Why do many marketers dread website redesigns?

Chris Kappen, vice president, operations and innovation, for Epicosity, offers three reasons:

1. They’re slow, typically taking three to five months to complete.

2. They’re expensive, ranging from $25,000 to $80,000 on average.

3. They’re risky. You don’t know what you’re going to get at the end.

“Every website is based on a thousand tiny assumptions,” says Kappen, addressing the 2019 CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Conference Friday in Las Vegas. “When you push it live, you’re making an educated guess on how people will use it. This can lead to poor results and frustrated users.”

Kappen supports a “growth-driven design” (GDD) process for website overhauls. This process entails launching quickly—90 days—collecting data from users, and making continuous improvements based on this data.

“You’re never done,” he says. “You’re constantly prioritizing and updating your site. This way you’re intentional—you’re not gambling.”

Here’s how the process works:

• Determine how your credit union’s goals translate to your website.
• Decide who you want to reach with your website. “It’s not your internal people,” Kappen says.
• Based on the previous two points, develop the site structure.
• Develop your content strategy.

“It’s a repeatable, agile process that uses smaller, incremental updates faster based on strategy goals,” he says.

“Your website is your No. 1 marketing asset,” Kappen continues. “It’s your front door—how people find you—and your No. 1 salesperson. There’s never been a worse time to ‘set it and forget it.’”

► Visit CUNA News for more conference coverage, and get live updates on Twitter via @CUNA_News, @cumagazine, @CUNACouncils, and by using the #MBDCouncil hashtag. Learn more about the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council, a member-led professional society for credit union executives, at cunacouncils.org.