Does the idea of re-doing your website make you want to head for the tree line? Me too. My team and I are pushing forward right now with the fourth Crossman Communications website since 2009 and we’re expecting to launch sometime in the New Year.

We’re partnering with Agenda Marketing in the project. Agenda is a superior graphic design firm specializing in brand marketing online and offline. It’s headed by artist Trevor Stooke, whose award-winning work has dazzled clients throughout North America. This has been quite a process and I thought I would share five concepts it has reinforced for us.

1. Know Your Business. Our current website was built in 2012, the year after my first book, Shades of Teale, was published. Since then we’ve added and subtracted numerous programs and services, and the website no longer adequately reflects what we offer and who our clients are. Props to Leah Roberts for her championship work in analyzing our business structure and improving upon it. With this piece settled, we were able to map out a web presence that reflected a conversion-based process for it.
2. Know Your Clients. Crossman Communications serves businesses that are looking for content marketing services, and entrepreneurs who need book-writing help. As the traditionally-published author of four books now, I also wanted my identity as an Amazon best-selling author to be reflected in my web presence. One size does not fit all! Our new web presence has to support the needs of our two client groups, as well as readers and people who hire authors to speak. That took some imagination!
3. Be Patient. A lot of pieces had to come together before our web renovation could begin and I was often frustrated by the slow pace. Picking a web designer took a very long time and our business was growing. But things happen exactly as they are meant to happen – the extra time meant we could develop a more sophisticated, and more effective web marketing process. It’s all good!
4. You Need Structure and Creativity. We chose Agenda because they satisfied our quest for solid conversion-based strategy and clean, attractive visuals. Agenda spent a lot of time learning how our business works and understanding what we wanted to get out of our new web presence. They are customizing a WordPress site for us and they’re doing a super job of blending the emotional aspects of triggering visitor interest with the concrete task of developing strong navigation.

Remember That You Will Be Doing This Again. Possibly sooner than you would like. Our business has changed a lot over the past few years and we can’t possibly predict what it will look like in 2020. Our “new” website will probably be hopelessly out-of-date by then. Web marketing will have changed. There will be new tools, platforms, strategies, expectations and paradigms. Our clients’ needs will be different, as well. If we want to stay relevant, will have to create another new website. And your business probably will have to do that, too. Run!

If you would like to discuss any aspect of content marketing or book writing please get in touch at susan@crossmancommunications.com