So maybe you’ve heard about Growth Driven Design (GDD). Maybe you’ve even signed a retainer with an amazing digital marketing company who will turn your little speckle of the internet into the leanest, meanest lead generation machine. That’s all well and good, and you’re probably going to thrive with the new site. But you may not be aware that you are limiting your potential and may be set for a crash course of disaster 5-10 years down the line. (Gasp) As a designer, as a strategist, and a creative, it pains me to say this, but a great website and web design is not the only key to success. In fact, there are 3 keys to business success.
We at Revenue River like to refer to it as a stool… a barstool if you will; with three legs.
Those legs are Web, Marketing and Sales.
The truth is, as a successful business, you need all three legs of the stool. Sound marketing to drive people to your website, a killer website to convert those people into leads, and a sales team who is so on point that every lead gets nurtured into an evangelical customer who will sing your praises for the world to hear.
But how do all three legs of the stool work together? Anyone who has been in a “less than desirable” company knows that typically sales and marketing aren’t the BFF’s every CEO wants them to be. And don’t even try and talk to the creative team. If you can get them to pull their headphones out for 2min they’ll still tell you to Slack it to them so they can go grab another latte. But finding the synergy between each leg is the key to success. Build value and make sure each team understands the impact they have on each other. Here are some examples of how each works with the other.
GDD (Web) and Marketing
Your website strategy or GDD requires digital marketing understanding. For one, it doesn’t matter how good your site looks if you can’t tell how it’s performing. Having a sound campaign strategy and tracking in place is a no brainer for a conversion based website. Important, write this down: 100% of your efforts should be based on data. Don’t make assumptions based on subjective opinions or what your brother thinks you should do because he built a GeoCities site back in the 90s for a class project. Websites can be a big expense (unless they’re a GeoCities site in the 90s) if they are not contributing to your bottom line. Lead generation/qualification/nurturing/etc is the lifeblood of your business. Making sure that your marketing efforts are effective and coincide with your website design and functionality is key #1 to success.
GDD (Web) – Sales
Now here’s where it gets interesting. You may have heard a buzzword that is gaining attention recently called Sales Enablement. This is the process by which your sales team goes from mediocre to complete domination. Here too is a mutually dependent relationship because without sales, who will handle the leads that come in from the site? This is called closed loop reporting, and it’s imperative if you expect to have any sort of visibility into the effectiveness of your website. (And sales divas for that matter) Knowing what happens to a lead after it comes in helps you better target more qualified leads and gain better business. This also happens through lead scoring. If you’re not using your site to qualify and grade potential prospects then you’re missing out. Why follow up with every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes to the site, when you know Esteban is the only prospect worth talking to? Lastly, your site can be a powerful sales tool to use in the sales cycle. Reference blog articles to support your proposals. Point to success stories featured on your site as reputation builders and demonstrate you know what you’re doing.
Sales – Marketing
I figured I'd at least mention it even though it doesn't relate to Growth Driven Web Design. If you’ve ever heard of the term SMARKETING, then you know the importance of having your sales and marketing teams on the same page. To do this you much have a recurring cadence between the two teams to maintain an open flow of communication. The efforts of Marketing should be communicated to Sales so their efforts are aligned and present a united approach toward your audience. By incorporating the efforts of marketing in the website, then passing the leads that come in from those campaigns to sales, while arming the sales team with the knowledge to handle those leads, your process will be seamless and customers will recognize the harmonious utopia you’ve sacrificed blood sweat and tears to create. (or maybe just the 10min it took you to read this post.)
So congratulations on your new website redesign. Hopefully it was conversion based and focuses on your marketing and sales objectives. As you can see, it’s important to include all 3 legs of the stool so that you don’t leave any meat on the bone and don’t throw the baby out with the bath water (and other incredulous folk sayings). Hopefully you found some value amidst all this nonsense. If you have questions or don’t think you’re getting the whole stool, go ahead and reach out.
