At 434 Marketing, we’re passionate about creating websites for our clients that look fantastic and, more importantly, support higher-level business goals. But even though we’ve always been hyper-aware of just how fundamental a website is to a solid digital presence, we realized last year our website wasn’t reaching its full potential. So, in 2024, we decided it was time to redesign our own website from the ground up. We’ve guided numerous clients (over 250!) through the website overhaul process, but when it came to revamping our own site, we encountered firsthand the challenges that many organizations face.
Here are some of the biggest things we learned as we took on this project — and the key takeaways that we used to improve our process for our clients.
Sometimes the biggest hurdle to building a website is the initial ideation process. But, it’s also the most important.
We wholeheartedly believe that if we’re going to create truly impactful websites, we need to be intimately familiar with our clients’ offerings, goals, and differentiators. That’s why for every new build we tackle, we always start by learning more about their organization, including their target audience and sales process. Our highly collaborative discovery workflow involves intensive workshopping and brainstorming, and spending that time upfront has proven to be invaluable.
However, we didn’t follow a structured discovery process for our own website, and we felt the consequences of deviating from what we’ve found works for our clients.
In the beginning stages of building a site, it can feel overwhelming to spend an extended effort in the ideation process, but we always tell our clients it’s worth it. When we deliver websites for clients, we’re bound to a specific time and budget plan, meaning we can only spend so much time focusing on ideation. We’ve developed a series of guided exercises and hands-on workshops to unearth impactful insights that directly influence the sites we create. This helps keep momentum moving forward. When we started considering what we wanted our new site to include and look like, we quickly realized that goal setting isn’t necessarily as quick and easy as it sounds. With our own site, there were no inherent time or budget restrictions. We spent so much time focusing on design and content for every single one of our website pages, we found ourselves going in circles.
Our clients give us great feedback after completing our Foundations workbook and participating in our workshops, and after neglecting the discovery process for the new 434 site, we can see why! We learned firsthand what we’ve long known to be true: the discovery process is foundational to website success. Our structured discovery workshops — something we never skip with our clients — help clarify goals, align expectations, and streamline decision-making. By skipping this step on our own internal site, we lost momentum and clarity. We never want our clients to feel the way we did, so we’ll continue emphasizing how important thorough discovery is.
While there may be some heavier involvement on your end at the beginning, after discovery, our team is able to get to work and create the site of your dreams, with minimal check-ins on your end.
Ideating with a third party can bring a fresh perspective and improve outcomes.
When we started looking deeper into the potential design of our new website, we kept spinning our wheels. Our team has two in-house graphic designers, but since our site is so near and dear to us, every single member of our team had different ideas about what the site should look like and how it should function. After multiple rounds of back and forth, we found that our conversations simply weren’t productive, and we all felt frustrated. We ended up making the decision to bring in an outside graphic designer, and we quickly realized that it was one of the best choices we could have made.
When it comes to launching a new website, businesses often get trapped in relying on internal team members to shape the overall creative direction, user experience, and functionality of their new site. And while internal team members inherently know the company’s goals and offerings, leaving creative decisions to an in-house team can be limiting, even when that team is super savvy in all things web. Sometimes, expertise isn’t enough, and that’s where fresh eyes can help bring much-needed objectivity to large-scale projects.
Bringing in a third-party expert to lend a hand with design and content can help provide an unbiased view of the company’s digital presence and help identify areas of improvement that may have been overlooked. This can mean the difference between an average website and an exceptional one, and it’s certainly worth the investment.
We love being a trusted partner to our clients, and after bringing in a third party for our own website relaunch, we know what a big responsibility it is to spearhead these projects — and it’s one we take seriously. As we act as a strategic, outside partner, we help organizations cut through internal biases and focus on what really matters to their audience. Whenever we create a new design or piece of content for our clients, we bring our expertise to help execute their vision and present their brand well.
There’s a fine line between deciding to launch a site when it’s ready vs. wanting absolute perfection before launch.
Before we launched our site, we wanted everything to be perfect, and that’s a sentiment we’ve heard repeatedly from our clients. But when it came to actually measuring the progress of our site, we realized that it was surprisingly difficult to decide precisely when our site was ready for launch. Waiting for our website to be flawless led to some prolonged delays, which pushed our schedule back more than we’d hoped.
This is where the initial ideation and goal-setting process comes in handy. If one of your priorities is timeliness, you may want to push your site live once it’s excellent, but not perfect, knowing you can always refine it over time. So, how did we decide that our site was ready for launch? We looked for a few key factors based on our objectives:
- Clear Messaging: Ensuring that our site’s written content accurately reflected our brand and our values was paramount. Our goal was to be sure that our content was concise, engaging, and would resonate with our target audience.
- User Experience (UX): Having a seamless navigation structure was essential. To do this, we prioritized a design that facilitated easy access to information and encouraged user engagement.
- Technical Performance and Search Engine Optimization: We wanted our site to reach its highest potential, so having fast load times and minimal technical issues prior to launch was important to us. We also wanted to lay the groundwork for future digital marketing efforts by prioritizing search engine readiness.
Ultimately, here’s what we found: no website is ever perfect, and waiting for this would have meant we’d never go live. Launching a site doesn’t signify the end of development, but rather the beginning of ongoing maintenance and improvement. Instead of striving for an unrealistic goal, it’s better to approach the launch of your site with readiness to meet your business goals, rather than perfection.
We want our clients to love their new website and feel confident when it’s time to go live. At the same time, we know all too well that waiting for the perfect moment to relaunch can pose problems. That’s why we help our clients define what “launch-ready” looks like from the start, with clear benchmarks and goals aligned to their priorities. Our process includes built-in time for launch support, so refinements can happen after a site is live and delivering value. This ensures forward momentum without sacrificing quality or impact.
434 Marketing Is Equipped and Ready To Help You Build Your Dream Website.
When you partner with 434 Marketing, you’re partnering with a team that’s dedicated to learning and growing — including from our successes and shortcomings. After relaunching our website, we’re more passionate than ever about creating sites that have real impact. If you’ve known it’s time to redesign your site but you’ve been hesitant about taking the next step, we get it. We’ll be with you every step of the way.
With over 12 years of experience, our team has helped businesses in many different industries achieve their website goals and tell their unique story. Our expertise spans UX design, SEO optimization, and data-driven strategies to enhance your website’s performance. Whether you’re looking to revamp your existing site or build a brand new one, our research-backed approach ensures that your site delivers real results.
Ready to take the next step?
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Brianna Arnold holds the role of Content Manager at 434 Marketing. As part of the 434 team, Brianna brings with her a career of experience in the agency world. She is responsible for ensuring client goals are achieved with measurable success. Brianna's digital marketing experience spans a myriad of skills,..
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