Online Brand Awareness

Not every business needs to know how to create brand awareness on the Internet. You may own/run a local mom-and-pop shop in a great physical location. Or perhaps, the large enterprise you’re now CEO to has forged enough contacts in the industry to sustain its continual development & growth for decades to come. Either way, providing stellar products/services and sales/technical support to an already-enthusiastic customer base is sometimes enough to reach exponential numbers, let alone satisfy a few KPIs, moving forward. So, who and/or what is online brand awareness for?

Start-ups, Inventors, and Everything in Between

There’s a common misconception that only big companies should foster healthy initiatives associated with their brand (including its identity across channels, devices, and platforms). In fact, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Even, if not especially, the little guy (i.e., consultants, small businesses, tech venture startups, crowd-funded campaigns/inventions, etc) needs brand awareness in order to survive in this digital and mostly mobile age. Rest assured, popularity isn’t necessarily synonymous with awareness in each regard. You can be recognizable & respected (and very, very profitable) without representing a monopoly or being a household name, as a general example. Your reputation likely scores higher value points by avoiding the tapping into of negative emotions (used to make things go viral… kind of like a virus) is another one. You could remain a good person offering good products and/or services while marketing them in an ethical, unobtrusive way. It’s not only possible, but somewhat necessary in a time when scrutiny (i.e., reviews, whether formal or not) is the name of the game — which brings us to our next point.

Be the Game

Rather than compete in an already-saturated market, create a new one by simply being unique. Deviate from the path, not to be recognized as a novelty, but to offer something different and arguably better. Companies large & small are beginning to realize that they don’t need to be everything to everyone, just really good at a couple of endeavors… and that requires focus. Own a bakery, but sell baguettes exclusively. Be a car manufacturer, but make sedans only. Do what you’re good at, have a passion for, and/or are academically knowledgeable in — never sacrificing on the quality of your final output. This, more than any other way, is how you build a brand and its awareness with your user base.

Brand Identity

Brand identity offers a large area of contrast with brand awareness. Online, this may be more apparent. A meticulously-crafted logo, a relevant slogan and/or mission statement, well-devised website typography & color palettes, and other original Web design elements (displayed on both website and social media pages) make up (or, rather, attempt to make up) who or what your company and/or organization represents. Childhood education brands will, for example, use brighter colors, playful text fonts, and simpler navigation menus on their sites. Fintech (i.e., financial technology) and other SaaS (i.e., Software as a Service) brands, on the other hand, will incorporate more shades of gray along with complex content structures to pitch, monitor, and assist their clients and cloud-hosted infrastructure/initiatives. Regardless, it helps say what they’re about and who they serve as a visual unit.

Accessibility

Online brand awareness can be accessible. Screen readers quickly detect slogans (among other brand-specific text-based content); podcasts emphasizing brand names, slogans, and, occasionally, related theme songs can also accommodate the visually-impaired. Speech-to-text software, in a similar way, enables video and audio-exclusive multimedia (once again, those infused with brand messages) to be digested by the hearing-impaired. As the Web evolves, site accessibility will likely be a priority and without the need for third-party applications. And so, by regularly growing their readership, viewership, and listenership — strong brands will continue to improve on their brand perception which naturally raises their ROI (i.e., return on investment) & bottom line.

What is a DXP?

“Unified software doesn’t just lend itself to efficient websites and sound marketing. It’s a catalyst for communication between all parties.”

— Mario Fanzolato, Veb founder

DXP is an acronym that stands for digital experience platform. There has been an evolution in the digital marketing space leading up to what’s considered the epitome of website creation, publishing, promotion, sales, analytics, A/B testing, and lead/customer follow-up. It, ideally, tailors to various devices through virtually, no pun intended, every known channel the Internet provides within their respective industry. It also includes the best of what was previously offered exclusively via a cluster of third-party tools strategically combined by developers/programmers and other (often more technical) Web professionals; the usual summary would consist of a CRM (i.e., customer relationship management) system with a landing page software and e-commerce platform tied to a CMS (i.e., content management system) at its core. In layman’s terms, it could basically be described as, dare we say, an all-inclusive website builder — albeit, one that’s super-charged.

