Industrial Marketing Blog

Industrial Website Redesign and Content Marketing Strategy

Industrial Website Redesign and Content Marketing Strategy are Connected

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An industrial website redesign is a major undertaking. It is not something that you should do on a whim or expect to launch a new site in a few weeks. According to a survey done by IEEE GlobalSpec, 60% of industrial companies will increase spending on their company website and 52% on content creation and distribution.

There are pitfalls of diving straight into the design phase before creating a documented content marketing strategy. It must be fully vetted by all stakeholders and the document reviewed regularly.

Industrial website redesign follows content marketing strategy

You probably already know about the importance of having a documented strategy. Let me share two key findings from the research study published by the Content Marketing Institute if you are still not convinced.

  1. A documented content marketing strategy is often a key indicator of content marketing success
  2. Less than 1 in 4 (21%) of manufacturing content marketers have a documented strategy

The above two points should remove any doubts about the importance of having a fully vetted documented content marketing strategy that aligns well with your goals and sales process. Like the majority of industrial companies, if your number one goal is to generate more of better-quality leads with content marketing, then let your strategy dictate how the website should be redesigned. Not the other way around.

Business goals don’t align with the website redesign

I have seen many website redesigns fail; it is not because they are aesthetically bad, but because they fail to meet the planned objectives. In essence, they end up being nothing more than a cosmetic facelift for the website. It doesn’t matter how much or how little money you spent on the redesign; it is still wasted.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard clients tell me, “We send people to our website after we’ve talked to someone (sales call) for them to get more information.” In the same breath, they’ll also tell me that they wanted their redesigned site to generate more high-quality leads by engaging with engineers and industrial buyers. Do you see the disconnect?

There are many causes for redesign failures. Based on my experience, I can make suggestions to avoid a complete disaster.

  • Involve your sales team in strategy planning and goal setting. Don’t wait to ask for their opinion just before going live.
  • Get everyone on the review committee to participate in whatever capacity possible during content creation and reviewing drafts.
  • Ask for help from your in-house Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to ensure that the content is technically accurate, presented in a logical manner and talks about solutions to real-world challenges faced by your audience.
  • Do your due diligence for SEO. It needs to be part of your content marketing strategy and not an afterthought

For more on this topic, let me direct you to two of my earlier articles.

Invest the time in a content marketing strategy

It is going to be difficult for any web designer or an outsourced web development company to design an industrial website that will be an efficient lead delivery system unless s/he has the necessary experience and the expertise in industrial marketing. By that I mean, a good understanding of complex industrial sales with long sales cycles involving many stakeholders.

An industrial website redesign for lead generation requires careful planning, paying attention to many details and first-hand knowledge of what engineers and technical buyers want to see on a supplier’s site. That kind of experience and expertise isn’t cheap. That’s why you’ll see a wide range in prices for a site redesign.

There is a lot at stake here, so it is critical that you spend the time in developing a documented content marketing strategy that aligns well with your sales process before diving into an industrial website redesign.

Achinta Mitra

Achinta Mitra calls himself a “marketing engineer” because he combines his engineering education and an MBA with 35+ years of practical manufacturing and industrial marketing experience. You want an expert with an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s objectivity who can point you in the right direction immediately. That's Achinta. He is the Founder of Tiecas, Inc., a manufacturing marketing agency in Houston, Texas. Read Achinta's story here.
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