As you gear up for your new website redesign, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by the myriad of decisions you’ll need to consider for your new site.
You may be going through an entire brand refresh and are excited to choose new color palettes, layout and structure of pages, typography, imagery, icons, and cool interactive features like buttons and hover effects, as well as other visually appealing elements.
You might be pumped to create an all-new sitemap with intuitive navigation so your buyers can easily navigate to pages that will influence their purchase decisions.
You want to ensure your website is accessible and that your site speed will improve the user experience with fast-loading pages and ADA compliance.
You’ll consider your messaging and how to let buyers know how your products and services will add value to their lives.
All of these elements are crucial considerations when going through a website redesign.
What businesses get wrong about their website redesign
But here’s the problem: most businesses set their attention on design and visual appeal first, then functionality, then accessibility, and lastly, messaging.
I’m here to tell you that this is the wrong thinking. That messaging is the most important element of a website redesign.
Some of the most helpful websites I’ve visited were the least attractive. But the value was so apparent that I chose to learn from them, get to know more about them, and, eventually, give them my business over their flashier competitors.
And it all came down to crystal clear messaging. The website understood who I was, what I needed, and communicated the value their products would add to my life.
Here at media junction, we’ve been building websites for over 25 years, and we’ve seen all the pitfalls and mistakes businesses make when going through a redesign.
And by far, the number one issue we see is that most businesses want to start with the design of their new site first and then fill it in with content later, as if content is an afterthought.
Because of that, we have a saying here at media junction: “Content should drive design, not the other way around.”
What this means is that before considering your colors, typography, images, and icons, we want to know what the messaging will be. We use the messaging to then influence the look and feel of the site, not the design to influence the messaging.
However, solid messaging is hard, and most businesses get their messaging wrong.
We've discovered that businesses that opt for our StoryBrand and Brand Messaging Bootcamp first end up with a website that looks amazing, performs exceptionally well, and has messaging that genuinely connects with their audience.
In this article, I’ll detail out the key benefits of having a StoryBrand Bootcamp ahead of your website redesign.
What is a StoryBrand Bootcamp?
If you’re not sure about what StoryBrand is, I highly encourage you to first check out our article, From Unknown toUnforgettable: Brand Awareness Strategies. Here you’ll learn all about Donald Miller’s seven-part framework that helps businesses clarify their messaging by using a storytelling approach.
Here’s a graphic for reference:
The StoryBrand Bootcamp is something we created here at Media Junction for clients about to engage in a website redesign.
Again, we believe that content should influence the design of a website and not the other way around.
Therefore, the StoryBrand Bootcamp comes as a foundational step before the design stage of the redesign, and it starts out with an extensive survey for all stakeholders to fill out.
We’ll ask your stakeholders to answer questions related to their buyers, such as demographic information, the problems they’re experiencing, and the solutions they’re currently researching.
We then task your stakeholders with discussing how your products, services, and business are a good fit for these buyers. But more than that, it asks them to identify the stakes of doing/not doing business with the brand.
From these survey responses, we put together extensive decks that identify all the elements of StoryBrand and develop a StoryBrand brandScript.
The deck and the BrandScript are then used as a baseline for creating frameworks for each page and the type of copy that needs to go in each section.
Doing so will bring clarity, consistency, and value to your brand’s messaging across your entire website.
7 reasons you need a StoryBrand Bootcamp for a website redesign
1. It changes your perspective on who matters most
This is easily the most common problem I see on websites; they don’t really understand who their website is about.
Go to almost any company homepage, and it will immediately talk about their products, services, solutions, company information, history, values, mission, and overall, just how awesome they are.
The problem with this is that when buyers land on the website, they don’t draw an immediate connection to the value these solutions bring to their lives.
You need to reframe your perspective on who is really important here: your buyers.
They need to quickly see that you understand them, their problems, and why your products and services are exactly what they need to solve those problems.
One of the simplest exercises you can run on your website to see who it's for is to do a search for "I vs you" language. How often do you say your company's name or say "we"?
Compare this to how often you use the word “you” or messaging that is talking directly to your buyers.If you find that you use more “I” language than “you” language, your website messaging is missing the mark.
2. It makes you dive deep into your buyers' problems
The StoryBrand workshop dives deep into who your buyers really are. It goes far beyond mere demographic information and really gets to the root of the issue.
We use the workshop to have your stakeholders identify the key problems your buyers are experiencing that have led them to seek out solutions.
More than that, the workshop dives even deeper into these problems by connecting the problem to the feelings they’re causing.
If you truly want to influence buyers to take action, you need them to feel how important it is that they solve their problem, and without pairing it to an emotion, you’re less likely to get them to take action.
For example, let’s say your business offers online nutrition coaching. Most of your buyers’ problems are that they’ve tried to lose weight on their own through diets and exercises on their own, but they never got the results they were after.
If you want them to invest in coaching services, you need to voice their problems and take it a level deeper by showing them you understand the emotions it’s causing them:
- Confusion (why is nothing working?)
- Frustration (I can’t start yet another fad diet plan)
- Defeat (maybe I’ll just be like this forever)
- Fear (I’m afraid to fail yet again)
When you show your buyers you know them, what they’re going through, and how it makes them feel, they’re more likely to want to learn about your solutions because they feel heard by you.
3. You get to explore how your business truly helps your customers
Once you’ve nailed down who your buyers are, it’s time to introduce them to your solutions and to your brand.
