Wake Up to the New Way to Build a Peak Performing Website with Growth-Driven Design
What’s the worst thing about having to install a software update—the restart, right? As if the death of all your 128 open tabs wasn’t bad enough, you have to wait until your device turns back on! We have become so accustomed to putting our devices to sleep—be it mobile phones or computers—that we no longer have the patience to wait for a reboot.
Website redesign is no different from that update notification you keep avoiding for as long as possible. With even more advanced marketing tactics such as video and chatbots being implemented, it’s no longer viable to have an outdated website.
How does a 6-month-long website redesign project sound to you? It means putting everything on hold for the completion of a website that may or may not be profitable based on user response after the launch. The instantaneousness of the internet makes five minutes feel like five hours.
More than the money, the peripheral spend includes the time you are wasting. There’s finally a strategy that distributes the cost over time while simultaneously decreasing the wait time for launch: it’s called growth-driven design (GDD). So, why isn’t everyone in the B2B manufacturing industry already switching out the traditional website redesign process with GDD?
We approached Luke Summerfield, who conceptualized growth-driven design at HubSpot with the same question. Here’s what he had to say.
In interacting with other agencies/clients in the B2B manufacturing space, what are some common reservations you’ve come across when it comes to implementing GDD?
Luke: Reservations to implement GDD are mainly born out of a particular mindset. Most manufacturers still have the traditional mindset where they want a website that’s a digital version of a brochure as opposed to one that’s a living, breathing thing. What really needs to shift here is the focus—the website needs to be built as an extension of their business, with a better understanding of how the modern buyer purchases—the end focus being on accommodating the buyer.
Every company’s website is its number one marketing asset and it cannot be a “set it and forget it” brochure website. So, I think that whether you’re talking inbound marketing or GDD, or both, the website plays a huge part in growing the business. One of the stumbling blocks is if they haven’t realized how a website’s role has drastically transformed in the past 10 years, with it now occupying center stage, they will continue to have reservations, not only for GDD, but also for inbound marketing.
What push back do you encounter the most regarding GDD?
Luke: One push back is that, overall, it ends up being more expensive; mainly because the scope of the project requires more work. With traditional web design, you pay a lot of money ($50K) up front, and you don’t have to pay any more money until another two years, when you again have to come up with another big chunk of change. Compare that to GDD: you may spend $20K up front, and thereafter, $3K or $4K every month. At the end of the year, GDD does end up costing more money, but you also get more value out of it. Your website is continuously improving, you’re going to get better results, and at the same time, you will avoid all the risks involved with traditional web design.
Another pushback I hear regards the launchpad website, because what most people think is that it’s a half-built website. But as we know, a launchpad website is just a website that looks better and performs better, but is not the end all be all, because it isn’t the “finished” product. There’s a misconception there that you’re going to cut all the pages out and the final product will be half built website.
Right now, growth-driven design is in its early adoption days, exactly where inbound marketing used to be 10 years ago. As a Boston-based industrial manufacturing marketing agency that builds and redesigns website, our advice—and we know Luke will agree: stop hitting the snooze button on your B2B website update. It’s a new day, a new way to do business, and your prospects and customers expect you to keep up with the times. If your website is not up-to-date and focused on their needs, they’ll find a company that’s paying attention. Your way to get there is through growth-driven design. It’s faster, more profitable, and doesn’t involve a huge one-time cost.
Read more about GDD and how it can help you build peak performing websites in our Intro to Growth-Driven Design eBook. It underlines the shift—along with the processes—your company needs to make so you can boost website performance.
