Growth-driven design is a smarter, more agile approach that will produce better results with little risk. It’s time for you to learn this new process.
Your website is your primary touchpoint between your business and your customers. A great website can act like a 24/7 salesperson, so it makes sense for good businesses to spend time and effort to ensure their website is doing its job to the best of its ability. Think of your website as a digital liaison between your internal company and the outside, online world.
Where traditional web design falls short
Large upfront costs. Budget is one of the most common objections when it comes to website redesign. By waiting years between projects, then implementing massive overhauls, you are adding unneeded stress and cost to a transition that should be much smoother and easier to forecast.
Late launches. Whether you have an in-house development team or you outsource the project, traditional website redesigns are huge in scope and therefore hard to gauge in terms of time management. The last thing you want is a project that goes over-budget, and behind schedule. At that point, every day your site isn’t finished means more leads that aren’t converted. In a world where 90% of B2B companies are likely to switch partners even with just one single bad experience, it is imperative to keep your website online and updated.
Inflexible. If you wait years between redesigns you are missing out on emerging trends and changing buying habits that might mean the difference between an online user choosing a competitor over you. After all, 94% of people cite outdated website design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website.
Why growth-driven design is superior
Iterative, adaptable, lean. White space can be an aesthetically pleasing way to keep a website easy to navigate. Making it easy to interact with the site means users are more likely to spend time clicking through the pages, which increases the chances of them converting into leads.
Effective lead generator. As stated above, the longer a person browses a website, the more likely they are to become a lead. A well-designed website can be an invaluable asset for pipeline growth.
Customizable. Adding multiple sections to your site ensures that there is valuable, relevant information for all your ideal users. When a website visitor feels like the content is tailored just for them, they become more trusting of your brand and are more prone to downloading an offer or becoming a customer.
Responsive and mobile-friendly. More people access websites on mobile than ever before. In fact, 57% of online users say they wouldn’t recommend a business that had a poorly designed mobile site.
Better bang for your buck. Growth-driven design is a long-term strategy. Instead of spending gigantic lump sums of your budget every few years, you spend a fraction of that money in small increments over time. This presents better value, as growth-driven design means your website will stay relevant and productive.
It’s clear that traditional web design pales in comparison to growth-driven design. So, what are the best practices for redesigning your website with growth in mind?
A website should be continuously iterated and updated to best reflect the business and align with the needs and behaviors of the intended users.—HubSpot
Best practices of growth-driven design
When considering redesigning your website, it is imperative to consider your target audience. Who are your ideal customers? It’s likely that you have more than one “perfect” prospect, so use buyer personas to parse out the best fits for the product or service you provide.
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They incorporate demographics, income, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more specific details you add, the better insights you’ll gain into the wants and needs of your best-fit clients. And as you gain a better understanding you have of those wants and needs, you’ll be better equipped to address them with targeted content!
CTAs
Actionable CTAs are great for kickstarting new users into the sales funnel. Calls to Action offer free resources like an eBook in exchange for personal information. The goal is to provide CTAs for each step on the buyer’s journey. The three stages of the buyer’s journey are awareness, consideration, and decision. For each stage, users will be looking for different content. (Check out these tips on creating killer CTAs.)
Build your brand
Make your brand known immediately by displaying your logo on the home page and having a clean, easy-to-use navigation menu. Things like parallax scrolling and eye-catching links will allow your website to be inviting and accessible to users, who will trust you as an industry thought leader
Content is king
Each user that accesses your website likely falls into a buyer persona, and certainly each user is on his or her own stage of the buyer’s journey. Your website should be able to touch on users’ pain points at any given stage of their journey. Use the 4 pillars of the inbound methodology as a guide to creating content: attract, convert, close, and delight. Producing content that is tailored to any given pillar will be met with positive reception, and likely move a lead further down the sales funnel.
Video
Video marketing is the best way for you to promote your company and engage an audience. It’s an interactive tool that challenges people’s participation with your brand, and makes it easier to share your content with others. Check out this post for a crash course in successful video marketing.
Redesigning your website doesn’t have to be a daunting, stressful task. Growth-driven design is all about understanding your target audience, and developing an experience that is tailored to them. Your website is not static, it’s working for your business 24/7, 365 days a year. And with growth-driven design, your website undergoes a continuous design strategy due to the constant data you receive from your audience. Once you provide quality content to the right people via the right channels, you’ll start to see your website working smarter and harder to convert leads for you.
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