There’s a significant shift happening in cybersecurity: Customers are moving from awareness to action. However, cybersecurity web design is often stuck in the past, focusing on old trends, like scare tactics and stock photos of hackers in hoods, when it should be evolving alongside this shift.
Web design is a critical part of digital marketing, and cybersecurity SaaS companies need to modernize their approach to it or risk losing the interest of prospective customers who are seeking actionable solutions in the moment. With this in mind, let’s explore why cybersecurity web design needs to change, the fundamentals of effective SaaS web design, and how you can elevate your approach with a dash of practical web design expertise.
A decade ago, cybersecurity awareness was a major hurdle. IT leaders struggled to convince the C-suite about the importance of security posture and the need for a proactive approach to risk management.
The fault in this mindset is similar to thinking you’re invincible. You’ve never been hurt—that only happens to other people—so why should you worry about beefing up your protections? But once you get burned, you never forget that pain.
Back then, marketing focused on raising cybersecurity awareness to prevent this lesson from being learned the hard way. Many companies turned to scare tactics to spread this awareness. This included using stock photos with hooded hackers typing in command prompts, plastering Matrix-green on every asset possible, and warning businesses in big, bright letters that they were in danger if they didn’t act now.
While this approach may seem extreme, it was once effective in raising cybersecurity awareness. Today, businesses of all sizes understand that the threat landscape is dangerous and constantly evolving. This more mature customer base now expects a more sophisticated approach to digital marketing. Otherwise, they may feel like they’re being talked down to or that these scare tactics are overly dramatic and not credible.
Given this shift, cybersecurity company web design needs to adapt accordingly. That means no more scare tactics, no more overused stock photos, and no more neon green. And that’s just from a visual standpoint. Website language and branding also need to level up to reach and resonate with customers.
What makes a successful website for cybersecurity companies? It starts with paring down to focus on the fundamentals of cybersecurity web design. It’s easy to get distracted by flashy websites and fancy features, but before you get too ambitious, there are three primary areas every cybersecurity SaaS company should perfect: design clarity, theming, and technical performance.
Before you design anything, it’s wise to step back and think about the goal of your website. What purpose will it serve? What are customers visiting your website looking for? What do they need to find, and why?
Think through your goals and list them out clearly and in order of priority. Then, pare this list down to the absolute minimum of what you need to support your goals. Don’t worry too much about cutting out something important—anything that doesn’t make the cut can always be added later if needed. This exercise is meant to help you understand the minimum of what you’re trying to convey and what actions you’re hoping users will take.
When your ultimate goals are outlined, you can use them as a guiding light for the entire web design process. This can help you identify a clear visual identity and refine website copy to make sure your branding shines through and your users find exactly what they need when they need it.
The design theme of your website is more than just a visual identity. It’s tied directly to the “feel” of your web experience, the consistency of your brand style, and the attributes that reflect your company. Ideally, you want to design a website theme that makes your branding feel holistic and purposeful—not like a visual theme you picked just because it looked nice.
With this in mind, use your goals as a starting point, and think through how you’d like to visually represent your brand and your web experience. Then, think about utility and accessibility. How do you want users to engage with the site? How can you simplify that experience? How can you make your UI as intuitive as possible, and what support can you provide for users of all types?
Stay clear of themes that are reminiscent of scare tactics. Those harsh greens and dark shadows, those big, bright, urgent fonts, and those overly designed web experiences distract from your brand message. If you take the time to think about how to visually represent your brand and build a UI that aligns with your goals, you’ll get an effective website that converts visitors into paying customers.
Finally, it’s time to focus on the nuts and bolts of your website. You know what you want to convey and how you’d like to represent your brand, so now, you need to make sure the speed and technical performance reinforce your expertise as a SaaS company.
Remember, the goal is to pare down to the essentials. By avoiding overly ambitious website designs, you can instead prioritize speed and reliability. Users will be able to navigate your website quickly and with ease. No waiting for pages to load, and no complex taxonomy to navigate.
This can also help design for multiple device types. If you have a complicated web experience, it will likely prove difficult to translate from desktop to mobile. But when you have a focused design, you can optimize the experience across devices, ensuring your audience is able to use your website no matter how they’re accessing it.
For cybersecurity SaaS companies, this is a good way to showcase what you do best. As a software company, you can use your website as an example of your technical prowess and ability to optimize a digital experience. So view your website as both a sales tool and a proof point of your technical capabilities.
Knowing what’s most important to your cybersecurity web design is only the first step. Here’s a look at how you can put this strategy into action:
B2B SaaS web design is our bread and butter at SpotOn. We know that websites should do more than look good—they need to drive results, especially in a rapidly evolving space like cybersecurity. With our expertise in both regulated industries and web design for SaaS companies, we’re uniquely positioned to help you build the website of your dreams.
Our approach to design starts from the ground up. We can help you build a strategic website that focuses on brand messaging clarity, dazzles with the ideal theming, and performs with speed and reliability. With our SaaS web design services, you can rest assured that your website is driving conversions and bringing in customers who need your help ASAP.
Want to learn more? Schedule a meeting with our SaaS web design experts now, and discover how we can help level up your digital marketing strategy with an effective website built for the modern cybersecurity customer.
Your website is often the first impression you get to make on customers. Visitors might leave your website in a matter of seconds if this first impression doesn’t hook them immediately. Good web design aims to capture the attention of prospective customers and engage them with clear, simple messaging rather than relying on scare tactics, which is a common but largely ineffective strategy in the cybersecurity industry today.
Generally, cybersecurity companies should focus on three web design best practices: building for clarity and usability, choosing appropriate brand theming, and optimizing for speed and performance. This will ensure that your web design impresses, communicates information well, and performs effectively across devices, adding a premium feel to your user experience.
Plan your website structure and outline the path you want your visitors to follow. Make it short and sweet. Don’t be afraid of negative space—let the web copy breathe. Maintain your brand theming and style throughout your entire website, and incorporate texture into your visual design. And finally, build scalability into your web architecture to future-proof your design.
Focusing on scare tactics, such as using hacker imagery, and using tired colors, like neon green to represent coding, are two common web design for cybersecurity company pitfalls. Avoid these stereotypical design trends, and instead, focus on conveying your brand and product messaging clearly and concisely instead.
