I’ve been searching for a clever way to explain why we changed our website because #1 I want to share a story that can help other people look at their website differently and #2 I LOVE being clever.

But here’s the deal: all cleverness aside, it was just not right.

Don’t get me wrong, our site LOOKED good. Colorful, dynamic, and still easy to read with clear navigation. She ate and left no crumbs, as the kids say. But once you started digging in a little deeper, you realized that the bright colors and unique designs didn’t make up for the story we weren’t telling and the information you couldn’t find.

So how does a Creative Marketing Agency that is not afraid to tell you how YOUR website should look and act end up with a not-right website of their own?

Have you heard the one about how the cobbler’s children don’t have any shoes? Yeah, we’re the cobblers, the website is the shoes… and I guess we’re also the children in this analogy so that’s where it starts to break down, but that’s not the point.

The point is that it was not right and getting more-not-right every time we looked for a way to add on instead of fixing it.

And it’s an old story, really: We started with a plan, that plan changed, and we didn’t give ourselves the time to clean up the mess before we had to move on to the next thing.

That doesn’t sound familiar at all, does it?

Our original business idea was to include other services like IT, HR, and Accounting and we built our whole identity, including our website, around that idea.

Oh, and we did it quickly so we, like a lot of start-ups, could get into the business of making some money to sustain ourselves and then, I guess, luxuriate in ALL THE EXTRA TIME WE EVENTUALLY WOULD HAVE and fix it later.

As it also happens, the version of the platform we built it on was sunsetting. That meant we could either upgrade a not-right site to a new platform, which isn’t ideal, or make time to do something about it.

Spoilers: You’re reading this on our new site, so you know what we decided to do.

We’ll keep adding useful info and fleshing out the site (like we all should be doing thoughtfully and often) but let’s talk about some of the biggest challenges we had and how we addressed them.

Challenge: An Identity Crisis

We created a site built to get people quickly to one of the four (very) different lines of work we planned to offer. That meant we had to think about four different audiences, let them know what was happening on the homepage without overwhelming them with information, and then make it simple to get to the right business unit.

When those other parts of the business peeled off, we were left with a slightly wonky homepage that didn’t tell a clear story about who we were and didn’t even GET to what we do unless you scrolled below the fold.

Solution:

The first thing you can see on our improved landing page is an updated logo that tells you exactly what we do. From there we’ve changed our navigation to make it easier to learn more and moved our blog and podcast tiles below the fold. That way you can still see what we’re talking about, it just doesn’t get in the way of folks who’ve never met us before.

Challenge: Content Overload

Speaking of blogs and podcast, they have been cohabitating in the same space since we first launched our business. Now, they get along just fine, but that can make it harder to find what you’re looking for, especially now that we have pages and pages of content (more than 7 years!) to scroll through.

Solution:

Our podcast, Awsomology (shameless plug), grew up, moved out, and now has a dedicated page where you can find all the episodes in one spot.

We’re planning to continue to refine how we categorize, tag, and present all the content that we have, because there’s a lot and we want to make it easy to find the thing you’re looking for, but we’re feeling great about that first step.

Challenge: No Proof in the Pudding

Finally, let’s talk about what might be the biggest improvement. The Exclamation Team has spent the best part of the last 7 years making things. All kinds of things. Robust campaign designs, attention grabbing print media, fun and informative video, audio, and photography, thoughtful content writing (if I do say so myself 😉 ) and when you landed on our homepage there was hardly any evidence of all that good work.

Now, if you dug in or rooted around long enough to find our portfolio you could see it, but, wow, how many people clicked away before they ever saw what we could do?

Solution:

We cracked open our archives and added a METRIC TON of our work to the site. Not just on the landing page (but it’s there for sure), not just in the portfolio (which we made easier to find), but on page after page.

Oh, and because our Senior Visual & Web Creator, Pam, also builds websites for our clients, really our whole site is one massive example of how we can help them get their message out into the world with a well-designed website.

And those are just three of the big challenges our new website is solving today. There’s more work to do, we’ll always have challenges to address, and our site will continue to evolve just like our business.

If you want to know more about how we can help you address your website challenges (or anything else) head over to our contact form now.

Sue C

About the Author: Suzanne Campbell is the Lead Creative & Brand Champion on the Exclamation Marketing team and the self-proclaimed evangelist for Brand Voice. She’s picked up a lot of smart ideas from a lot of amazing people in her nearly 25 years of experience and you can frequently hear them on the Awsomology podcast.