Whether you are a web based business or a brick and mortar store your website is crucial to your success. Not only should it look good and represent your brand in a professional way but it also needs to be purpose driven. The most beautiful website won’t do your business any good if it doesn’t convert visitors into buyers or subscribers. This article will look at five businesses who got their website absolutely right. The purpose of this review is to draw lessons and provide some inspiration so that you can also nail your website and overall branding.

Zoom

Zoom has been around for years but of course its popularity and brand recognition grew significantly with the increased need for video conferencing over the last few months. Their simple logo design and name make this brand easy to remember. In line with their logo their website also follows suit. The website is beautifully designed but not overdone. They use a lot of white space to keep a clean look and to make their content and call to action buttons and sections jump off the page. In line with their business model the home page is all about registering for an account or joining a call.  Zoom doesn’t just stop with an exemplary website but their business cards, social media posts and all other branding pieces are executed at that level too.

Square

This credit card processing giant is a great example of a tech company embracing simple and flat design. Their blue, gray and white color palette work very well and represent the business in an understated but sophisticated way. Of course, they could have introduced beautiful illustrations or images to spice up the design but they went this direction on purpose to be aligned with their logo. Their logo is a simple and abstract square. Squares evoke the feeling of stability, which is exactly the right message for a payment processor. Building their entire website around this concept was a clever branding move.

Asana

Recently there has been an influx of web based project management tools. This fierce competition pushes each of them to elevate their produce offering. It also means they have fully optimized their web branding and website to maximize any advantage they can get over their competitors. Asana is a great example of using your home page as a sales landing page. Their beautifully crafted website’s purpose is on signing up visitors to their free trial. It’s also worth noting how they carefully chose a color palette that doesn’t clash with their bold logo icon color.

Calm

Calm’s website is stunningly executed. The second you enter their home page you are overcome with a sense of clam and mindfulness. This is achieved through clever and deliberate use of imagery and color. Calm is the number 1 meditation and sleep app on the market. Even if you didn’t know that you could have guessed so just by looking at their website. Their logo font evokes that sense and so does the stunning image they choose for their home page header.  This is a display of branding and design mastery.

Shopify

Shopify is a popular ecommerce solution that allows anyone to set up a beautiful web store quickly and easily. Being one of the major ecommerce players they have a lot of pressure on not only getting their own website right but also the templates they provide to their users. Their website is a wonderful example of a brand that puts purpose over fancy design. Although their website design is beautiful it isn’t overly sophisticated showcasing lots of colors, images and illustrations. Rather they went with clean, minimal and a fitting color palette with a focus on converting visitors into users. They take up the most prominent real estate on the site with a field to sign up for their free trial. This marriage of usability and pretty design are something to strive for.

Lessons to Be Learned For Your Own Project

The purpose of this article is not to simply highlight beautiful designs for inspiration but to draw some lessons. These well known and hugely successfully companies highlighted have all of the resources in the world to perfect their web branding. You are mostly likely working with a much different budget. Following design and branding principles doesn’t cost you any money however. Before you embark on your website design project, whether you hire a designer or use a do-it-yourself tool, be sure to revisit these principles. Build your website around your logo, matching color and feel. In addition use images and colors to communicate what your business does. Finally, don’t get carried away trying to create a beautiful art piece. Your website needs to be functional and serve a purpose. If your visitors are bouncing without ever getting to your money pages you are doing something wrong. Try to find the perfect balance between pretty and functional and you’ll be moving in the right direction.

By Scott Smith