power of storytelling

Storytelling in website design pertains to the overall narrative a person will perceive upon browsing a website. Storytelling then is not only limited to the copywriting on a website but also includes the visual aspect that supports it. The visual aspect involves the color, imagery, and typography used in a website’s design.

Harnessing the power of storytelling is definitely essential in creating connection, understanding, identification, and engagement with your brand.

1. Create an emotional connection

Storytelling establishes an emotional connection with visitors so that they can relate to your brand. Choosing the right color, images, and typography in line with a company’s identity and matched with compelling copywriting will send subconscious messages to visitors, which in turn touch their feelings or emotions.

But these design elements do not end there. These should be used in such a way that visitors’ needs would be met. Photos convey a thousand words. Using vivid, moving photos that address the needs of a company’s target market would really create that connection. What more if a company uses videos for this purpose? It will definitely have a greater emotional effect on the visitor.

Rentech Digital underscored the need to identify what could possibly connect a company to its customers–its value proposition–that are executed in the website’s design. This connection pertains to knowing the pain and hardships of a company’s target market and how the company and its products lighten or remove that pain.

2. Establish better brand perception

In addition, storytelling provides website visitors with a better understanding and appreciation of a company’s identity or brand. The website is at the forefront of creating user perceptions about a company.

The information provided on the website about the company should be consistent with marketing paraphernalia in circulation. Consistency establishes credibility. The information should also be thorough so that everything the visitor needs to know about a company and how it differs from its competitors is already there.

Thus, a website’s visuals, copywriting, special effects, navigation, and features will affect a user’s experience that in turn affect their decision to purchase from that company or not.

3. Strengthen brand uniqueness

Stories have a way of giving a unique personality to your brand and easily differentiate it from the competition. Take the case of Target, an American general merchandise company whose storyline is value for money by getting more at a cheaper price.

Their website echoes this central storyline by highlighting items that are on discount and by how much visitors would save from such a purchase. Product photos also show products of quality, which are then presented in a clean layout for easy browsing. The underlying reason for using a storyline is to help families enjoy life with great finds to actually augment their life. This is something really seen on their website.

4. Encourages brand engagement

Effective storytelling in a website’s design will result in visitors engaging with your brand. This will not only positively affect site traffic but will also lead to higher conversion possibilities. Digitelic Founder & CEO pointed out that stories not only entertain but also allow companies the ultimate control over where they want visitors to go on their website, such as making a purchase.

While Forbes revealed that organizations that do not prioritize storytelling in their marketing efforts will often find themselves throwing out more money than their competitors. Companies that prioritize storytelling know how to humanize their brand and make it relatable to their consumers, which in turn brings in great financial rewards.

How to integrate storytelling in website design

Now you might ask, how does one integrate storytelling in website design. This is done by defining your company’s value proposition, strengthening your story through your visuals, and creating consistency with the rest of your website’s content.

1. Define your value proposition

The value proposition should be the highlight of your website design, especially on the homepage. This is the central message that visitors will see once your homepage opens. It gives visitors an overview of who you are, your unique points, your specialization, and what you want them to do next. This central message should be formulated in a way that addresses the emotional needs of your target market.

Of course, you won’t be able to address your target market’s emotional needs unless you did your homework. That is if you took the time to analyze your website’s information to assess what your visitors are looking for and tie this up with consumer reviews about your company, products, or services.

Tiny Frog Technologies adds talking with your company’s frontline personnel to get information on the concerns customers raise or share as they interact with them daily.

Putting together all the information you’ve gathered will give great insights into what your customers need. Consolidating these and sorting them into the values of your company or brand will allow you to identify which of the customer’s needs have to be primarily addressed. This is what you focus on in formulating your value proposition.

2. Strengthen the story with visuals

Choose a compelling photo or photos that visually convey your value proposition. Make the experience richer by using videos and audio as well. Then employ visual hierarchy in your design as it helps put an order in a website’s content. This would also define what particular information you’d like your visitors to focus on, which should be relevant to your storyline.

Of course, it is important that when you make the website design, it is your user that you have in mind. You and your team might craft a truly great storyline yet it doesn’t hold water with your consumers because it is not relevant to them.

3. Create consistency with the rest of the content

One way to do this is to formulate the tone of your website’s copywriting in such a way that it makes visitors feel they are being addressed directly. This is a tip I mentioned for web design, #26 to be exact, which is about using storytelling in your texts.

Doing so will not only give a personal feel but also avoids boredom to those reading it. Writing it in a way that touches on their emotions is the perfect way to integrate storytelling in your texts that should be seen throughout the website.

These are but a few tips on how companies can integrate storytelling into their website design. The possibilities are endless through brainstorming, market research, and tons of creativity. Let’s know look at some website examples that use great storytelling in their design.

Examples of great storytelling in website design and branding

I’ve gathered a couple of website examples from the various listings on my website meant to help startups from various business niches. These website examples intend to give you a better perspective on the power of storytelling in website design and branding.

In particular, I highly recommend you check the websites of Chris Lema, Exit Film, The Marketing Fix, Studio Youth-Topia, BLCK, Sofeya Graham, Black Dog Story, and Hope. Commonalities of this website are the use of a color theme to highlight the company’s compelling message or value proposition. The value proposition is the first thing that visitors will read once the website loads. This is then supported by visuals in rich media such as video and audio or photos that convey what is written in the text or message. Special effects or interactivity add flare to the experience and make it more memorable.

In conclusion, storytelling in website design and branding is an essential aspect that must be factored in by companies if they want to succeed online and offline. Consumers purchase from brands that are emphatic to them and their needs.

FAQs

1. Can you refer books I can read to help me better understand the power of storytelling in web design and branding?

Certainly! There are many good books you can read on each of the topics of storytelling, web design, and branding. By far, I could suggest these top-rated books published by O’Reilly from Anna Dahlstrom entitled, “Storytelling in Design, Defining, Designing, and Selling Multidevice Products,” and published by Kogan Page from Miri Rodriguez entitled, “Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story.” Both books are available on Amazon.

2. Can you refer experts on storytelling to help my company with website design and branding?

Surely, I can! I highly refer web designers Kegan Quimby and Lovepixel Agency. Both agencies specialize in branding for a particular business type and niche. You could check out their portfolios anytime.