I Don't Want To Tell You To Redesign Your Website, But I Have To

I know you're proud of your website, I know you spent a lot of time and money on it too.  I also know your website isn't producing results and if you want our help you're going to have to let it go.  No we can't salvage it.  Yes I know you how much money and time you wasted having someone without a clue design your site.  No, if you want to keep it I can't help you.

I've had to have a few conversations like that, they're never fun and they're always challenging.  As marketers it's sometimes too tempting to say 'yes' instead of 'no'.  It's easier to tell prospects their site is pretty good and that we can work with their site to implement our inbound marketing elements.  While it's easier, it's not right.  

 

To reach your marketing goals you have to begin with the end in mind.  You have to understand that if you want to maximize results you have to a powerful foundation, the landing point for all of your future marketing actions.  If your website doesn't present a strategic user experience that provides the information and resources each of your target personas is looking for it's simply not going to get it done.  

 

How A Website Set The Stage For Future Inbound Marketing Success

 

One of the biggest hurdles you'll face as a marketer is convincing their existing website needs to be scrapped, especially if they have recently spent a bunch of money redesigning it.  It's a common problem inbound marketers face, we recently went through a great example. 

We signed a new client with some pretty aggressive growth and lead gen goals.  They had a staff of three sales people that weren't producing and our campaign began with expectations of big results.  During the sales process we identified the challenges with the current website but they were met with heavy resistance.  The client had just paid a friend of a friend nearly $10,000 to design the site and they were completely married to it. 

 

If we were going to drive results we simply had to have a better foundation with the website.  This is how we approached the challenge:

 

1. We spent our first month on campaign strategy, the creation of detailed buyer personas being the key piece
2. We structured a primary offer for each persona after identifying what they were looking for on the website
3. We went through the site page by page and outlined how the user experience for each persona needed to look
4. We wire framed a new home page layout dedicated to enhanced user experience, inclusion of necessary conversion paths, and new CTA concepts
5. We used a site tool that shows how websites look and perform on all viewing platforms with powerful mobile viewing statistics to present a complete user experience
6. We made the client an offer they couldn't refuse, to redesign their website and build it in HubSpot's COS to bring all of the strategy to life
7. They bought the concept, and we got our asses to work

 

With the website complete and live, better results began to flow over the next 30 days:

 

• Better search engine optimization led to more visitors finding the site when searching
  • 57% increase in organic traffic
• Better presentation across all viewing devices led to a lower bounce rate, keeping visitors on the site longer
  • 62% decrease in bounce rate
• Strategic messaging told a more compelling story, saying the right things to the right people
• The new content offers presented the right resources, generating more leads
  • 122% increase in lead production
• Automatedworkflows sent prospects additional information, qualifying them for sales in the process
  • Every lead received a series of emails with additional offers and blog articles to build interest
  • Each offer asked the prospect a specific question where the answer helped us understand their needs
• Sales received more warm leads, with an entire history of interaction to reference on their calls
  • Sales qualified lead handover increased by 29%

 

If you're struggling to produce the level of results necessary to meet your goals I advise you to consider redesigning your website.  It truly is the most important element of a sound inbound marketing campaign.  A strategic redesign can make your marketers more effective, your sales people more productive, and your profits rise.  

Just because you already spent a bunch of money on your website doesn't mean you did it right.  There are hundreds of marketing firms with the capabilities necessary to help you reach your goals, find that one that fits best with your organization and empower them to do their thing.