What is the value of good custom website design? Sure, its key to frame the brand and present a compelling message/offer, but in my mind, good design blends that into a clear path to conversion.
For different businesses and sectors, the “conversion” varies and for most, there are multiple conversions to be tracked – a sale, lead generation, engagement, recruiting form, whitepaper download, etc. It takes thoughtful design to entice visitors and draw them into the path to conversion.
We recently worked collaboratively with Coldwell Banker Hickok & Boardman Realty to redesign their site. Long before we got started, they had done their homework and had been tracking a range of conversion goals in Google Analytics for years. Their numbers were fairly flat though, and while investing more into online marketing did succeed in increasing conversions, they knew that investing back into the website to increase conversion rates there would provide their best return on investment.
The design itself frames those priorities, and places the brand in the context of the regional geography. In this process, together we carefully studied both the traffic patterns of the current site to recognize the information users wanted, and aligned that with the information that the client wanted to present. I’ve agreed not to delve into the details of each conversion point, but you can see quite clearly from the homepage, what our priorities were.
The numbers dramatically show the success of this redesign. Over the same period the year before, we instantly saw a significant jump up about 15% to an envious conversion rate of 51%.
What also ensured a win for this project was the collaborative spirit we shared in this project. Their team was heavily engaged and well tuned into their site’s metrics and the goals of each segment of their target audience. As much as I think design skill is important, I also believe that the cultural fit with two organizations is key to a successful partnership such as this. I think the success of this project reflects that.
