Building a web hosting brand

By Robert Mathers

What is a brand?

Audience research

Values

Tone of voice

Design

Content of this talk

What I mean by ‘brand’

A brand encapsulates how an individual

feels about a product, service, organisation

or individual

What I mean by ‘brand’

Branding shouldn’t just be part of

marketing

What I mean by ‘brand’

More new customers

How branding generates value

Word of mouth referrals

Customers who come to you directly

Sale amount per customer

When existing customers are looking for a new product

Higher retention rates

Less likely to cancel

Why branding matters in web hosting

It helps you become more than a

commodity to your customers

Bloggers < HomeHobbyists

Mid-sized ecommerce < BusinessLarge

Ecommerce

Large design agency

(11+ staff)

< Creatives

Small design

agency (1-10 staff)

WYSIWYG users

First time website builders

Brochure website

Small Ecommerce

SOHO web

designers

Part-time freelance

Start by segmenting the market

What you want to find out

What you want to find out

How to get your research

How to get your research – Google Consumer Surveys

Create questions

Define who you want to answer them

Analyse the responses

How to get your research

How to get your research -Google Analytics

Find keywords used to discover your

website

e.g. Cheap Web Hosting

How to get your research

Asking the customer if you have a close relationship

Anecdotal knowledge from yourself and those you work with

Values – What they are

Concepts that you stand for and will

not compromise within your

activities

and operations

Values

Trust

Contribution

Teamwork

Innovation

Values

Values

Values

Leadership

Passion

Integrity

Accountability

Values

Values

Values

Simplicity

User focused

Personalisation

Fun & humour

Values

Values

Defining your values

Look at your audience research in relation to:

Your products and services

The experiences you provide beyond your

products and services

Defining your values

Create between 2 and 4 values with at least one

for each of these two areas

Your values should never change

Making your values measurable

Create sets of rules for your values

Trust

No hidden renewal fees

30 min response times for queries

No copy and paste responses

Making your values measurable

Managing your values over time

To help your brand fulfil the needs of your

audiences

even more over time you can:

• Add additional rules to your values

• Make your current rules deliver more value

e.g. increasing the query response times

you work to from 30 minutes to 10 minutes

Tone of voice

Definition

Tone of voice is how you talk to your audiences

across your different touchpoints

How to define yours

Go over the interests, content they consume and where

they consume their content sections within your audience

research.

Look at the tone of voice used on these sites and look

at your values to define your tone of voice.

How to define yours

Levels of formality

What clothes describe the formality

of your tone at this touchpoint?

How to define yours

Financing Business Innovation

How to define yours

Let’s build a smaller planet

How to define yours

(FAQs) help is on its way…all your burning questions

here

How to define yours

Word bank

A word bank is a collection of words you’ll commonly

use in your communications

e.g. awesome, excellent or lovely?

How to define yours

On-brand Search for your perfect domain now

Too formal Browse excellent domains with exceptional ROI

Too informal Check out these super-sweet domains!

Design

Go over the interests, content they consume and

where they consume their content sections within

your audience research.

Look at the design used on these sites and look at your

values to define your design style.

Colour palette

Use basic colour psychology to select your colours in Paletton

Colour palette

Blue

Integrity, trust, authority

Colour palette

Green

Growth, nature, environment

Colour palette

Red

Power, love, passion

Logo

Keep things simple

Logo

Establish the different variations of your

logo and where you’ll use them

Icons

Have a consistent visual style for your icons that

ties into your larger design style

Try to pick a single source for your icons e.g. Font Awesome to

avoid having icons that are all flat design but clearly look

different.

Establish consistent rules e.g. no strokes on vectors, shapes

and silhouettes are front facing.

Brand guidelines

Put all together into coherent guidelines

Give to all members of the team and new starters

Review every six months to see if you want to implement

any changes

Always consider any changes to your design or tone of

voice in the context of your larger brand

In summary

1. Start by segmenting the market to do audience research

2. Define your values with measurable rules

3. Create a consistent tone of voice across your communications

4. Create a consistent design style across your design elements

5. Collate all your findings into a brand guidelines document

Thank you

Robert Mathers