Mixing your passions

I see you, yeah you, the one that is still trying to decide if a splash page/landing page is what you need or should you just bite the bullet and have two separate websites once and for all. I get it. No, seriously I do!

For the past 8 years I kept this brand, Penguin Designing, sharing everything with my other business, I & L Photography. It has always been good. Our mission is complementary, our branding colors were almost identical, our clients were the same. And it just made sense.

I had a URL for each, Penguin Designing even had its home on a Plus Site (for those not on Showit, it’s a subdomain) because it was just SO related. And I can tell you: it makes NO real difference if you serve your audience correctly. I grew inside that shared passions realm and I can say that it was what I needed at that moment. Once the businesses started shifting apart in terms of who are we serving and how are we serving them, then it got harder to see if I was still making the best choice.

To keep both of your businesses on one website, or not

I feel that it was not only “ok” but it was in fact beneficial! That’s right, I made sure that my audience knew I had two successful businesses running parallel to each other and that I could enhance their experience by simply providing more services. It was so good. Now, Penguin Designing is very specific: I serve wedding industry professionals. I love my photographers, my makeup artists, my venue owners. I have found that they need me to showcase their gifts and help them be seen as they see themselves, to be properly and professionally represented.

But what if my businesses are too different?

Well, then you have to think: What would benefit each of my brands? If they will just confuse your audience and make them feel like they are lost, then you need to do yourself a favor and split them up. But if they are somewhat related and you want to keep them together, make simple design changes to your website to accommodate your viewers and ensure a proper and smooth experience for everyone. That is the ultimate goal. We sometimes hesitate because “what will the rest of the world think?” Uhm, forget about that! Are you serving your audience like you should by keeping your passions separate or together?

Some platforms might even be better for one of the other. If you have a service base and a product base, dedicate space for each to better project your mission and entice the right eyes to come in to your online home.

Remember this is all about relationships, we are not ever selling. That is lame and cold and not profitable. We want to always find what we can give our audience, so think about their experience first. Ask friends or family to navigate your site and take their opinion, they will look at it with objective eyes (I mean, we can’t ever be objective about our baby, right?). Be prepared to listen, don’t take it personally,but analyze their thoughts and see where can that experience be enhanced 🙂

If you have the opportunity to have semi-related passions and you have a Showit website, like if you are a photographer serving city brides and fluffy newborns, then create an experience by separating the space with a +site ?

So, are you keeping your website bundled or separate?

xo,

Ingrid