You’ve done it. You’ve finally taken the leap to launch an updated version of your website. 

You got tired of looking at the out of date messaging, old logos, and content that you created years ago that no longer hits the mark. It can either be a complete website overhaul or maybe it’s a brand fresh. The size of the update isn’t what matters. What matters most is that you’ve taken the initiative to dedicate time, energy, and resources to your most important digital property. 

I remember taking the leap to go through the website overhaul experience in my first VP of Marketing job because I thought that’s what VP’s of marketing do. I spent the first 30 days having internal conversations and building relationships with the team. The next 60 days were trying to get some quick wins on the board while also building a list of priorities. I wasn’t crazy for thinking that we needed to make a big change with our site. In every conversation that I had with the existing team the site came up as a potential roadblock to more revenue. There were concerns about the messaging, design, and conversion process. I decided that implementing improvements to the website was going to be our number one priority. I created a document of needs, evaluated and hired support, and we were off to the races…or so I thought. 

The biggest learnings in my career have always come from my biggest losses. I’ll never regret going through the website overhaul process as a first time VP of Marketing, however, I’ll always regret the mindset that I took to implement change. The updates on copy, conversion paths, and design were all based on my opinion and team’s feedback. The biggest opportunity that I neglected was involving our customers or next batch of customers in the feedback process. It didn’t matter if I liked the way the button looked that took me to the form to talk to our sales rep. What actually mattered was that our audience approved of it. We launched the new site that looked great, but got validation pretty quickly that the market didn’t care about our update. The lead total didn’t increase. We weren’t having any more productive conversations. Ultimately, it didn’t help us create more revenue. Uh oh!

We screw up in marketing. It’s part of the process. Most importantly, it’s about learning from those screw ups and not making the same mistake twice. We dropped an episode on conversion for our series on SCORE on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 this week. During the episode David shared, “Businesses and business owners set up a buying process that they want to go through or they think is really cool or efficient, but it’s not how the buyer buys”.  His remarks forced me to rewind the tape back to a not so fun moment in my career that has become the inspiration for this week’s note. Isn’t that what CEOs are supposed to do!? 

I’ll leave you with 3 takeaways when considering making updates to your process: 

1. TALK TO YOUR DAMN CUSTOMERS. This is likely the most obvious, but it’s true. You need to understand how they think, what they like, what motivates them, and so many more things. Before you spend a ton of money on a new site, involve the people who you’re trying to attract.

2. Make things stupid simple. It’s ok if your website isn’t the most exciting digital property that you’ve ever seen. What’s most important is that it conveys the right message to your next customer and gets them to take action. 

3. Select the right partner. You want a partner that’s going to help elevate your brand through your website. There’s a lot of ego that goes into marketing. You need someone who’s going to be strong with their recommendations and help you to understand why specific changes are being made. 

Your next decision on your website is likely more significant than you anticipate. 

If you think there’s an opportunity to drive more revenue through your website it’s best to follow that conviction. The brands who are optimizing for 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 are the brands winning more right now. 

The Content We Dropped This Week

In this week’s episode of 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 podcast we continued our new series on SCORE, which is the methodology that we use at Pneuma to help our clients find their next customer. We covered “C” which stands for conversion and how we should be thinking about finding our next customer. 

We discuss how to overcome the challenges of earning the click, definitions around conversion, and share customer examples.

Please follow and subscribe to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 wherever you consume fine audio and video content.

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Quick Tip for The Search Economy

The foundation of your content strategy should be to create content for people and not machines. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to jam as many keywords into a blog post as possible, overdosing on AI, and overall losing focus on who you’re writing for. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 is an era where your customer’s attention span is at an all time low. If your content doesn’t resonate they’ll move from it quickly and likely end up on a competitors page. 

It’s ok to create with an SEO focus in mind. It just shouldn’t be the only mindset that we take when we’re building content that is intended to win the hearts and minds of your next customer. 

If you’ve been debating new technology or services for your SEO program we’re always here to be a sounding board.  If you’re looking for a team that will help give you a jump start into 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 give Pneuma a shout for a free traffic audit!

What They’re Saying About Search

It’s not just about eyeballs. It’s about who is raising their hand to take the next step with your brand. Amanda does a great job of calling out the importance of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) in her post and how we should consider it when finding our next customer. 

If you’re looking for a team that will help give you a jump start into 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 give Pneuma a shout for a free traffic audit!

Content That Supports The Search Economy

I’m trying to level up my knowledge of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and came across this episode by Alyeda. If you are looking for more insight on how to align SEO and CRO to land your next customer in 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 this episode is likely for you. 

You can listen to the conversation here. 

I appreciate you being here for 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 newsletter. If you’re looking to learn more about how your company can get found by your next customer then give the Pneuma team a shout.