Your website is not as important as you think (Updated June 2021)
(This originally appeared in my newsletter. Sign up now to get content like this, for free, every two weeks.)
UPDATE JUNE 2021: I did a 14 minute video breaking down each of these three points, and giving some tips as to what you can do instead. Take a look - or if you’d rather read, just keep scrolling.
I feel like 90% of the people I talk to are in one of three stages: they either just redid their website, they're in the middle of re-doing their website, or they're about to re-do their website.
And I get it. Your website is important! It's one of the main tools you have to convince people to buy what you're selling.
But it's not the only tool you have. There are lots of other tools at your disposal, but marketing teams spend a disproportionate amount of time, energy tinkering with or redoing their website.
They do this because websites are so visible. Unlike other marketing channels, anyone can look at your website and develop an opinion on it. Any sales manager. Any executive. Any customer. Any partner. Anyone.
And when a marketing team has all these people in its ear day in, day out, that team can slowly evolve from a marketing team to a Constant Website Refresh team - which is not the highest value use of its time.
Here's why:
A website is just one part of the customer journey
There are heaps of people out in the universe who have never heard of you, and never been to your website. And there are heaps of people whose details you have, who can be nurtured into buying.
Both of these groups are vitally important to your revenue. And your website is not relevant to either of them.
Once someone goes to your website and gives you their details, they're probably not going to go there again until they're ready to buy.
In the meantime, you need to get other content in front of them, like nurturing emails, retargeting ads and phone calls from salespeople.
And there are also heaps of people who haven't been to your website because they've never heard of you in the first place!
For these people, there are all kinds of other things you can be doing to make them aware of you. Things like partnerships, referral programmes and digital marketing.
The time and money you spend updating your website again is time and money you don't spend on these other, vital parts of your customer journey.
Your audience isn't on your website
Your audience is out there living their lives. They don't have any real reason to come to your website on a day to day basis. They're reading emails, reading the news, looking at Linkedin, searching stuff on google.
So while your website is great, you should also be putting resources into content that gets in front of people where they are right now.
And you might be doing that! But time is a zero sum proposition. The time you're spending re-doing your website is time you're not spending creating content for the channels people spend most of their time in.
Lots of website redesigns aren't really worth it
This is something I see a lot. An organisation unveils a new website, with a way better design. It's more intuitive, it has better information architecture - it has all the bells and whistles.
But the copy is exactly the same as it was before. Or it might be slightly tweaked, but with the same fundamental message and positioning.
In these circumstances, nothing has really changed. The website's visitors are getting the same information they were before. They may be getting it a bit more effectively, but it is still the same.
If you're just changing the way your information is presented, you're tacitly saying that your messaging, positioning and copywriting are all perfect just as they are. They're highlighting the right benefits, they're talking to the right customers, they're using the right language.
Seems unlikely to me.
But while it seems unlikely, companies do this all the time. They overhaul the rest of the website, but only tweak the copy. But the copy is what persuades your audience to buy your product! It's a really important piece of the puzzle!
So again - if you're redesigning your website, and you're not taking a hard look at the words that will go on that website, you're probably spending valuable resources that could be better-used elsewhere.
(I wrote about this in more detail a few months ago).
Wrap it up
After all this, I want you to bear one thing in mind: your website is very important. None of this is to dismiss it as a vanity project. It is a crucial part of your marketing material, and it is in your interests to get it right.
But while it is important, be careful not to convince yourself that it's more important than it actually is. It's an important part of your marketing mix, but it is still just that: a part. And every minute you spend working on it is a minute you could have spent working on something else.
So if you really do have a strong business case for re-doing your website, then by all means, go for it! But make sure you've ruled out other, faster ways to increase your revenue. I bet that if you look hard enough, you can find some much quicker wins elsewhere in your customer journey.
Think it over.
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