In recent years, DXPs have undergone a shift from installed desktop applications to Web-based, cloud-based, and browser-based responsive apps (seamlessly accommodating both desktop and mobile tech). Similarly, more modern (and lightweight) code contributes to an arguably better, more adaptable, and more secure overall experience in our current age of IoT (i.e., Internet of Things), where everything is literally connected and running at an incredibly high rate of speed.

Business features native to digital experience platforms are now commonplace among the top players. It just simplifies the process of developing & delivering powerful, unique websites (ideally with integrations for visitor personalization and/or geo-targeting) when they’re all part of the same, cohesive system — even more so when accessible by a single interface. Being fully-hosted naturally takes it an additional (and very large) step further.

Oddly enough, this type of proprietary model that many would deem was looked down upon until the recent past has seen a resurgence into the likely standard & future of websites. Change was inevitable, not because of A.I. (i.e., artificial intelligence) or human evolution, but because the increasing complexities surrounding our daily life required (and continues to require) more practical, time-effective ways of solving problems. But unified software for the purpose of growth (equally online and offline) doesn’t just lend itself to efficient websites and sound marketing; it’s a catalyst for reducing not only the necessary workforce, but the loss of translation within it as well. With communication, then, being a key component in, well, all endeavors… it’s important for high-paying customers (and their site visitors) to be awarded with a technology suite that allows for strong links between each of the members of the agency they set out to hire. A good DXP has the ability to accomplish this.

Income Generation for Web Designers

“Be yourself, stay lean, and rock whatever market you decide to tackle.”

— Mario Fanzolato, Veb founder

Aside from bespoke Web design services, there are viable methods for Web designers and other Web professionals to generate income. Let’s explore those that equally line up with a passion-driven sense of creativity.

Develop Templates, Wireframes, and/or UI Kits

Regardless of your technical background, you can create & sell website templates/themes, wireframes (i.e., templates with minimal styling and an emphasis on layouts & content), and/or UI kits (for prototyping different design versions of a website [or even the user interface of an eventual app]). Coding from scratch is an option, but thanks to the no-code movement (spanning the last decade or so), you can develop either or all of these with one of the many platforms at your disposal. For proprietary/closed systems, you’ll naturally need to focus on their customer base exclusively (as opposed to including them as part of a general marketplace), but we digress.

App Creation

Applications, while complicated in their programming structure, can likewise be developed by use of no-code platforms today. Of course, these won’t be website-building systems; rather, they’ll tackle the complex issues surrounding the development of apps for various purposes across a multitude of industries and relevant devices. If you can organize your ideas in order to simplify a common problem and/or deliver a cohesive solution to that problem, this may be a route worth considering.

Niche Services

Custom Web design is, essentially, a niche service in and of itself (and can naturally be niched [i.e., sub-categorized] further), but there are other personalized services… some of which proving to be more profitable than the former. These can range from one or more of the following:

• Consulting; working out an in-depth, extensive strategy or plan of action for properly structuring content and other elements within large (often enterprise-grade) websites, for example.

• SEO; search engine optimization is still alive & well today, even (if not more so) due to the advent of AI-generated content that, for the most part, needs to have its sources (i.e., websites and, more specifically, associated Web pages) listed and linked to (as in the case of PR link-building, the other half of SEO as a service).

• Mobile Site Development; many legacy websites aren’t responsive by nature, nor can they be easily transferred to another, more modern platform given their size (i.e., amount of content)… therefore, a workaround of creating a mobile-optimized version (whether separate/native, or responsive by means of adding CSS media queries [likely the better/quicker of the two options]) is sometimes necessary.

