Basic Tactics So Your Music Brand’s Website Won’t Suck

Five simple website tips for music brands.

If you don’t have a great website, you are missing new customers, growth opportunity and more revenue. But before you hire a web team, you need clear goals and strategies. Here are five basic considerations to keep in mind as you develop your musical instrument and equipment manufacturers website.

1) Convert or Die.

What exactly do I want my visitors to do? This is the most important question you need to address. When your customer undertakes a desired action, which could be asking for information or buying a product, it’s called conversion,. Amazon is a great example of a high-conversion website with a clearly defined strategy: Enhance consumer engagement by presenting relevant product based upon purchase history. Every action on the site follows that strategy. According to Internet Retailer, “Amazon Prime members convert 74% of the time.” Before you begin designing your music website, determine your goals.

 

2) Your Site Must Be Mobile Friendly.

Mobile traffic is the largest percentage of visits for many sites. According to Pew Research, nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, and 19% of Americans rely on a smartphone for accessing online services and for staying connected. Responsive design is the preferred method for developing websites that will format to any device, including cell phones, iPads or laptops. If your music product site is not optimized for mobile, you will lose visitors and business.

 

3) Keep the Navigation Simple.

Clear navigation is one of the most critical factors for the success of your music brand website. It impacts every single function, from understandable content to consistent conversion. The first consideration is the location of the navigation: Visitors will look along the top or the left side. You will lose customers if they can’t find the navigation immediately. Secondly, don’t put too many items in your navigation bar. No matter how deep or complicated your site is, you should be able to distill everything down to five navigation buttons. Too many items will lead to confusion and a higher bounce rate. Gear Patrol is an award-winning, lifestyle website that encourages easy and quick exploration of a complex, product-based website.

4) White Space Is Your Friend.

White space, or negative space, is the portion of the page that’s blank. In this age of information, sound and graphic overload, white space allows your visitor to easily scan music product pages. Gear Patrol emphasizes products through the use of negative space and simple design.

5) You Need a Great Logo.

The logo is the face of your music brand. A killer logo will give your visitors a positive impression of your website. The logo should be simple, original and meaningful. There are a million completely forgettable logos—to make sure that yours is great, hire a talented graphic designer. Evernote is an example of a clever and memorable logo. The typeface is easy to read, the elephant refers to memory, and the ear suggests a note.