What is the Expected ROI of Your Website Re-design?

  

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If you're like most business executives that we speak to lately, you're frustrated with how much money has gone into your company website and...no return! Speaking with the president of a company based in the Toronto area recently, last year his company has spent $13,000 on a website re-design thinking that this would provide part of the expected revenue and business growth for the 2010 fiscal year which, in this case is Feb.1/2011. Their website is pretty cool and it's simple enough to navigate, seems like it should be a pretty good "site" to go to, and yet there is not $1 of business that he can attribute to the money spent on the re-design! Unfortunatley (and this is the case far too often in our view), most web design firms don't create a website that works as a business development tool, where you gain website traffic and generate internet leads. Plain and simple, it's not their business. What to do?

You've no doubt heard of other companies that are having great success on the internet, a lot of the frustration we hear about is because you become aware of your competition's success in this area. Why not your company? In the case of this company in Toronto there are many reasons but the two that surprised us most were:

1. No search engine optimization had been done- SEO is an important element in 'getting found' on the internet, no SEO and it's going to be far more difficult for your target audience to find you;
2. No offers, calls to action or landing pages- With the exception of a "Contact Us" page (typically one of the least visited pages of a website) there wasn't one single opportunity to engage a potential prospect and begin a relationship.

If you want to create a website and web presence that will generate more traffic and more leads, these are basic actions. That there was no attention to them at all is almost criminal given the project cost. Here are five questions we would encourage you to consider if you want to create a website that is a business asset, in other words, a website that generates business leads.

Five Questions to Ask as Part of a Website Re-design

1. Why is a re-design needed?
2. What do you want to accomplish from the effort?
3. If your re-design is to be part of your business growth for the coming year(s), how will it accomplish this and how will you evaluate the ROI of your spend?
4. Who is your target audience or marketing persona?
5. What is their issue and how is your website going to respond to it?

These are a few good questions to ask as you consider your options. One thing we ask...If your re-design firm isn't asking you these sorts of questions, do you really think they can deliver the business growth you want from your website?

We're at the edge of the future!

You might also find these posts interesting: Grow your Business with an Inbound Marketing Strategy Part 1 and Part 2

IME helps companies who are frustrated with the ROI of their internet expense, contact us today and let's discuss your needs!