Persuading Management Your Website Needs Fixing Pronto

Steps to persuading management your website needs fixing. Here is a short case study.

Step #1. Conduct a third-party site diagnostic
Step #2. Identify quick fixes with big benefits
Step #3. Monitor results
Step #4. Present findings to management

Fix #1. Reduce links
ACE’s left-hand navigation contained more than 110 links -- some of which were redundant or mislabeled. They chopped it down to just over 20 and started labeling more consistently.

Fix #2. Reorganize the navigation
Before the fix, “there was not a clear direction as to where to go and why you were [on the website],” says Deal. Users typically had to click five or six times to locate the information they wanted – if they knew where they were going.

Fix #3. Redesign the header
“We really tried to just put too much information in [the old masthead] and were really even hiding the fact that we were the American Council on Exercise,” says Deal.

They told management to expect:
o 20% increase in sales
o 10% lift in exam registrations
o 20% increase in online course registration
o 20% increase in online renewals
o Stronger branding on the website
o Fewer customer service calls

Here are some results about a year after the transformation:
o Monthly sales are up 16% to 17%, and rising
o Website conversions are up 43%
o Organic search conversions are up 482%
o Repeat visitors are up 37%
o Cart abandonment rate decreased 20%

Here is a link to the
MarketingSherpa article.