Which Comes First: The Chicken (Website Redesign) or the Egg (Inbound Marketing)?
by Josette MIllar
Yup – it’s an age-old question applied to a new technology and marketing approach. And like with the chicken and the egg analogy – the answer might even be obvious – how can you have one, without the other?
Now that inbound marketing has proved its worth, most smart business owners are taking on the re-design so that their inbound marketing strategies will be delivered with smooth, sales-increasing effectiveness.
There are two primary marketing initiatives:
1) Adopting more inbound strategies
2) Planning a website redesign to support these strategies.
The big question most people face – which to do first?
Logic lends itself to the website redesign first and then implementing inbound after it is completed. There are also designers and market strategists recommending strongly that redesign comes after nailing your inbound marketing strategy. This approach lends itself to learning from the metrics and data then developing your site accordingly.
Each approach, in truth, carries its own missed opportunities. A simultaneous roll-out of both website redesign and implementation of inbound marketing strategies offers unique advantages.
Identifying The Advantages
The significant assets built through inbound – such as building business blogs, utilization of calls-to-action, or effective landing pages – are actually components for development that need to be aligned within your redesign.
When inbound marketing strategies are the goal – website redesign requires comprehension of the overarching strategy. Rather than generating a need for collective meetings and calls with designers, coders and webmasters after-the-fact – it is easier to be on the same page at the same time as the process unfolds.
Redesigns and Inbound Strategy: User Experiences and Eggs Hatching
The symbiotic relationship between website redesign and inbound marketing strategies – really is like that old adage of which came first – the chicken or the egg. A sparkly-new website redesign makes inbound marketing look good and in return, inbound marketing helps a website become a highly functional, lead-generation monster.
The fat red hen sits on her nest ’till all the eggs hatch – does it even matter which came first? To fully understand how these approaches are mutually beneficial simply look at the many ways each process mutually assists the other.
a) Website Structure
Without incorporating critical inbound marketing assets within your website redesign – major ingredients will be missed. How you integrate vital elements of inbound marketing into the site-structure is essential within the first iteration of the new site.
You save money and time, prevent the waste of resources, cut down on the numbers of iterations; all of which optimizes your opportunities for success at core-levels upon launching.
b) Content Alignments
Content creation is obviously a cornerstone. Every company’s inbound marketing shift should start with a business blog. The search engines will take time to index new website pages. The sooner that pieces of content are posted, the less likely it is that you’ll be starting from scratch in page-ranking after the website redesign is finished.
Your website redesign delivers opportunities for keyword rich, topic-focused inbound strategies. Old copy is re-purposed and outfitted with new keywords. Topics can be researched and integrated, new pages can be created to support premium keywords.
The redesign is the blank slate – inbound marketing is the chisel. The redesign is the hen, fluffing herself over her eggs. The inbound strategy represents the eggs – hatching as they become ready.
c) User Experiences
The most effective are those who define customer buying habits, develop accurate buyer persona’s, and adapt the website’s user experiences to best-suit all variables. This takes research, planning, and careful consideration.
Not everyone will be ready to buy once on your website’s homepage. Tailoring your content in key areas is critical to generating high visitor-to-lead conversion rates.