Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog

We’ve just redesigned our website. Go ahead and take a look at inboundteam.com.

At the risk of losing my membership in the secret inbound marketing society, I’m going to expose the entire beautiful and sometimes ugly process.

When is it time for a redesign?

Clients frequently ask, “How do you know it’s time to redesign your website?”

Here’s the quick answer. If it’s over a year old, it’s time for a review.

Web trends and requirements change very quickly.

• Who knew a few years ago that over half your Internet traffic would now come from smartphones and you’d have to have a mobile-friendly responsive site?
• Who knew that longer scrolling pages would become the trend and that ideas like, “above the fold” would become obsolete?
• Who knew that websites would need to have much less text and much more compelling images?

Buyers that use smartphones have caused much of the required changes. If one thing's certain, it’s that technology will keep disrupting business!

Website Updates—How Often?

Another common question is, “How often should you change your site?”

The answer? Continuously.

Sorry if that sounds like too much work. It’s still the truth even if it is a lot of work.

If you want to get results from inbound marketing, you have to consistently improve your inbound marketing engine. Website content and design. Lead-generating landing pages. Keywords. Blog articles. Calls to Action. All of these age and have to be updated.

Website Improvement Process

Each page of your website should be a mini-salesperson. Don’t make the mistake of neglecting any high-traffic pages.

For each and every page, know why the page is there and what next step you want the visitor to take.

• Which persona are you writing for?
• How do you want to position your company?
• What’s the message/story?
• What do you want the visitor to do?

Step-by-Step Redesign Example

For the Inbound Team home page, here were our objectives:

• Which persona: CEO Charlie. Charlie is our ideal client. He’s the CEO of a growing company with at least $5M in revenue. Having predictable sales growth is a critical priority.
  
  
• Positioning: Too many inbound agencies look and feel the same. We are actually a little odd in that we have a lot of business creativity. Even though all inbound marketing agencies use similar tactics, it’s the way you combine all the tactics that matters—that’s where we shine.
  
  
• Message/Story: Many CEOs don’t fully see the magnitude of the threat (and opportunity) caused by digital disruption and a changed buying process. You can either get ahead of the competition now, at a critical moment, or fall behind.
  
  Our key messages are:
• Jump the Competition with an Inbound Marketing Engine
• Buyers Have Changed. Either adapt or lose out to your competitors.
  
  
• Desired Action: We want visitors to first be curious and intrigued with our company. If they are interested and want to learn more, they can:
• Download the CEO’s 2016 Guide to Marketing
• Get a free Lead Boost Review
• Click to learn about Inbound Marketing, Digital Strategy, or Inbound Sales

Why the Retro Images?

Our idea was that the retro images would accentuate how much the world has changed. And, they would be interesting and different.

I do think the images are interesting and different. Still, we’ve gotten some feedback that we may have gone too far and that the images are from too long ago. This could erode our position as thought leaders. What do you think?

We're thinking of changing out the images already. See what I mean about continuously updating your website?

What’s Next?

We had a bunch of great ideas we had to drop for now. Especially with inbound marketing, it’s better to get something done fast and make it better over time.

We have plans for some better images, for a blog preview on the home page, changing the navigation, and for further improving the design.

Even though we were primarily focused on the home page, we uncovered several weaknesses in other pages. Yet more items we need to work on and continuously improve.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of our new site. Really! Do it now.

Takeaways

• If your home page is more than one year old, it may need a makeover. At least be sure to give it a full review and identify any weaknesses.
• Have clear objectives for each and every page on your website.
• Always be looking for potential improvements and keep a list of improvement actions for each page.

If you’re thinking about what’s missing on your website, schedule a free Lead Boost Review. We’ll include a review of your home page.