Case Study: Avoid This Mistake at All Costs!
Meet the Client
Let me introduce you to AutoImage, a custom graphics and window tinting business here in my hometown. They do wrapping, tinting, accessories, paint protection film, signage, banners, and more. I first met the owner, Ian, years ago when I needed some vinyl advertising on my back car window, which is a great way to write off 100% of your auto expenses (check with your tax person to make sure I’m correct ;).
The backstory
When Ian contacted me to redo his website, he wanted to take his existing website to a new level. Like most small businesses, his first website looked like a first website. And there’s nothing wrong with that. My did, too. In fact, I blush a bit when I think back to how mine looked when I first started my business.
He used a What You See Is What You Get website builder (again, like most small businesses), and it looked like a typical site. Nothing special set him apart. But when I viewed his site, I was immediately confused. The website he build had a color scheme of blue, gray, and white but his brand colors are red, white, and black. I was immediately confused. He explained that he will sometimes change colors out like on his bumper stickers, billboards, etc. but that his brand colors are the red, white, and black, which takes us to our “avoid this at all costs”—do NOT change your brand colors or fonts on a whim or on different platforms. It creates confusion immediately for potential clients and confused people might go somewhere else.
We are a very visual society. We instantly recognize our favorite brands by sounds, symbols and colors more than by words. Your website, signage, billboards, uniforms, printed materials, social media posts, and anything else that’s connected to your business should be the same and instantly recognizable. Color is the biggest and best way to do that second to your logo. But if your logo is a different color on your billboard than your site, site visitors might wonder if they are at the right place.
THE NEXT STEPS
Once we got the colors figured out, I wanted to bring out how cool this business is. I’ve always admired Ian for his creativity, customer service, and talent. The things he and his team do are absolutely amazing. I wanted to showcase that as much as possible using the pictures and videos of his projects as possible. People, again, are visual and the more you can tell the story using pictures and videos, the better it is.
Ian already has a great social media presence, so I started downloading content from there and then he put hundreds on a hard drive for me. I even found some before and afters and some that showed the process of vinyl wraps and commercial wraps. He also had a great saying on his old site that I grabbed, “Let us transform your ride.” It just sounded…cool. Like wearing Oakley’s kind of cool. It set the stage for the “feel” or the experience I wanted people to have when they visited his site. That combined with the color scheme was perfect.
I then hunted for pictures that fit the color scheme and showcased his work. I took those and made a slideshow banner right at the top of his page so that new visitors could see his work immediately and know how good he is. Again, I’m not going to put just any picture up there. It had to match the scheme. The other photos would have a place on down the site.
I also decided to put “Call Now” and his business hours and location at the top so potential customers didn’t have to scroll or hunt for the information. There’s nothing more irritating, quite frankly. I also decided to keep his site to one page. Everything you need to know about AutoImage is right there creating a friendly and super easy user experience.
Next, I put exactly what he does with pictures and more information right under it. Again, I want people to see more than read what he does. I followed that up with a three-picture example of the process of vinyl wrapping a vehicle. If I had a video, I would have used that instead. People love behind-the-scenes because it answers questions. We all want to be in the know! Speaking of know, I wanted to encapsulate what AutoImage is ALL about using a short and sweet paragraph along with a video of a car coming out of the shop with a full color change. And it’s not just any car. It is sweet!
And, finally, I finished up with the business deets again, an auto-scrolling gallery of the rest of the photos I had to showcase all of his work, reviews of happy customers, and his instagram.
IT MUST BE THOUGHT OUT
How do you want people to feel when they come to your site? What do you want them to know? How do you want to showcase your work? What’s the most important information to have right off the bat? And how can you make your website easy to use and fun? Is there anyway to inspire aspiration in potential clients? Like convey the kind of person they will be once they’ve done business with you.
Most of us mom and pop shops don’t have thousands of dollars to create a website that wows. I get it. Start where you are but please start using Squarespace not Godaddy or Wix. Squarespace sites are gorgeous, easy to use, and will set you apart. But to give you an idea…the website I built for AutoImage was $450 of labor. It doesn’t take a huge amount if you find the right person and keep it to one page.
