Why Website Development Projects Fail
Learn how to develop a website that drives sustainable, double-digit growth instead of a sharply designed digital brochure
A new website is an exciting step for any business, whether it’s a build-from-scratch project or more of a renovation.
Why then are so many marketing leaders and business owners unhappy with their website? Why do so many well-meaning website developers and marketing agencies go wrong?
Based on our experience, which includes creating our first web page in 1995, most website projects fail because they are done backwards: they start as creative endeavors instead of being a strategic demand generation engine and end up serving as a digital brochure that doesn’t increase demand or generate leads.
A website, and especially its home page, represents the digital nexus of your communications and public presence, bringing your message to your target audience and generating leads. But websites don’t succeed on their looks, no matter how nicely the design incorporates your logo and your color scheme. We’ve seen many poorly designed websites successfully generate leads and ecommerce sales because they resonated with prospects. Have you ever seen the Berkshire Hathaway’s website?
To drive sustainable, double-digit growth, your website must articulate your value and ability to solve problems. Design then becomes the finishing touch.
The Right Website Starts with Answering the Right Questions
What does the right B2B website look like? Unfortunately for many B2B companies who commission flashy new websites for $20,000 to $30,000 (or more), it’s a question few art directors and web designers can answer.
Too many website projects are created by designers without a deep understanding of their own clients who then substitute flash for substance, leaving business owners and marketing leaders initially dazzled, but soon wondering when the leads will start rolling in.
A B2B website can’t be effective if it’s designed by people who don’t take the time or have an effective process for understanding your business, the value you offer to your served markets, and how you solve their problems – these are brand story essentials. An effective B2B website is a strategic marketing project well before any art director or designer gets involved.
B2B Websites that Go to Work
Your website has a lot of heavy lifting to do as your company’s first or second impression, conveyance of your thought leadership, and your 24/7 sales rep. Design is only one small part of the picture.
At Innovaxis, we love a sharply designed website as much as anyone. But our efforts begin with an audit of your current website and marketing efforts to determine how well they’re doing the real work of driving leads and sales.
We want to know what’s working and what isn’t. Then we begin unearthing the story behind your business. It’s a brand story centered around the customers you serve. Who are they? What are the problems that keep them up at night? How do your solutions help them move forward? What do they need to know about how you work? How can they trust you to do what you promise?
Effective B2B websites are built around these themes. They must be well-articulated and reinforced throughout the website, beginning with a home page that communicates your key solutions and differentiators through the lens of your prospects’ needs.
A great website is also never finished. It includes an ongoing content strategy to continually refine, reinforce and recalibrate the messaging. That’s a function of evolving your brand story and compelling mid/bottom funnel content in the form of blogs, case studies, guides, landing pages and more – all optimized for search.
It’s a lot, we know. But anything less is just a digital brochure.
Do You Want a Website or Sustained, Double-Digit Growth?
Put our decades of marketing strategy, copywriting, and website development to work for you. Surfacing your true brand story and implementing it on your home page will help you resonate more powerfully with prospects and will look like a whole new website without having to pay $30,000 just for a new web design.
Contact us today to learn more about our B2B marketing strategy, agency services, and technology solutions.
