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Building a website is, in many ways, an exercise of willpower. It’s tempting to get distracted by the bells and whistles of the design process, and forget all about creating compelling content. But it’s that last part that’s crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business.

So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your web design needs? It all starts with the “About Us” page.

For a remarkable about page, all you need to do is figure out your company’s unique identity, and then share it with the world. Easy, right? Of course it’s not easy. That said, the “About Us” page is one of the most important pages on your website, and it can’t go neglected. It also happens to be one of the most commonly overlooked pages, which is why you should make it stand out.

But it can be accomplished. In fact, there are some companies out there with remarkable “About Us” pages, and there are elements of them that you can emulate on your own website. By the end of this post, showing off how your company’s greatness won’t seem like such a challenging feat.

10 of the Best About Us Page Examples

1) Yellow Leaf Hammocks

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It tells us a story.

When you have a great story about how your product or service was built to change lives, share it. The “About Us” page is a great place for it to live, too. Good stories humanize your brand, providing context and meaning for your product. What’s more, good stories are sticky — which means people are more likely to connect with them and pass them on.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks tells users about its product by describing how the hammocks empower artisan weavers and their families. The company breaks down different pieces of the story into sections that combine words and easily digestible graphics, painting a picture instead of big chunks of text. They’re clear about why they’re different: “Not a Charity,” the page reads. And then: “This is the basis for a brighter future, built on a hand up, not a handout.”

Every company has a story to tell, so break out your storytelling skills from that random English class you took years ago and put them to work on your “About Us” page. Using descriptive and emotive copy and gorgeous graphics, an “About Us” page with a story works harder for your business than a generic one.

2) Eight Hour Day

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It’s human.

People tend to think that “About Us” pages have to sound formal to gain credibility and trust. But most people find it easier to trust real human beings, rather than a description that sounds like it came from an automaton. Trying to sound too professional on your “About Us” page results in stiff, “safe” copy and design — the perfect way to make sure your company blends in with the masses.

Instead, Eight Hour Day showcases the people behind the company and humanizes its brand. Introducing the founders by name and featuring the photos of them on the “About Us” page drives home the point that Nathan and Katie are — as they so astutely put it — “two individuals with a passion for creativity — creativity makes us happy.”

When you’re designing your “About Us” page, avoid industry jargon and replace it with an authentic voice — yours — to describe your product or service. Sure, it needs to be polished and free of errors, but it should always sound friendly and real. 

3) Apptopia

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It skips the business babble.

We know — no industry jargon. If you think it makes you sound super smart on your “About Us” page, think again. People want and appreciate straight talk about what your business does. After all, if people can’t figure out what you do, how will they know they need your product or service?

So, skip the industry lingo — that’s what Apptopia does on its “About Us” page. The startup’s simple but polished language effectively communicates the company’s offering while still allowing the Average Joe to understand it.

The moral of the story — again: Try to get rid of jargon on your “About Us” page whenever possible. Use short and punchy sentences to explain complex products and ideas in a way that isn’t patronizing, but rather, is empathetic.

4) Moz

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It’s unique and visually interesting.

Instead of following the classic “About Us” script and writing a few paragraphs about the company’s mission and origins, try something different — there are plenty of ways to make it more visually compelling.

Take Moz, for example. A lot has happened since it was founded in 2004 — the company chose to share those milestones using a timeline, using a fun and clean design that incorporates clear headers, concise blurbs, and little graphics to break up the text. We love how humbly they preface the timeline, too, with a thank you to their community: “We owe a huge thanks to our community for joining us on this awesome journey, and we hope that you’ll continue to be a part of our story.”

Visual content continues to be on the rise — people like it for a number of reasons, including its ease to skim and absorb. Think about the ways you can use more visual formats to stand out from the typical “About Us” page style of paragraph text.

Below is the actual “About Us” page, which is a gem once you get there. But it’s great to see a company embrace its own brand of quirk throughout the site.

Even if you have a dedicated “About Us” page, there are plenty of ways to creatively showcase your company’s personality throughout your entire website. And yeah, that’s harder than filling a stock “About Us” template — but it can have a significant payoff for your brand.

