Website redesign is a multi-faceted process that requires more than strong graphic design and compelling copywriting.
At Shamrock, designing and rebranding websites for our clients is among our everyday charges. When we recently carved out the time to update our own site, we followed the same discovery process and framework that we use with our customers. It’s one that’s worth sharing:
Involve your team.
No one knows your brand better than you do—so use your resources, involving and engaging your employees in the process. Our effort was led by representatives from our creative department; we then assembled an internal website team with representatives from each of our business areas/departments to give us the best “vision” about all aspects of our operations, from multiple vantage points.
Provide insight.
Our project leaders researched and gathered website best practices (with examples) and presented them to the web team to help them gain a greater understanding about current industry trends, functionalities, etc. When you have a multi-disciplinary team like ours, education is essential: it quickly gets everyone up to speed. With that foundation established, you can move forward together.
Gather input.
Before you start to build your website framework, listen first. We developed and distributed an internal survey to our sales reps in an effort to understand the customer demographics and buying habits of their top accounts. This provided a shared understanding of our users us as we created our personas.
Create buyer personas.
Before writing content or gathering visuals, start at the beginning. Who are your customers? What are their pain points? Which of your business segments or products do they use? How do you solve their problems?
Identify your sales funnel.
Like Shamrock, many organizations have multiple customers. Your website needs to speak to each of these buyers, at every stage of their journey. Consider that some buyers will arrive at your site based on a Google search, while others will be directly linked to your website from a landing page or email. Be sure that your messaging is specific to/addresses the user at each of these stages.
Identify functionalities.
Will your website have an e-commerce functionality? Do you want users to locate and download product spec sheets? Is a blog part of your site? Do you want to incorporate dynamic images?
Establish lead generation outcomes.
Your website should be used to gather important customer/user data. You’ll want to track qualified leads versus total general leads by setting parameters/specifications.
Establish overall digital strategy.
Your website is integral part of your digital brand strategy so it’s important that users move seamlessly across all channels. Know your channels, develop a content strategy and calendar to help manage the abundance of content and then continually monitor results.
By following these guidelines, we redesigned the Shamrock website, which is streamlined, dynamic and updated weekly with new content. If you’re interested in talking about refreshing your website, connect with me at emoriarty@shamrockcompanies.net.
