Websites are not like fine wines – they don’t age gracefully. If your website is more than a few years old and you haven’t had it updated, the likelihood is it will look tired and out-of-date at best and lacking in functionality at worst. Older websites often need a complete redesign rather than tweaking around the edges, and this can be a considerable investment.
If you want to improve your online presence and get an edge on your competitors an updated website will help, but a better designed website by itself is not a marketing strategy and is not necessarily going to change your marketing results significantly.
So is website redesign the best place to invest your marketing budget, or will you get better returns by working with a Marketing Company? Let’s take a look:
Why Website Design Matters
For most industries the business website is still the main hub of online activity. It’s the first port of call for customers looking for more information about your services and products, and the source of most online leads.
Your website design is important because of the experience it offers prospective leads.
- How easy is it for someone to find information on your website?
- Is the page layout intuitive and easy to navigate?
- Is the website attractive and well-designed?
- Do all the images and videos load quickly?
- Is it easy for customers to get in touch?
- Does your website display properly on all screen sizes?
If the answer is no (or maybe!) to any of these questions, your website is definitely sub-optimal. It is also possible that you have a high bounce rate. Visitors ‘bounce’ when they arrive on your website – e.g. through a Google search or Facebook ad – but quickly click off.
A poorly designed or badly coded website can hit your search results too, so redesigning your website may help improve your Google rank and bring you more traffic.
What Could These Changes Be Worth To You?
Let’s say your website redesign improves traffic flow by 20% each month, and also cuts your bounce rate by 50%. This could increase the number of inbound leads coming from your website, but the quality of these leads, and whether or not they convert into paying customers, depends on other factors.
So yes, your website design is very important, but on its own won’t bring you many more customers. You may find your new site is slow to deliver a positive ROI. Why? Because modern digital marketing is about more than looking good online.
Better Returns From Your Marketing Budget
If you are serious about increasing targeted leads from your website and ensuring your marketing spend delivers real value, you should book an inbound marketing audit.
This will benchmark where you currently stand compared to your competitors and give you actionable areas for improvement. For instance, an audit will show you:
- Where your website visitors come from (e.g. social media links, blog posts, paid adverts, organic searches)
- Who has been visiting your website and where they’re located – including visitors who keep coming back to your site
- What content is attracting the most leads
- Which pages have the highest bounce rate
This information is important because it gives you key insights into your customers’ behaviour, including how they make purchase decisions. If you know who your customers are, how they invest and why, you can tailor your content, advertising and sales process to match this behaviour.
Intelligent Marketing
Modern marketing is not about the scattergun approach – flooding the Internet with paid adverts/emails and hoping at least a few bring results. Nor is it about ‘pushing sales’ – hassling customers into buying from you regardless of their genuine needs.
Rather, to grow your business online you need to cultivate your website, blog and social media accounts as an authoritative source of information for your industry. By responding to your customers’ needs and behaviours you build a reputation for authority in your field. People will trust you and turn to your products and services to solve their problems.
This approach requires some research, data analysis and careful consideration of your core messages, but when it is reflected in your online content and marketing strategy, the result is not only more leads, but better quality leads. Leads recruited in this way are more willing to convert and are more likely to stick with your company, spending more money on progressive orders.
Why Work With A Marketing Company?
A specialist inbound marketing company can help you achieve this in a way that a straight website designer cannot. You could do this yourself, of course, but it is far more cost-effective to invest in a marketing company that already has the infrastructure, experts and skills in place to deliver value for your business from day one.
A marketing specialist may recommend a website overhaul as part of a tailored package, or maybe a series of landing pages to extend your website, but the goal will be to increase returns from your online activity and automate more of your marketing - not just to make your website look good. When working with an advanced platform such as HubSpot, a redesign can be carried out as part of an overall marketing strategy, instead of as a separate investment.
As we have seen, a new website does not guarantee results on its own. With a marketing company, the redesign (if considered necessary after your audit) is part of an integrated investment that reduces your overall level of spend and delivers a greater long-term ROI.
Find Out More
To find out more, we strongly recommend a free marketing audit and review by one of our experts, followed by a 20 minute call to let you know where you stand and what your next steps should be. Click here to get the ball rolling.
