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INBOUND MARKETING AND WEBSITE REDESIGN: 2 PEAS IN A POD

Biscuits and gravy. Cheech and Chong. Peanut butter and jelly, and the Olsen twins…In life, there are plenty of things that go fabulously together. However, one of these pairings can have a substantial impact on your business. The integration of an inbound marketing strategy into your next website redesign could mean a surge of fresh leads that convert to new business.

Lucy and Ethel, step aside.

Inbound marketing drives traffic to your website and boosts your ranking on search engines through quality content creation. It also helps form relationships with customers before the sales cycle begins, and establishes your business as an industry leader. Inbound content can include anything from how-to videos to blogs, whitepapers, ebooks, enewsletters, social media postings, and many other outlets.

These are all great things, and businesses that have an inbound plan in place reap the benefits. Here’s the catch: many, if not most websites are not designed with inbound marketing in mind. This is not such a great thing. By simultaneously integrating an inbound strategy with your next website redesign, you’ll have a smart solution. Doing so helps foster team alignment when designers, marketers, programmers, copy writers, and the mailman are all working toward the same goal. Rather than playing a frustrating game of catch up, a website that is designed with a focus on inbound will have everyone on the same page from the get-go. Not to mention a user-friendly tool that is equipped to collect data, begin the sales cycle, and nurture customer relationships.

There are many reasons you should consider implementing an inbound strategy alongside your website redesign. Here we will highlight just a few of them.

1. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, SEO, a whole lot of work…whatever you want to call it, a website redesign presents an ideal opportunity to assess your SEO strategy. Determine which pages might not be optimized, and work from there. Since your place in search rankings is determined by the way your website is written, coded, and updated, the time is right. A team working towards this goal should discuss keywords and develop a search engine strategy to help your redesigned site get found.

2. Content Creation

If you’ve ever written a business blog, you know there’s no better time than the present to begin your efforts. Blogging assists an SEO strategy because search engines reward fresh, relevant content that is updated frequently. Not only does each blog serve as a new opportunity to have Google rank your website, but other websites may begin to use you as a resource. You’ll also begin to promote thought leadership, and establish your business as the industry frontrunner. A solid inbound marketing strategy embraces content that sends customers straight to your business.

3. Social Sharing

Sharing is caring, right? We all know social sharing is another key component to being found online. Since you’ll want to promote new content via social media, a web redesign is a great time to integrate social sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube…whatever sites you frequent. Customers are more likely to do business with a company recommended to them by a friend or peer, and social shares boost your SEO efforts as well.

4. Feature Calls to Action

Any good inbound strategy begins with leads finding your website. What happens after they’ve found your site? You want them to act! Leave a clear path for your customers to take by designing with this goal in mind. Do you want leads to sign up for a case study? Your website should lead them in that exact direction. Clear calls to action should appeal to your target audience, and generate leads that come pre-educated. You can start by developing relevant offers for your most visited website pages. These offers can then be made into vibrant, attractive call to action “buttons” that direct leads into a specific sales campaign.

5. Collect Data

While a call to action should grab the visitor’s attention, you still need to turn leads into a sale. Ebooks, videos, and case studies are all items of value. That makes it easy to place a form in front of your juiciest content that requires a lead to submit some basic information to you – perhaps their name, email address, and place of business. That makes them a lead that you can communicate and nurture a relationship with. Putting contact forms on specifically designed landing pages should be a top priority for your inbound website redesign.

A website redesign is much more than another task to cross off your to-do list – it should be a central marketing project that integrates being found in search engines, converting visitors, and boosting sales. By creating a web design that caters to these goals, leads will find you, love what they see, and eventually become a valued customer.

Editors note: This blog was orignially published June 10th, 2013.