6) FortyOneTwenty

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It lets customers do the talking.

Who would you trust more: A company talking about how awesome it is, or a colleague raving about the company’s work? I’d bet that you prefer the latter — that colleague is more likely to be unbiased and give you a realistic understanding of what the company is like. Including customer testimonials on your “About Us” page can give prospects and leads a more down-to-earth view of your company.

Although FortyOneTwenty’s “About Us” page starts out with a classic but well-designed value proposition, the key part of the page is the testimonial section below the fold. Including that — with pictures, so users can put faces to names — as well as a list of companies that “trust” the company, quickly makes FortyOneTwenty more likable and trustworthy.

Personal testimonials build credibility and trust, making the “About Us” page a good home for them. If you have a customer who has nothing but good things to say about your company, hand them the mic and let them do the talking.

7) Refinery29

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It lets the employees do the talking.

Here’s another instance where any area of your website — not just the “About Us” page — is an opportunity to break the mold.

Many companies add a “Careers” section to their websites, where there might be a bit of information on the corporate culture. But Refinery29 — like a site after our own hearts — dedicated an entire page to that culture, and it’s a highly engaging one at that.

Like customer testimonials, employee testimonials are a great way to showcase a brand’s value. We love that it opens with an unconventional header — “Party Over Here” and “You Can Sit With Us” — and couples short pieces of texts with pictures from the company’s (non)corporate life. It gives visitors a glimpse into life at Refinery29 in a fun, but not overstated way.

8) Marie Catribs

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It’s unexpected.

There’s a reason why these examples are exceptional — “About Us” pages aren’t always the most riveting parts of a company’s website. In fact, they often look like an afterthought. But even if you don’t have budget for juicy graphics, video, or parallax scrolling, there are other ways to make your “About Us” page unexpected with the copy alone.

Marie Catrib’s is a restaurant, so you might think their “About Us” page would be your typical “here’s how we started, here’s what we believe in, and here’s our food” story. Marie Catrib’s “About Us” page does tells us that — but it does so in an unconventional way. Immediately, the user’s eyes are drawn to a header that says, “It’s okay to make a mess, experiments can lead to beautiful things.” Quite philosophical, for a place to have dinner.

But next comes the story about the owner, which starts in an unexpected way — “It’s hard to imagine, but at one time Marie was banned from the family kitchen.” A line like that draws in the audience, because we know it’s not going to be typical.

So, how will you use copy to really draw readers in? It’s amazing what impression you can make on site visitors just by creatively telling your story with words alone.

9) Bulldog Skincare

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: It’s lovable and memorable.

What’s the difference between “average” marketing and lovable marketing? It’s the difference between creating generic webpages that provide great information, but in a straightforward, black-and-white kind of way — versus creating webpages that provide great information and are infused with color, personality, and stay true to a company’s unique brand voice. When you create lovable marketing, you can start a movement of brand evangelists and advocates who will help you grow.

Where does this fit into a company’s “About Us” page? The folks at Bulldog, a men’s skincare company that was named for the colloquial “man’s best friend” — a dog — could have typed up a few paragraphs about where the brand came from and how they were one of the first in the space to redefine and eliminate stereotypes around men’s grooming. But that text alone would have been a bit, well, average.

Instead, the “About Us” page is pithy, colorful, and leads with the lovable mug of an adorable bulldog — fitting the name and the brand. And it states the purpose of the products — to help customers from becoming “a wrinkly old beast.”

Play on your own words — it’s okay to have fun and pun with your brand, as it helps to inject personality and humor into your “About Us” page. It primes visitors for a story in a way that makes them immediately feel something. That’s how you create memorable, lovable marketing.

10) Doomtree

Why the “About Us” Page Rocks: Its shows, tells, and has a soundtrack.

One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, according to Forrester Research’s Dr. James McQuivey. But what about audio and visual, too, all combined with a really cool story? Well, that’s one way to tell your story in an engaging way — through multimedia.

