Thinking about a website redesign? Let me ask you a straight forward question: why?
Seriously, why do you want to redesign your website?
Are you looking for something fresh? Do you need something new? Did your boss say “Our current design doesn’t WOW me”? Are you the new marketing person in the company and this is your first initiative?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to rethink your website redesign. This line of thinking really won’t change anything, here is why:
Still all about you
As marketers, we have always been a little slow when it comes to adapting to new platforms. Take TV for example. It took producers and directors years to figure out that you couldn’t just take a theater production, film it, and expect it to be great for TV.
The same thing happened when the internet came around. Companies that recognized the potential busted hump to turn their marketing brochures into “interactive” website pages.
Brochures are really good at one thing: talking about you. Today’s buyers want none of it. They won’t make time for it.
Today’s buyers are looking for a company that understands who they are. They want to work with companies that will help them solve the problems they face on a daily basis.
When you’re thinking about a website redesign, think about how you can incorporate information that will be helpful for your potential customers.
Still not aligned with sales
Websites are all too often designed by people within the organization that spend little to no time interacting with actual customers.
This is a huge problem because the messaging inevitably diverts back to the polished value proposition that hold little water in the real world.
Your sales and support teams spend the most time interacting with prospects and customers. They understand their pains and their questions. Your new website needs to include the answers to these questions and solutions for their pains.
Still no way to attract top of the funnel leads
Maybe you have tried to collect leads through your website. You had the web guy create a contact page, your placed your phone number in the upper right, and you even added a custom “Request a Quote” form. Then what happened?
Likely very little.
All three of these conversion opportunities are bottom of the funnel. Prospects that contact you through these channels are likely ready to buy.
What about the visitors that aren’t convinced yet?
These visitors are looking for content that can help them make an informed purchasing decision. Even if you’re in a boring B2B industry, you can still create awesome content that solves people’s problems!
Still no way to measure ROI
How much has your company spent in the past 10 years on website redesign projects? $50K or more? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Lots of companies have been paying an arm and a leg for “refreshed” websites for years.
But what impact have these projects brought to the bottom line?
Most likely you have no idea, because there are no marketing analytics in place to help you understand the ROI.
To showcase ROI, your new website needs to be integrated into the larger online marketing strategy. It needs to be creating consistent content with calls to action. It needs to offer readers the opportunity to download additional information about the subjects that interest them in exchange for their contact information.
Putting together a plan like this is a lot more work than just redesigning your website. Most companies that we talk to aren’t prepared to make the changes necessary to build a lead generating machine on their website. They are comfortable paying a web design agency fist-fulls of money for a flashy new website.
If you’re interested in seriously rethinking your marketing strategy and growing your business, check out our free guide to unlocking marketing ROI with analytics.