There’s rarely a phase 2: stuff that can save you money during a website redesign.
You’ve got to the point where it’s time to redesign your website (again). It may feel like you’re doing this a lot lately, but it’s something that’s pretty common in startups. It’s symptomatic of learning more about your customer base and the market.
Early-stage startups aren’t known for having loads of cash, which means a website redesign project will usually involve several rounds of pricing negotiations with your agency.
So, what can you cut to fit in with your budget whilst not taking the p£$%?
Having been involved in website redesign projects for startups, I have found myself in the following situations:
A budget has been agreed before a brief has been set.
A lot of your time is spent managing the relationship between what the agency is delivering versus what the boss wants.
Money’s running out, so important features are pushed to the next phase of the website redesign. Spoiler alert: there’s rarely a second phase.
You overrun on the timescales because you keep learning new things about your customer, and want to make sure it’s represented.
What this inevitably means is the cost of redesign becomes a lot more expensive than first thought.
So based on this, I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned that you can do yourself to help reduce the costs and keep a nice relationship with your designer.
1. Have customer insights that actually tell you something about the motivation to buy from you.
And have this before you go to a meeting with your design agency.
This isn’t a lesson in customer personas. You know the type:
Alan is in his 50s and loves cycling, walking his dogs and listening to podcasts.
Sharon is a graduate in business management, has a gym membership; she holidays in Europe, downloads meditation apps, and is learning to speak Welsh.
Zzzzzzzzzzz. Boring.
How is this thinking going to give you the tools to understand what copy goes on your site, or what motivates Alan to buy?
Does it tell you if Sharon would be happy with your pricing model? And, is this guess work *actually* representative of your customer base?
You want to dig deeper; you need to think about the context of how they buy.
For example, let’s say you operate a b2b sales model, selling to businesses rather than individuals.
Maybe Sharon’s up for a promotion and if she can streamline this part of her work by using your product, you’re going to help her to get one step closer to that step up the career. But Sharon’s not the only person involved in the process. You may need to help her win over Alex in procurement.
These learnings will start to give you signals that will help form what’s important to this customer's journey when they hit your site. [What credibility statements you’ll need, whether subscription pricing model is the right option and matches how your customer buys etc etc].
Why this is important. You know your business and your customer far better than anyone, better than any designer or consultant.
Here’s how to get started with customer research interviews:
Set up customer interviews; aim for between 10-15 at a minimum.
Face to face or video call is always best; body language can tell you a lot.
Record everything.
When inviting them, in the email include the questions you’ll ask them.
Don’t shy away because you think it’ll make you look smaller/inexperienced.
This is important work, and your customers genuinely will help you if they can.
Set up interviews with your current customers to learn:
> If they weren’t using you, who would they be using?
> What challenge are you helping them to solve?
> How do they describe your brand to others?
Set up an interview with people who decided not to go with you:
> What was the main thing stopping you from buying from us today?
> What challenge did you have and thought we’d be able to help you with?
Looking for more info on the actual questions you should ask? Check out: The Mom Test it’ll show you how to structure the questions when everyone’s lying to you, and it’s super short-reading.
2. Are you looking to do your own copywriting to save some money? Use your customers’ words to craft the messages.
This is something a lot of startups do. They think the copy part is ‘easier’ than the design and development process, so they’ll just do it themselves.
There’s a lot wrong with this. Copywriting is a skill set in its own right. In fact, the copy on your website is more important than design. It’s what gets people to act. It’s a sales tool.
But if you are going to do it, here are a few things that will help you in the long run.
Tone.
You may want to change your voice to appear as conversational, bold, authoritative etc. If you’re owning the copywriting, use a tone that’s natural to you. It’s hard work being someone you’re not and that goes with copy. Oh, and hugely important is to make sure that the tone is something that your customer wants as well.
We We We.
On a website you’ve got a few seconds to grab someone’s attention. If your user is faced with a wall of copy where every other sentence starts with the word ‘We’ you are not speaking to them in the right way. Switch your We for You.
Stuck for words on your landing pages?
You know that customer research activity I suggested above? You’ll start to see trends coming through. Use the language your customer has used to really get your copy specific.
3. Ask for sales and marketing literature in a format YOU can change.
I know I may be pointing out the obvious BUT...
I mention this because there’s going to be a temptation for your boss to use your old marketing hand out ‘cos it’s easier and quicker. They’ll know they are not meant to use the old stuff, but they’re entrepreneurs and used to working at 100 miles an hour.
This can have a bad impact: multiple brand identities and mixed positioning is going to send mixed messages to potential customers, and can impact your credibility.
Part of your website redesign process will require you to change your sales and marketing literature. You know, presentations for clients, one pagers, slide decks etc.
You’ll know that this period will require a lot of changes as you get comfortable with the brand, its guidelines and application. It can get expensive if you can’t make the changes yourself.
Ask for your sales and marketing literature in a format you can use. Then ask for:
> basic templates in various colours
> a collection of images and icons
> a collation of pictures cropped to match your branding
If you’re not comfortable with design software, ask for it in PowerPoint as this will allow you to play around with things and save as a PDF.
I’m not saying don’t use a designer, they are far better in this! But at least at the start, when you are still finishing the messaging and you’re still in the chaotic phase, this will be something that saves you cash, speeds things up, and saves your sanity.
(Kinda).