Doomtree is built on a bit of an innovative concept: That a group of talented artists can each have thriving solo careers, but can still come together on a regular basis to create great music. It’s not a band — it’s a crew. It’s an unconventional concept with an equally interesting backstory that “started as a mess of friends in Minneapolis, fooling around after school, trying to make music without reading the manual.” And as soon as you arrive on Doomtree’s ‘About Us’ page, you’re greeted with big, bold photos of those friends.

As you scroll down, users are treated to even more interaction with the crew’s tracks and music videos. That makes sense, because it gives visitors an instant sample of Doomtree’s product. What’s more, the entire “About Us” page is responsive, including the video. That’s important — not only because it offers site visitors a great mobile experience, but also for Google search ranking — especially now that such mobile usage has surpassed desktop.

How About You?

At this point, we hope that creating an “About Us” page doesn’t seem like a daunting task — rather, we hope you’re ready to have some fun with it. With a good story to tell, creative copy, humility, and digestible visuals, you’re on your way to an eye-catching user experience.

Even better? You’re becoming part of the exception — and standing out from a sea of “About Us” pages. What makes you different? We’re eager to learn more … about you.

Which companies do you think have remarkable “About Us” pages? Share your favorites in the comments

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2013 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

If you’re a digital marketer, it’s hard to imagine a day spent without social media, even before you arrive at your desk for work.

Think about it. We wake up and immediately check our social media accounts before even getting out of bed, read headlines and trending topics during our commute, and tweet our latest blog posts by the time we arrive at the office.

We schedule posts for the week ahead, film a Facebook Live interview, and report on our engagement analytics, all while keeping an eye on comments and direct messages coming in on Twitter and Facebook. We take an Instagram of our coffee art, record a Snapchat Story of our commute home, and finally sit down at home to catch up on what’s going on on our personal feeds while we eat dinner and watch television.

Sound familiar? The average user spends almost two hours per day on social media, and it’s safe to assume digital marketers spend even more time than that. This raises an important question: Is there ever a good time to take a break from social media?

We get it, this is your job. And we’re not going to suggest that you abandon your brand’s social media content calendar. In fact, please don’t. But in light of the new year, some of our readers might be considering taking a break from their personal social media profiles as part of their resolutions. We’ll dive into reasons you might take a break from social media and how to cut back on some of your social networking to strike a healthier balance.

How Excessive Social Media Activity Can Affect Your Health

In 2016, social media captured 30% of all time spent online. What’s more, a staggering 80% of social media time is spent on mobile devices. Let’s dive into how spending too much time on social media can start to affect your health.

It messes with your sleep.

Excessive exposure to screens can adversely impact the quality and duration of our sleep, especially if screens are used before bed. More specifically, exposure to short-wavelength blue light that’s emitted from tablets, computers, phones, LED lights, and the sun before bed can reduce REM sleep, lessen morning alertness, and increase the time it takes to fall asleep. In the long term, these effects can lead to insomnia and chronic sleep deficiency, which can increase the risk of persistent health issues and some cancers.

Taking a hiatus from social media would reduce time spent looking at screens on mobile devices, which could help alleviate any of the symptoms and health conditions above.

It impacts your mental and emotional wellness.

A break from social media could improve mental wellness, too. SELF Magazine asked the experts if quitting social media had any health benefits. Their answers were varied, but many agreed: Excessive social media use is sometimes linked to loneliness, social anxiety, mood disorders, and depression.

A study from the University of Houston recently linked excessive social media use with depression as a result of social comparison — you know, the feeling when you see what your friends are up to on social media and immediately start comparing yourself to them? As it turns out, feeling jealous or competitive about a former classmate’s promotion or wedding can negatively impact your mood.

It gives you FOMO.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) can be exacerbated if you’re spending a lot of time seeing what other people are doing on social media. But taking a social media break could force you to rely on other modes of communicating with friends that might be more fulfilling, such as chatting on the phone or meeting up in person.

