Web Design

Are You Relevant?

It doesn’t matter if you’re doing business online or in person, an irrelevant business is one with a looming expiration date. Here’s a quick quiz to give yourself to see if it might be time to update your branding, or at least re-introduce the conversation:

— Question 1: Have you updated your website, overall branding, or marketing techniques within the last two years?

The first question is simple. If the answer is not a yes, it’s 100% time to pick this conversation back up again and take a fresh look at everything. Failing to do so, or, what is more commonly the case, putting it off until later, creates stagnant results and a decline in traffic, sales, recognition, and the list goes on. It’s no secret to anyone that marketplaces and trends move quickly and without regard to anyone’s tenacity. Chances are, that if you haven’t revisited these topics recently, even within the last few months, the trends are already leaving you behind. If you answered yes, on the other hand, congratulations! Let’s continue.

— Question 2: Have your analytics shown a decrease in traffic, or a slump in sales within the last 6 months?

While there are many reasons for a decrease in traffic, or a slump in sales, a big contributor to these two results could be a lack of relevance. Relevant brands stay on top of their industries by engaging with their audience, and giving them reasons to come back. Think of brands like Nike, Apple, and Amazon. Although these brands are in three very different industries, they’re considered the best in the world because they create customers and keep those customers coming back for more, month after month. If your customers aren’t coming in, or returning consistently, it might be a good time to find out why. Once you do that, a solution isn’t far behind, and a solution means better results for you and your organization.

— Question 3: Do you see a lack of traction, or low performance, in your marketing efforts?

Whether it’s printed ads in newspapers, flyers or magazines, audible ads over the radio or another audio streaming service, or a digital ad run through google, facebook or instagram, the audience you’re marketing to should be engaged with you and the content you post. If that’s not the case, you may need to revisit the conversation of relevance. If your customer base isn’t excited to receive new content from you, then it stands to reason that they’re not going to be excited to buy whatever it is that you’re offering either. And once that happens, you can say goodbye to your pipeline, your revenue and eventually your business.

Need help making sure you’re staying relevant?

What’s the Solution?

The exact solutions will vary between organizations, but the overall goal for everyone should be the same - to be visually attractive, informative and convenient. We like to start with what people see first, your website. The impression your website gives potential customers can make or break their decision to buy from you. When did you last give your website a facelift?

Timing isn’t everything, but so much happens in a two year period that it’s hard to believe that you didn’t experience changes that justify an update. Entrepreneur magazine said it this way: “A variety of factors can make a redesign worth considering, but here are several that almost always require an update. You’ve got new branding and color standards, and you need to make sure your new look extends to your website. Your bounce rates are extremely high, meaning people visit but few convert. Or your business has grown, and plans call for new products and services; your site’s design may need to reflect that change.”

One a little more obvious is if your customers, employees or colleagues complain about your site’s appearance, its functionality or a visitor’s ability to easily navigate themselves through it.

NOt sure?

Maybe you like the way your site looks, and you haven’t received any complaints about its functionality. That’s great! We still want to make sure it’s the best that it can be. To do this, we have set up a website testing platform where our pro team of testers will go through your entire site, record their movements and even talk throughout their experience. This way you have detailed notes of real people’s real experience on your site within 24 hours. With more detailed information you can make a well-informed decision to change what our testers find trouble with, or not. It’s completely up to you!

Want your site tested?

Now What?

Once your website is up to date, and matches your organizations current position, we like to focus on marketing. Knowing what to say, how to say it, and when to say it is what marketing is all about. We have a proven process we work through with all of our marketing clients that helps them become proficient in each of the three realms of marketing - physical, digital and relational.

Because this process is more in depth, and requires more conversation, we like to go through a 90 day partnership with all of our marketing clients. During this process we look at every part of your marketing technique and help optimize them to get the best results possible. It starts with relevant marketing concepts for your industry, then goes into steps for implementation, and finally covers how to keep customers coming back consistently.

What are you waiting for?