Roaming through Forbes’ list of the world’s best corporate websites can make great website redesign seem like a lifetime away. These corporate Goliaths have design budgets big enough to choke an entrepreneur. Even so, you may be surprised to find that things are not always quite as expensive as they seem. These days, you can buy a redesign that’s suave, beautiful, and functional enough to compete with the likes of Apple and Nestle. Allot your pennies strategically enough, and you’ll finally learn to get along with Google Hummingbird, too.
Don’t Sell Products: Sell Dreams
People only buy things that they think are more valuable than their price tags. How do you add value to products and services? By selling dreams, of course. A great website redesign convinces people that they’re not buying an object, but a way of life. Simon Sinek outlines how this is communicated through three questions:
- Purpose (why?): What’s your corporate culture? What do you value? What is your cause?
- Process (How?): What actions do customers need to take to get that value, culture, and way of life?
- Result (What?): What does your company do?
Don’t Sell Features: Sell Benefits
Let’s say you’ve developed a computer that’s spectacular enough to compete with Apple Mac and PC. If your computer’s only focus is it’s over-the-top graphics, you’re giving them abstract data that’s as boring as Sunday dinner with Uncle Bob. Make the effort to explain what those graphics can do for them, however, and you’ll win sales. This simple concept should not cost you your entire marketing budget. With a simple change of perspective, frugal entrepreneurs can gain a great website redesign that will generate real return on investment.
You Get What You Don’t Pay For
If you think using shoddy images from ancient stock photo sites is still acceptable, think again. The humble stock photograph is virtually extinct. It’s been replaced with high-gloss imagery that looks as appealing on your website as it would in the pages of Vogue magazine. Businesses like Death to Stock and Unsplash give away some truly stellar images without asking for so much as an email address, let alone your dollars. With access to that level of quality, even the most prudent business owner can harness a great website redesign without breaking out in hives.
Forget Evergreen: Be Newsworthy
Content is king, but outdated text makes visitors think your business is out for an inordinately long lunch break. Evergreen content may be cheaper in the short term, but its low return on investment bites you in the end. Readers engage more with newsworthy writing, offering far more loyalty and plenty of their hard-earned cash.
Newsworthy content:
- Is informative, giving clients value even if they never click your ‘buy’ button.
- Offers higher profits
- Is noticed by social media. Readers naturally share timely content on Facebook and Twitter, and who doesn’t need free advertising?
- Generates more interest. People’s interest lies in the here and now, and they want to be told things they didn’t already know. That’s far easier to achieve with newsworthy text.
Use Logic: Not Creativity
Sure, you want a beautiful site, and you should have one- but at the end of the day, all marketing decisions should be backed up with data. A great website redesign should be built around evidence. In days of yore, you had to crunch those numbers with an Excel spreadsheet and a calculator. Today, inbound marketing automation does it for you at an absurdly low price.
Forget the Marketing Funnel: Adopt the Five Second Rule
With the funds, anyone can buy themselves room in Google’s front row seats. Pay-Per-Click advertising and bought traffic are a lazy marketer’s boon. This type of marketing is typically used to move buyers through multiple touch points on their buying journey, but all that fussy strategizing is worthless if 55% of your visitors click out of your site in under 15 seconds. A one-second delay in loading time can be fatal to your sale. You have only five seconds to communicate your core message.
As much as readers love bells and whistles, they care about their time more. There’s always a faster, better-built site in the queue, so why bother with a shoddy video-based site that takes 30 seconds to load?
This is where the good news comes in: it doesn’t cost that much to create a sufficiently functional website that loads in a flash. It’s the slow sites that are expensive because you’re paying for unnecessary digital accessories. A great site redesign is within reach of business owners with even the skinniest bank accounts.
And so it can be seen, it is important to explain the value of the products you’re selling- people want to educate themselves before making a purchase. Only invest enough into graphics and images to keep your website looking appealing and updated- don’t be the company who appears to be permanently out-to-lunch. After all, you don’t have to be a big corporation to expect big things for your website, demand a website redesign based on results.
