BLOG KLIN D'OEIL - SQUARESPACE MASTERCLASS
At Klin d'Oeil, we talk a lot, with you, the designers who push open the doors of our boutique every day. And there's one subject that comes up a lot: visibility. How do you find your place on the web as a small brand in the face of the giants, and with the means at hand? It's a vast subject. Especially at a time when algorithms are constantly changing, and getting on the first page of search engines is no mean feat!
Listening to you gave us the idea of organizing a masterclass last June, in our workshop space, in partnership with Squarespace. Squarespace is the platform on which we chose to create and host our website almost seven years ago. Because we find their templates ultra-creative and super-easy to use. For us, who prefer to be creative rather than geeky, it's perfect! That day, in the company of the platform's experts, the ideas and questions came thick and fast from the participating designers! For those of you who weren't able to join us at the event,
, here are 5 key takeaways. Are you ready? Get out your notebooks and pens.
A mantra-like phrase that should always remain wedged in the corner of your mind: you don't "own" your Instagram, Facebook TikTok, etc. account. On the contrary, you "own" your website. You're at home there, not at the mercy of an algorithm change. These algorithms are pushing creative people to produce more and more to stay visible. And this is sometimes to the detriment of other communication channels. In short: don't neglect them. Your website is a precious asset that deserves to be maintained, well referenced and regularly updated.
Your Instagram account is a gateway to your website, not an end in itself. It's on your website that you'll find the space to fully deploy your universe. Hence the importance of creating a clearly visible "bridge" between your Instagram account and your website. How do you do this? By creating the famous biosite link in your bio to your website. Squarespace offers a 100% free solution for building a creative biosite that's easy toread at first glance. Here's ours at Klin d'Oeil. We update it regularly to keep up with current events.
It should even be on your "to do" list of "urgent" things to do once your website is up and running. Because a newsletter allows you to reach your clientele directly in their mailbox, to build loyalty, without worrying about those famous algorithms. Squarespace makes it easy to launch your own newsletter, by choosing from their collection of templates. The recipe for a successful newsletter can be summed up in three words: "ultra-editorialized", "embodied" and "activatable".
> Ultra-editorialized by creating recurring sections as appointments (your news, behind-the-scenes, mood of the month, etc. Be creative!).
>Embodied by the person who brings the brand to life. That's you. Good news: your personality and uniqueness are your main assets in building your brand identity, so you don't have to look far.
> Activate by inserting "call to actions" at the heart of the newsletter (and not just at the very end) to encourage the user to go where you'd like them to go (your e-shop, for example).
In marketing, we call this a persona. In other words, a portrait of your typical customer. At this point, the more creative among you will no doubt be saying to yourselves: ah, but I don't want to mark myself too much, I prefer to act on a gut feeling! The idea is to place the marketing cursor where you're comfortable. But asking yourself the persona question will make your task much easier when it comes to building your website. Just as this little exercise will help you build the discourse and narrative around your brand. Here are just a few of the questions to ask yourself when building your "persona": where does my target customer live? What are his/her interests? What are his/her buying habits? What do they love and hate? What might make them decide against a purchase, or on the contrary, encourage them to make one?
Let's take a simple example: you sell DIY kits to an urban, family-oriented clientele who are running out of time. Illustrating your product data sheets with short, easy and reassuring tutorial videos can help you make the right buying decision!
When we think identity, we immediately think "visual". Yes, that's the first step. But your identity goes much further. It's also about working on your speech and what they call your " tone of voice" (don't ask us why, we suddenly felt like speaking English). Let's take an example: you're an expert in textile craft techniques and you want the whole world to know it. So you're going to adopt an expert tone to highlight the extent and rarity of your know-how. Get the idea? Once you've defined this tone, keep it in mind when delivering key messages on the various pages of your website. This tone of voice will also serve you well when speaking on your social networks.