Research shows that some Facebook users believe that their friends lead better, happier lives than they do, so try to bear in mind that people share what they want others to see on social media. Photos and statuses of your friends looking their best at a fun event most likely aren’t indicators that their life is better than yours. It’s important to maintain perspective when scrolling through social media, and if curated, edited content on social impacts your real-life feelings, it could be time for a break.

Our advice? Take stock of how you’re relating to your digital social networks. If you feel comfortable with the amount of time and energy you’re spending on your personal social media accounts, then carry on. If you find yourself staying up late at night checking your feeds, or you’re feeling stressed out by FOMO, taking a short break could be beneficial. You can download time-tracking software to get a breakdown of how much time you spend on different sites, too.

How to Detox From Social Media Without Deleting Your Account

If you think you want a break from your personal social media, here’s our advice:

1) Designate technology-free times.

If you’re feeling burnt out by overexposure to social media, and perhaps to the internet in general, designate time to completely unplug. Maybe it’s for a few hours before bed each night, or maybe it’s during the morning when you don’t have to work online. And when you do step away from the screens, make note of how you feel during that time, and afterwards. Are you less stressed?

A study conducted by the University of Maryland found that students who unplugged from all technology for just one day experienced greater focus and better quality of life. Dr. John Swartzberg warns that unplugging isn’t simple a cure-all for happiness, though. The key is to replace time spent on social media and technology with other beneficial things.

“Unplugging by itself probably won’t work some magic in your life,” Swartzberg notes. “But if you spend that digital-free time focusing on your relationships and activities you enjoy, now that can make your life better.”

2) Set social media time limits for yourself.

Along the same lines as technology-free times, try setting time limits on your personal social media use.

If you need some help committing to those limitations, you can lean on a productivity tool — such as StayFocusd — to restrict the amount of time you spend on websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. But before you embark on setting limits for yourself, make sure your goal is realistic. Over the course of a typical weekday, keep a written log of every time you check social media, and if it’s for work or personal reasons. You may be using it a lot more than you think, so make sure your time limits are feasible for you to achieve.

3) Prioritize other activities, hobbies, and passions.

In an article for ThinkGrowth.org, Dr. Nicole Lipkin suggests that you stop making New Year’s resolutions based on the desire to stop a bad behavior. Instead, she says resolutions have better results when they’re framed in terms of what the individual stands to gain. What activities or hobbies would you have more time for if you re-dedicated the time you spend social networking?

Instead of framing it as a social media break, you’re more likely to stick to a resolution if you’re working toward something you want, versus taking something away. Some hobbies even boost brain cognition and memory retention. Try out reading, learning a new language, or sticking to an exercise routine to replace the time you’d normally spend on social media to make your detox extra productive.

4) Turn off mobile notifications.

Because the vast majority of social media networking now takes place on mobile devices, a simple way to discourage checking your feeds over and over might be turning off mobile notifications. If you aren’t constantly notified about what’s going on online, you might be less inclined to check it on your phone so often. Navigate to your phone’s settings and choose how you hear from social media apps on your phone to take a break (indirectly, at least).

How to turn off mobile app notifications for iPhone:

Navigate to your Settings menu, tap Notifications, select the social media app from the menu, and slide the button to the left to disable mobile notifications.

How to turn off mobile app notifications for Android:

Navigate to your Settings menu, where you’ll select Sound and Notification, then App Notifications. From there, select the social media app from the menu, and slide the Block button to the left to disable mobile notifications.

Source: Make Use Of

If you’re ready to unplug, we’ll be here with information on the latest news in social media when you get back. If this article didn’t speak to you and you want to dive deeper, listen to these podcasts filled with ideas for taking your social strategy to the next level.

Will you be taking a social media cleanse? Share with us in the comments below.

Lured by the promise of greater flexibility and more interesting projects, more and more people are leaving their traditional office jobs behind for freelancing careers.

According to a 2016 study, there are currently 55 million freelancers in the US alone. That’s a pretty significant 35% of the US workforce.

If you’re a freelancer, you know how difficult it can be to grow your client base and increase the amount of revenue you earn. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help you expand your reach and start earning more. 