Be an Expert

Positioning yourself as an expert (not exclusively an influencer) is a key component of both becoming a market leader and differentiating yourself as a Web professional. With regards to the latter, it’s important to know that you don’t need to offer everything to everyone; in fact, it’s not recommended. Even tech giants that seem to dominate every known virtual/digital space started out (and sometimes revert back to) targeting a smaller and/or more closed market. You can and likely should do the same, especially at the onset. Either way, be yourself, stay lean, and rock whatever market you decide to tackle.

Webflow vs. Squarespace

In this post, we’ll discuss the contrasting nuances of Webflow versus Squarespace, and why we continue to utilize both. There’s much in common between these industry-leading website platforms, and while they serve different markets at their core, they remain similar in their approach to delivering custom Web experiences for digital marketing professionals and end-users alike. Let’s delve in.

How they Differ

It’s important to, firstly, recognize the differences between each to know which is optimal for your particular use case.

Squarespace is a do-it-yourself, drag-and-drop, and primarily block-based platform. What this translates to is a relatively easy-to-use (although we prefer to say, simple-to-use) CMS with some rigid boundaries contouring site design, layout, and page structuring. As such, business owners and non-profit organizations will often independently manage their site when using this content management system, regardless of their technical background. Large strives have been made by Squarespace to join the no-code movement as of recent, launching what they decided to label Fluid Engine. It’s essentially a more user-friendly (albeit more restricted and less granular) version of Webflow’s design editor, but it gets the job done in terms of personalization.

Whilst Webflow is known for having keen design prowess, it especially excels in content management (both on-page and within the interface), in our opinion. Tiered pages (i.e., nested folders), section/side-wide elements (such as mobile-responsive sidebars), multiple menu bars (and mega-menus, as well as uniquely-placed/horizontal menus), intrinsic design (i.e., true 2D content, or, in lay terms, sideways-enabled scrolling), and more is available at a couple of clicks/drags of a mouse. This makes it extremely powerful, and one of the many reasons why even major enterprises are now shifting their site-building efforts to Webflow.

How they’re Alike

Behavioral elements (such as animations, interactions, transitions, etc) are commonly found throughout the various editors offered by both Webflow and Squarespace. They breathe life into sites that would otherwise appear static for lack of a better word. They’re not vitally important, but it’s a nice touch on each of their parts to include them.

Both platforms are founded on WYSIWYG (i.e., what-you-see-is-what-you-get) principles. Typically, this sort of design blueprint results in countless bugs and, therefore, lackluster site performance… but they do it well, to say the least. Editing on-page content on-page (no pun intended) feels intuitive and practical at the same time. So much so that it makes developing sites, dare we say, fun.

Webflow and Squarespace are equally complete in that they support most types of content (i.e., free, paid/premium, gated, etc) through their many facets. They also have strong e-commerce functionality, allowing their customers to sell physical products and digital goods (including membership paywalls) as well as receive donations, offer (and, naturally, be compensated for) services, etc.

Why Each is Great

We’re not mincing words when we say that each of them is a tour de force in their own right. But the devil is in the details. Squarespace offers considerably more marketing and business/sales features (such as email marketing/newsletters, unbranded video player, even domain names, etc); Webflow, on the other hand (and as we’ve already pointed out), offers better design and content management features. Hence, the former tends to attract the DIY community (i.e., bloggers and other e-business owners, very lean startups, local mom-and-pop shops on a budget, creatives/artists, service-sellers, etc) — while the latter targets Web designers/developers/strategists along with several inbound marketing experts.

We use both platforms because each client project will have requirements that clearly gravitate toward one or the other. There’s enough of an overlap to make either work in the majority of scenarios, but this only aids in the decision process (i.e., there’s no real pressure since you virtually can’t go wrong when choosing). Squarespace is all-in-one/all-inclusive, and Webflow is the comprehensive choice for advanced content initiatives (and/or originality in design)… plain and simple.