Is Your Website Holding You Back

Let’s talk about websites. You have one. It’s performing okay, but your organization has evolved since it first launched—you’ve added new programs and services that don’t seem to fit within your architecture, you want to grow your digital audience and convert them to active members of your base, and your brand is feeling a bit ho-hum. Let’s not forget that now that everything is really online (thanks, pandemic), you are seriously reliant on it. It’s a lot to digest and seems like a daunting haul, particularly when budgets are strapped. You’re wondering where to invest and what’s the ROI? We get it—and we can help.

The first step to achieving clarity is knowing where to start. Here are some steps you can take right now.

Evaluate Where You Stand

1. List the programs or goals that have changed since your site launched.

2. Outline the major pain points with the website—what are its limitations, who isn’t it speaking to?

3. What can you spend in a year on marketing and how are you currently planning to spend it? Make sure all stakeholders are aligned on these three points and, finally;

4. Map out some user journeys—where do people who visit your website begin, before they encounter your website, and how do they end on your goals.

The next step is to find a dedicated, long-term partner to sit down with you and examine these crucial points and weigh them against not just the website, but also your year-long marketing plan. The reality is that one fix isn’t the solution. Is a rebrand or new site necessary or even possible? It depends, and we can help determine this. But if the answer is no, then there’s a more finite solution, but it requires stepping back, analyzing, and strategically distributing your efforts. We can help with this as well. When interim solutions are necessary, you still need to carefully calculate how to proceed, so that each step forward can be built upon and improved. Otherwise, small goals can quickly become costly setbacks.

Does this sound like your current standing? If so, reach out and we’ll help you through it.

Is Your Brand Standing on Shaky Legs?

Likely you’re facing two challenges in this new reality—if not now, you will soon:

1: You need to let people know what you do—and serve them—in a very different way than you did before the pandemic.

2: You and your team pivoted and evolved in a matter of weeks, and you want your stakeholders to know about it so that they can continue to support and engage in a sound model.

While you’re focusing on programming or day-to-day business, someone needs to be thinking about your messaging and look and feel in order to maximize what people notice, digest, and engage in. This can seem like a lot at the moment, but the end result will mean coherent communication from team members—many of whom are working remotely for the first time—improved stakeholder engagement, and a clear path for your team to walk as changes unfold so that you can evolve in a smart and deliberate manner. 

A Recovery Roadmap

Branding: A good sign that your brand needs professional attention is that it speaks more to your internal team than the audience you are trying to reach. If team members spend a lot of energy coming up with names for programs or initiatives you run—in the hopes that this brings clarity or grabs attention—it's a sign that you have a problem.

Branding is multifaceted and each element builds on the next. If there’s a weak spot in a tagline or a program description, your team spends their time attempting to clarify your positioning while your audience remains uncertain of what you do or what you're trying to achieve.

Website: If your website can’t communicate clearly and quickly what your organization does, then you need to refresh. The answer isn’t one image at the top, one banner, or a single page, it’s ensuring brand clarity on each and every page. This starts with an involved exercise (don’t worry, this is intense for us, a sigh of relief for you) in site organization that can be applied to the next key piece of collateral—the newsletter.

Newsletter: The average person can receive over 100 newsletters a day, yet newsletters continue to be the most effective way to reach an audience, gaining more attention than social media. If your newsletter isn’t concise, clear, and organized, then it’s not likely to inspire action. But remember, the newsletter is an extension of your website. It’s not there to convey everything; it’s meant to continue the conversation.

Social media: Before you can engage in content marketing, audiences need to know they’ve come to the right place to begin with. Your profile image, your bio, your stories and highlights, all need to continue the quick recognition that people gain from consistently seeing an organized approach to an overall look and feel.

These elements lay the foundation and make it much easier for teams to move forward, build, and pivot. Without them, wheels keep spinning in the mud and never quite gain traction. Bandages are applied. We’ve learned that if we invest in a discovery phase, looking at long-term goals, strategic plans, and fiscal calendars, we can help strategize on project-based, design-related needs throughout the year, making them more meaningful and keeping them on brand. This takes a lot of pressure off internal staff, allowing them to focus on the day to day, rather than managing crunched deadlines. We specialize in working with teams to make the process efficient and effective. If this sounds like a position you’re in, reach out. We'd love to talk more.