Create a Winning Website: 8 Steps for Success

Creating a winning website can be your greatest achievement, or your biggest downfall if not crafted correctly. In a fantastic webinar by Trew Marketing, the steps to creating a winning B2B website are layed out on a silver platter. 

Here at Strand, we follow these steps immensely as we craft each of our clients unique website from start to finish. We think its not only important to have a winning website, but to understand what goes into building one.

1) Develop strategy and build foundation

This is first and foremost step when creating a website. The strategy you develop is the blueprint for your entire website. This can be the style, vision, colors, layout, etc. Once you and your team have agreed on a strategy, the foundaton of your website comes into play. You can think of the foundation as the skeleton. This is your platorm to build from.

2) Develop your buyer persona 

Choosing your target audience is more important than you think. Each buyer persona is unique and needs to be targeted in a specific way that speaks to those individuals. Once you choose this group, you can begin crafting your website around this audience, in order to get the specific traffic you are looking for. You do not want your website to speak to everyone. You want your website to speak to the people you want to target and reel in as prospects and customers. Also make sure that depending on your industry, you are gearing your website towards the demographic you are targeting. This includes age, sex, ethnicity, etc.

Splitting up the website project into tasks for each team member is important so everyone is on the same page when it comes to time, budgets and deadlines. Once everyone has their tasks, its time to get rolling. Remember, working as a team on a website is crucial to the sucess of this project. 

Goals are important to have during the creation of a winning website. These goals can be deadlines goals, vision goals, stylistic goals, client goals, etc. As long as the team agrees and has the same view, the road ahead is smooth!

Pain points are another important step in deciding on your buyer persona. This poses the question "how can we solve their problem?" You want to ask this as if you are the audience looking at your website. What is my problem? What can help fix my problem? And why should I choose you? 

3) Create differentiated brand positioning and messaging 

When someone comes to your website, they should be immedietly engaged. The message visable to them should be eye catching, informative and speak specifically to them. This brand positioning and message is what sets you apart from your competitors, and this may not be easy, but it is what brings your website to the top.

4) Build content calendar and create content

CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT. We can't stress that enough. Pushing out press releases, technical briefs, blogs, spotlights, company news, pictures, videos, etc. is a huge step in having a successful website and business. People will stay interested in something if they continue to see it. Don't go dark after one blog, push as much out as you can. Grow your reputation and show people you are passionate about your business.

5) Create content along the funnel

This is an interesting way to look at things. Think of your website as a funnel. First is generate awareness, second is convert leads, third is nurture those leads, and fourth is to maintain loyalty. If you create your content based on the funnel and the specific audience you want to target, you will win in the end. 

6) Illustrate your capabilities/unique offerings

This is where you can be creative and eye catching. Showing who you are and why people should choose your company is a big step to a winning website. If you are passionate about what you do, show it. People want to work with people who love their job just as much as they do. What makes you unique? Your team? Your location? Your facility? Show it!

7) Add visual storytelling

You don't want to read 7 paragraphs of nonsense, do you? Visuals keep the audience engaged and allow the story to be broken up into readable, yet informative sections. Visuals can bring color, excitement and a personal touch. At Strand, we think showing the people behind the brand is influential to the audience when choosing to work/buy from a company. Visuals can add an artistic touch to any dull matter too! In our industry, engineering can get a little wordy....but visuals keep it interesting!

8) Measure results and ongoing data driven design

Measuring your results is key to seeing your websites success and your teams! Seeing that your actions are impactful is important to understanding if goals were met. Every month at Strand, we measure our clients results. Setting benchmarks is a great way to do this. And if benchmarks aren't hit, you can easily see what needs some TLC. This also is a great learning opportunity for future projects.

This webinar was extrmely informative and we hope that these 8 steps can lead you to have a winning website. At Strand, we belive that anyone can be successful, with the right team behind them. We are ready to help you build your winning B2B website. Send us a message or give our friendly team a call today!

We look forward to hearing from you.