Custom web design is for futuristic car shows... for now.
I’ve been out of Microsoft almost 2 years and have been immersed into the ‘real world’ of growing businesses without the luxury of a big brand name and multi-million dollar marketing budgets and let’s just say, it’s changed me. In many ways.
One important theme that’s emerging which I’m still trying to get all my thoughts wrapped around is custom web design.
At Microsoft, designers were taught to create new, different, innovative software. They prided themselves on their creativity and ability to produce something that stood out. I also understand the importance of storytelling and evoking emotion to move someone to purchase.
In my job as a Chief of Staff I would produce presentations designed to get rises out of the audience. Here’s a graph where the crowd voted when they saw something they liked / disliked. Two of the highest peaks were from the presentation I produced. I know how to tell stories that move an audience.
At the same time I was in Bing where designers had to unlearn a lot of their training. They were stripped back to designing for the web and for a more mature product where color and pixel changes could move the needle by millions in revenue either direction. Adobe Fireworks was the design tool of choice, it was fast, and the fidelity was high enough for web. We were an optimization machine, we had to get enough experiments out the door to figure out which of the 1000’s of tests were going to work. Data decided. Time mattered. Custom was something you did in your spare time which wasn’t much.
I have these competing thoughts in my DNA.
I also now know how to move traffic on the web. I know where to find people on the Internet and get them to take an action on a website or landing page. It takes many tests, A/B optimization, storytelling, imagery, copywriting, ad platform expertise, etc… There are so many variables at play that in order to make it all work in an efficient way, the website that is converting the customer needs to be flexible. It needs to be like modeling clay.
This is completely at odds with custom web design.
When I hear a designer try to create something new, different, 10x what they’ve seen out there I hear them wanting to design a Ferrari from scratch. They’re building a brand new car without putting any thought into building the custom engine to make it run. Marketing is the engine. It’s the gas.
A custom car without the ability to move off the car lot is only good for futuristic car shows. It’s something you look at and go, “Cool, I want one of those!" But you never buy one because it can’t help you pick your kids up from school.
I am feeling more and more like the web design industry is outdated, it’s out of touch with the reality of what it takes to make a new website actually attract and convert customers.
I heard from a friend who was asking for advice on what to do with a website that an agency built for her. “It’s not working. It’s not getting users or customers and I don’t know what to do.” She doesn’t have a marketing budget to throw at it. She’s also a do-it-yourselfer. I asked what platform it was built on and she wasn’t sure so I’m assuming it was a custom build. If it was built on Wordpress or another platform that’s moldable and easy to make changes on the fly, then that’s one thing. There are tons and tons of materials out there that she could immerse herself into and start to figure it out. But if it’s a custom build, if it doesn’t allow plugins that help you with performance, that help you create and submit a sitemap to Google, to make the pages SEO friendly, to add Call To Actions, etc… then she only has the shell of a car. The agency delivered her a half-finished product and got paid tens of thousands of dollars for it. In my mind I’m starting to see web design agencies as being fraudulent. I don’t think anybody is intentionally doing the wrong thing but the internet has changed and many many many people out there are still building things the old way. It sucks to sit back and watch.
If you get a website that doesn’t work, you have options.
- You can hire a marketing agency to add an engine after the fact. But as a marketer when I have a potential client who was ‘burned’ by their design agency it’s not a fun place to be. They have lost trust in agencies and it means I’m starting in a hole. I have a soft spot for these clients but I don’t actively seek them out.
- You can use landing pages to test out new website messages, product features, etc… find out what is going to work to convert customers in a more flexible environment and then take what you learn and change your website later.
- Or you can start over from scratch but this time hire an agency who also does marketing.
Here’s how we’re addressing web design + marketing. It feels different than anything I’ve seen from other agencies. We mix in a lot of ingredients and the recipe is still a work in progress but we’re getting close. I don’t know how to sell it yet so we’re not. We may do that someday.
We use a standard Wordpress template for the websites we build. Boring? Maybe. But what it allows us to do is get the site up quickly so we can use real customer data to make UX changes. We can build a new site within a couple of weeks because we have all the code, we’re familiar with how to make changes and can make them fast. We already have all the plugins figured out and it takes no time at all to add them. We know how to make the pages SEO friendly. We have many parts optimized, down to a science. Essentially, the engine is built and we’re adding it to the frame that’s already built and optimized.
We’re trying to be Ford after Alan Mullally took over and gutted the company. We are creating a tried and true way of creating websites that run. Just like Mr. Mullally hired a top designer from Europe to make Fords desirable, I hired a top web designer to also make these websites look beautiful. To bring out more of the storytelling. To evoke emotion. And to do it under the constraints of efficiency. She doesn’t get a blank canvas and a blank check to the art supply store.
Another approach which we’re dabbling in is to partner with a web design agency who creates amazing custom sites and figure out how to efficiently add an engine. We’re doing this with a client now, we’re adding an engine to their custom website. It’s a partnership. This has the potential to turn into a recipe that’s repeatable as well.
Time will tell.
While we’re developing these formulas, I will be biting my tongue every time I hear someone say, “That website is boring.” Boring tends to ‘work’ in a more predictable way than custom. For now.
#WebDesign #AgileMarketing #DataDrivenMarketing
Jessica Jobes is Founder of OnTheGrid a Marketing Agency for Seattle Startups.