Swing Space in Columbus, OH is the ultimate destination for golfers who want the very best in indoor golf simulators. They’ve got an awesome staff, cutting-edge tech, drinks, tournaments, lesons–all the building blocks of a stellar golf brand.
Only one problem.
That’s right.
Putting it lightly, the client came to us with a bit of a bogey for a website.
With just weeks before their grand opening, this fantastic brand’s most important tool to reach new customers was in desperate need of repair. So we kicked it into high gear to get a fresh, custom-made site underway.
This time, Swing Space would have a website that matched the excellence of their brand.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER
1. THE HERO BANNER
Creating a hero banner that stands out subtly will work wonders in capturing the attention of your landing page’s visitors. We cannot emphasize enough how crucial those first few seconds on the site really are.
For this project, we made a few key improvements to demand the viewer’s attention at the very moment the webpage opens.
- Implementing unique elements like a centered logo placement will make your brand more memorable.
- Adding a droop to the navigation bar gives the logo some more room to really shine. Try doing something similar to draw attention to your own logo.
- Creating big, bold, high-contrast headings ensures that your introduction is easy-to-read, and impossible-to-miss.
- Editing a high-quality, engaging hyperloop video to take up the whole screen makes visitors want to see more.
That last bit is essential. For your site’s hero banner, do whatever it takes to keep visitors scrolling tofind out more about the products or services you offer.
CRAFT A UNIFIED BRAND IDENTITY
2. CUSTOM ICONS
The client already had an excellent logo when they came to us for help, but one quick scan of the website showed that the logo was doing far too much heavy lifting. We fixed this by designing custom icons to match their brand aesthetic, then strategically placed them in key areas to ensure that the most important information on the website wouldn’t be missed.
We thought it was important to immediately highlight the client’s competitive advantage over traditional golfing experiences. Beautifully designed icons like these are not only more memorable and “on-brand” compared to stock icons, but they also help the visitor associate these competitive advantages with the brand itself.
Custom icons are now standard practice for our team. For those wondering where to start, we recommend beginning with these key elements on your website, all in descending order of importance:
- Competitive Advantages
- Unique Value Propositions
- Brand Core Values
- Products & Services
- Contact Information
We’ve already made it clear how short your audience’s attention spans are, but if you’ve done your job right, visitors won’t be able to go 10 seconds without being reminded of how awesome your brand is.
EASY ON THE EYES
3. CLARITY & USER-FRIENDLINESS
Nothing will make your target audience run away faster than large blocks of uninterrupted text. These are just some of the main culprits.
Instead of giving customers a book to read, we organized and clarified all the details they need to know about the client. This was the perfect opportunity to further develop brand equity with more custom icons.
You can clean up the information overload on your site by doing what we did:
- Avoid paragraphs and replace them with easy-to-read bullet points (like this!)
- Keep visitors oriented with large, attention-grabbing section headings
- Create custom icons to emphasize content you don’t want people to miss
- When you don’t have room for all the content you need, give link the content to a separate landing page where they can find out more
PUT A FACE TO THE BRAND
4. MEET THE TEAM
If you’re working with a small business that has lots of facetime with customers, we highly recommend spotlighting the real faces of the brand with a “Meet the Team” section like we did here.
This personal touch goes a long way to build trust and connection, essential elements in the competitive small business landscape.
IMPORTANT: If you or your client are running the show on your own, then personally introducing yourself on the site is non-negotiable.
HIGHLIGHT PARTNERSHIPS WITH TRUSTED BRAND NAMES
5. FEATURED TECH
We really wanted to draw attention to the cutting-edge technology used to make Swing Space an unforgettable indoor golfing experience, brought to you by the fine people at Trackman.
On their old site, their partnership with Trackman seemed more like an afterthought.
We decided to create an entire landing page dedicated to telling customers about this awesome technology–technology they can use for themselves with a visit to Swing Space.
You don’t need a partnership with something super unique like professional indoor golf simulators to do the same. By highlighting your connection with the revered companies you work with, you elevate the trust potential customers have in your own.
If your brand operates in any of these industries, there’s a good chance you could benefit from giving a shout out to your trusted material and/or technology providers:
- HVAC
- Roofing
- Yard/Plant Care
- Plumbing
- General Contracting
- Painting
A GAME CHANGING NEW WEBSITE JUST IN TIME FOR TEE OFF
Heading into their grand opening in Columbus, OH, our number one priority for our client was to create a website that matched the excellence of their brand.
We achieved that goal by intentionally introducing elements to maximize their brand’s perceived value:
- A simple, beautiful hero banner
- Custom icons to designed to match their killer logo
- Organized and easy-to-read content in order of importance
- A “Meet the Team” section putting faces to the brand
- Dedicated content highlighting the client’s tech partners
With a website they can truly be proud of, there’s nothing stopping Swing Space from being a premier golfing experience for visitors and residents in Columbus, OH.
