Congratulations! You’ve just been named the new CEO at FlashyNewTech Co. but the current website is anything but its namesake. Everyone is looking at you to supercharge sales, but all you see is something destined for the Wayback Machine. You need a plan and you need it fast.
The reality is that you won’t fit a six-month project into 10 weeks (…actually, we’re doing this now – a story for another time). So here are three creative options we’ve recently implemented for clients. Maybe they can work for you.
Splash Pages
A simple, well-designed screen overlay offers a quick solution that can communicate changes at your company while keeping your current site up and running. No scrolling required. Minimal content is required to deliver visitors to a press release if you were recently acquired, or even a blog post to discuss the “exciting new changes”. Users can easily click an “X” to close the overlay, reveal and explore the current site. Splash Pages are best if you are going to have a new site ready in three months or less. Any longer and you could risk a negative perception.
One-Pagers
Big changes coming to the company and you need to bring the old site down? A single, scrolling web page may be the smart solution. The long-format one-pager is ideal for companies that know where they are headed (meaning they know what they want to message and how they are going to say it), and feel that the existing site is causing more harm than good. Single pages can be built fast using a basic CMS – or even with straight code (your developer will thank you). Adding a traditional navigation to the top that highlights as the user moves down can bring both polish and organization during the long scroll.
Limited-Function Websites
Sometimes the best solution is a streamlined website consisting of only the most critical information required to share information and generate leads. Limited-Function Websites (the “Steel Thread” option) are often 4-5 pages – Home, Product/Service, Company, Blog, CTA – focusing on brand, key messaging, and conversions. Like One-Pagers, these smaller sites can ease the burden of difficult tasks that surround larger, complex websites such as building internal consensus and gathering new content. Depending on the situation, limited-function websites can be developed in content management systems, and when done correctly, you may even use the same CMS to add new pages and scale your site to it’s full potential.
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Bottomline, there are solutions to fit all situations, all business sizes, and all budgets. So stop managing around a garbage website – it’s no way any marketer should have to live.