A great website just takes some basic coding, the right template, and a few hours of experimenting with different fonts.
Right?
Sure...
...if you’re an amateur musician.
For business owners and marketing leaders that have to deliver results in a specific timeframe however, your website building process has to be far more strategic. This is because you (and your stakeholders) will have certain expectations from your website and you can’t afford to leave things to chance.
A website is, essentially, a marketing tool –– and often a pricey one. That’s why you’ll be required to show a return on investment (ROI) through the data the website generates. This is the best way to demonstrate how your creative ideas and business insights have been mobilised to actualise your business goals. These goals may be focused around:
- Generating organic traffic
- Attracting highly qualified leads
- Increasing your brand’s credibility
- Providing a great customer experience
- Outperforming your competitors
- Preventing churn or shopping cart abandonment
In 2020, over two billion people made online purchases, making it more essential than ever to have an effective website strategy for your business. Whether you’re at the beginning of your digital journey or you’re keen to optimise your online presence so that you can start hitting your targets, a website strategy is the official starting point.
What’s your website’s purpose?
Building a website isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. It’s part of your overall digital strategy, and is driven by intent. Are you going to sell products and services through your website, or do you want to generate leads that request demos and book consultations with your sales team?
The purpose of your website will strongly influence its layout and content. Knowing your “why” is also central to identifying the right web specialists, plug-ins, hosting and management service needed to enable the features you require.
All of these decisions will be affected by your overall marketing strategy –– and we hope that’s an inbound one. Websites that apply an inbound methodology are focused on answering the questions of your specific buyer personas and offering the right kind of help and support to nudge them through the buyer’s journey. Inbound sales and marketing is all about relationship building, rather than hard-sell tactics that agitate your website visitors.
At its core, your website should always serve to educate customers about your products and services. It also acts as a platform that’s uniquely yours –– you’ve got the power to make it do what you need it to, whether that’s to generate more organic traffic, boost your buyer’s confidence or your sales team’s ability to qualify leads and close more deals.
Do you need a website redesign?
While there's plenty you can do to spruce up your existing website, sometimes it's a good idea to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. Here are some scenarios which may push you towards a redesign / overhaul / total annihilation of what was before:
You’re giving off early 2000s vibes
Sometimes the design is too dated, the layout is dysfunctional, there are hosting issues, and your pages take too long to upload. You may also want to redesign your website if you’d like to improve its functionality and integrate with other essential marketing tools such as chatbots and CRMs. When the list starts getting this long, it's better to take a fresh approach.
You’re rebranding
If you've recently rebranded your product line or introduced new partners and services into your offering, you may also wish to review the look and feel of your website to ensure that it aligns with any new messaging and activities. Companies change, over time, and evolving your value proposition and branding is all part of that cycle –– your website shouldn’t fall behind.
Your user experience sucks
Delivering a better customer experience (CX) is often at the heart of all redesign projects. You may find that your old website didn't bring your buyer's journey to life or make your marketing vision very clear. Mobile device functionality is a huge part of your user experience and it’s surprising how many businesses neglect this, considering that in the first quarter of 2021, 54.8% of web traffic came from mobile devices (excluding tablets).
You’re refreshing your content
Redesigning your website isn't only about the visual aspects, very often, your content will need addressing too. Perhaps you’ve decided to diversify the type of content you make available through your website, such as videos, audio clips, blogs and images. You’ll have to make sure that your current website can accommodate this.
Where copy is concerned, it’s important to acquire the services of a specialist that can help you create powerful messaging that directly addresses your buyer persona. Copy will also drive the design and layout of your website and will have to factor into your design strategy.
If you feel inspired to get a little more methodical about your website, we’ve got all the tools and expertise to help guide you along this process. With our Website Worksheet, you can take a step-by-step approach to building a website strategy that focuses on business growth and revenue generation.
Before you start, however, we recommend that you carry out a website audit with us.
