5 Minute Read:
A Blast from the Past
Flash back to about 20 years ago. The earliest commercialization of the world wide web, or the “Dot Com Era”, came into the world. Businesses everywhere were then forced to accept that the Internet was here to stay, and they would have to adapt to this brand new medium.
At this point in time, the internet was still in its infancy, A LOT smaller than it is now. If you created a website, it would stay relevant for AT LEAST 2 or more years, so this was a no brainer for most businesses. These traditional web designs were costly, timely, and created based on assumptions. Growth-driven design was a foreign concept because we didn’t have the technology or data (or a crystal ball) in order to grasp all the ways the Internet would evolve.
Back to the Future
Flash forward to the present day. The internet is still just a teenager, but one with a massive growth spurt. The world around us is becoming increasingly savvy with new tech and software that is seamlessly integrating into our lives. We’ve grown so accustomed to increasing efficiency and accessibility in the marketplace that, as consumers, we have become technologically entitled to expect the fastest, most reliable, and most efficient resources out there, every time.
The internet has grown so much since we started using it and that is mainly due to the exponential growth of data behind the scenes. We can now use this data to our advantage to precisely know what our target market likes, how they interact, where to reach them, and so much more.
Nowadays, it is hard to own a business without having a website. For some companies, their website is where the bulk of their business comes from, and for others, it’s just a place for people to find them.
Introducing Growth-Driven Design
Traditionally, the process to create a website has been expensive, long, with a finished product that would be outdated in about two years. For example, take a look at the chart below. HubSpot shows us how a well-executed GDD website can expect to have effective & efficient results in a shorter amount of time.
Now, this traditional web design process is still around today, and I’m here to tell you to think about all the options available to you. Why spend all that money to completely overhaul your website if you have to do it all over again in 2 years? To put it simply, it’s not effective or efficient.
Today, web designers are changing the way we build websites through Growth-Driven Design. Implementing this strategy is easy. It’s best to start with building a quick, lean website that can be viewed on all platforms. Once created, we can look at the data, to discover what works and what doesn’t work. Reach out to your internal marketing and sales teams (if you have them) to learn more about the target audience. Once we know more about how our audience interacts with your site, we can start to optimize.
Experimentation to Implementation
Play around with the images, text, color, and even the layout of your website. The changes that can be done to a website are infinite, but you will start to learn more about your audience as time goes on. Rely on your sales and marketing teams to tell you which changes work and which ones don’t. 
This is where Growth-Driven Design creates more opportunity for you to convert current and new customers into leads, and leads into sales. By continually redesigning your site based on visitor behavioral data, and then leveraging that data to see which changes create the biggest impact, you are best serving your core customer base, their interests, while staying on-trend and ahead of the curve in your industry.
Is Growth-Driven Design for everyone?
To put it simply – no. Businesses that have been around since before the rise of the internet (Let’s use Horizon Blue Cross Blue Sheild for example), don’t norma
lly need a Growth-Driven Design website. They have already established themselves as leaders in their field way before the internet was born, and customers know exactly what to expect when they go on to HBCBS’s website.
Also, Businesses that adhere to specific services (Like legal, healthcare, or construction) might not want to invest in a GDD model. Services like these need to be predictable and consistent, and the GDD method could create too much confusion for current and new customers.
Now, a growth-driven design site IS right for you if your:
- Company was created after the internet boom
- Website is your primary way to interact with your customers
- Industry demands that you have a web presence
- Sales depend on having a web presence
- Approach to traditional website design has not been effective in converting customers
Final Thoughts
Give yourself a website audit. Take a look at your own website and ask yourself “Is my website optimized for my target audience?”. Talk to your sales and marketing teams and ask them what the most effective areas of the website are for them when it comes to converting leads. Go into Google Analytics and see which pages are the most popular. What content is on those pages? If you can, invest in different tech for your site like heat mapping to see where the customer is looking.
Overall, dive into your site, take a look around, dissect the data, and see where the gaps are. If it’s necessary, reach out to your in-house developer, or your local marketing agency (like S3), and ask them about a Growth-Driven Design strategy for your website. You’re just one step closer to creating the website that suits your customer’s needs.
About me:
I’m the Sales & Marketing Associate at The S3 Agency and an avid connoisseur of all things digital. When I’m not researching the latest trends, I can be found practicing Zenful thinking on and off the yoga mat. Read more articles about advertising, social media, and PR at theS3agency.com.