The most important piece of advice here is to show them that they’re the “hero” of the journey, and you’re merely their mentor guiding them towards the solution they need.
In the StoryBrand Bootcamp, we focus on how you’re that trusted guide to your customers.
We want to know what makes you unique and an authority in your space.
What reputable businesses have you worked with before? What qualifications and certifications do you hold? What industry awards have you won? What other accolades can help show off that you’re their best bet?
Beyond your authority, we want to learn how you express empathy to your buyers. Getting back to their emotional problems, how do you show them you understand what they’re going through? What promises can you make to them that will alleviate their fears?
Positioning yourself as their guide rather than as their hero helps you build trust with your audience. Most people want to do business with brands they feel they can trust.
4. It helps you outline a roadmap to success for your buyers
Showing your buyers you understand their problems and positioning yourself as Gandalf to their Bilbo Baggins (or Frodo Baggins) will pique their interest in learning more.
One thing that can really put a damper on their journey is not having a clear roadmap to success.
The StoryBrand workshop will help you best drill down into the steps your buyers need to take in order to solve their problems.
Now, you may have a 12-point plan of action for your buyers to take, but for your website messaging, this is way too many steps to outline.
Nobody can memorize a 12-step plan. However, when you give people a 3- or 4-step plan, not only does it make the journey clearer for them, the roadmap to success is easy to remember.
You’ll need to take your multi-step plan (if you even have one) and boil it down to 3-4 steps.
Getting back to our nutrition coaching example, your plan could be as simple as:
- Schedule your consultation
- Select your personalized program
- Meet your nutrition coach
- Transform your health
As you can see, the first three steps are about connecting with your business and tailoring solutions to their problems. If you add a fourth step, it’s best to use it as a preview of the success they’ll experience by working with you.
5. It'll make you cnsider your best calls to actions
With your roadmap to success, you need to give your buyers clear call to actions.
In fact, you should have at least two calls to actions, a direct call to action and an indirect call to action (also called transactional and transitional).
The direct call to action is for people who are either ready to buy now or at least ready to speak to your sales team for a consultation of your services.
Most businesses have these calls to actions on their website sprinkled all over from the top navigation all the way down to the footer of a page.
These are important for those folks ready to do business right away.
But you also have to consider the buyer’s journey.
Direct calls to actions are great at catching people near the end of their journey. They've already done all their research and figured out the solutions that would work best for them. They are now vetting various businesses to find their ideal solution.
Most businesses, however, fail at capturing buyers just starting their journey or are only midway through.
These folks often need more educational resources to review before they reach out.
In the B2B world most buyers have completed 57-70% of their buyer journey before contacting sales.
To help these buyers get to that point quicker, you’ll need to create some transitional offers on your website and position them strategically.
These can be things like:
- Requesting a product demo
- Attending an educational webinar
- Downloading a comprehensive ebook or buyer’s guide
- Downloading a toolkit or templates
- Taking a quiz
- And many others
There’s no best transitional offer to try out. It’s up to you to figure out what your buyers would find the most valuable and set out to create those helpful assets.
Doing so can help you begin to establish trust and familiarity with your buyers early in their buying process.
6. You'll better articulate the stakes of doing/not doing business with you
Most businesses, when creating web copy, focus their messaging around the benefits of doing business with them.
They tell you all about their amazing features, their award-winning services, their low pricing, and their exceptional customer service.
However, what they fail to discuss is the negative consequences of not doing business with them.
I get it. It can seem pushy and possibly aggressive, and it can seem like fear-mongering.
Effectively communicating what customers stand to lose by not choosing your solutions is crucial for making an impactful and persuasive argument.
The key here is balance. You don’t want to load your copy up by discussing the stakes.
Instead, treat it more like a recipe for baking a cake. Just as a cake needs essential ingredients like flour and sugar, it also needs a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor.
Too much salt can overpower and ruin the cake, but too little leaves it bland. Similarly, when crafting your web copy, it's about adding just the right amount of emphasis on the stakes to complement the benefits, creating a well-rounded and compelling message.
You need to have the stakes in your copy to remind your buyers of why they’re on this journey in the first place.
Without clearly conveying the stakes, your message lacks the urgency and importance needed to motivate your audience to take action.
7. It'll bring clarity to your messaging
At the end of the day, every element we’ve discussed—whether it’s understanding your audience, empathizing with their challenges, positioning your business as a guide, mapping out a clear journey, or defining compelling actions—all these strategies converge to achieve one crucial outcome: clarity in your messaging.
A StoryBrand Bootcamp peels back the layers of confusion and complexity that often shroud your message.
By participating in this workshop, you’re signing up for a laser-focused narrative that cuts through the noise, speaks directly to your buyers, and creates a resonant connection.
It’s not just about being heard; it’s about being understood, making each visitor's journey on your site feel personally curated and deeply relevant.
Take the next steps: elevate your website with a StoryBrand Bootcamp
So there you have it: a great website redesign isn’t just about a fresh look—it’s about making a powerful impact with every click.
Through the points we've discussed, it’s clear that understanding and connecting with your audience through precise, empathetic messaging is key.
By prioritizing a StoryBrand Bootcamp, you prepare your website not just to attract but deeply engage and convert your audience.
Ready to transform your website into a dynamic tool that truly speaks to your customers?
Sign up for our StoryBrand Bootcamp today. Don’t let your competitors steal the spotlight; clear, compelling messaging is your ticket to standing out and driving results. Act now—the success of your website and business may just depend on it.
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