7 Ways Freelancers Can Start Earning More

1) Target a highly-specific niche.

One of the biggest reasons freelancers struggle with their new business efforts is because they haven’t clearly defined a specialized niche. According to data released by Upwork, a global freelancing platform, the fastest-growing freelance niches in Q2 of 2016 were all defined by highly-specified skill sets. Here are a few examples of niches that proved lucrative for freelancers in 2016:

• Shopify development
• SEO writing
• Java development
• MongoDB

Notice that each of these areas is narrowed down to a particular platform or specific goal. Prospective clients aren’t searching for broad terms like “developer” or “writer” — they know exactly what they need, and they aren’t wasting their time by filtering through 500 “freelance developer” profiles.

Not only does establishing a freelance niche give you an advantage in getting discovered on search platforms, it can also help you build a reputation as an expert resource in key networks. By defining a unique selling point for your services, you can tap into a community of clients with similar goals and challenges, positioning yourself as the perfect resolution to their exact pain points.

2) Don’t guess your hourly rate — calculate it.

Are you absolutely sure you aren’t undercharging for your services? Determining your hourly rate can sometimes feel like a high-stakes guessing game without a definitive answer.

Ask yourself: are you paying all your bills? Do you find yourself stretched thinly between clients? Are you living the lifestyle you want to be living? If the answer to any of these questions is “No,” it’s probably time to reevaluate your hourly rates.

To simplify the process of determining your ideal hourly rate, we created a free tool that does the calculating for you: The Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator. Simply plug in a few inputs about your ideal lifestyle and business goals, and the calculator will give you an fitting hourly rate. It’s an easy way to check if you’re charging clients enough to build a sustainable and profitable freelance business.

3) Jump on upsell opportunities with existing clients.

Many freelancers overlook one of the biggest potential sources of new business: their existing clients. Concerns about coming off as too pushy or sales-y can cause you to miss out on potentially lucrative opportunities to provide additional value, extend existing contracts, and deepen client relationships.

Upselling doesn’t have to feel like a sleazy, aggressive sales process. Opportunities to upsell occur naturally throughout client relationships — you just need to learn to identify them. For instance, conversations concerning future goals or big project milestones inherently lend themselves to discussing new projects.

The next time you and your client sit down to unpack a successful campaign or discuss a project’s next steps, don’t be shy about mentioning additional areas you can help their business succeed. Just make sure you pitch new services as ideas, not just upgrades or additional costs without context.

4) Explore additional revenue streams.

Earning a steady income as a freelancer is no easy feat. Client work can come and go unreliably, leading to alternating periods of stagnant income and burdening workloads. To help avoid the income whiplash many freelancers have come to see as just part of the job, consider building up some more stable forms of revenue that complement your freelancing business.

Author David Sherwin advises freelancers to build their own products and content as a way to simultaneously supplement their income streams and gain thought-leadership status in their respective niches — which helps grow business in the long run as well.

Consider writing an ebook, starting a blog, participating in a speaker or webinar series, or even building your own app. Whatever your expertise, create content that helps build your audience and offers the chance to earn some additional revenue.

5) Leverage your connections and then leverage them again.

Word-of-mouth is still the most powerful driver of new clients for freelancers, according to a study published in Harvard Business Review. Among freelancers making over $100,000 a year, 84% of their new clients came from good old word-of-mouth.

Image Credit: Harvard Business Review

Traditional networking remains the overwhelmingly dominant way freelancers acquire new customers. As you can see in the Harvard Business Review chart above, other sources like talent marketplaces and social media don’t even begin to compare. Building a reputation worth talking about obviously doesn’t happen overnight, but all freelancers should continually look to their existing networks to mine for new prospects. 

6) Connect with clients on freelance networking sites.

Even though traditional word-of-mouth earns freelancers the most new jobs, getting your name out there has to start somewhere. Today there’s a wide variety of networking websites designed specifically for freelancers to connect with potential clients. Check out a few of the most popular networking sites below:

• Upwork
• 99designs
• Inbound.org
• Toptal
• LinkedIn Profinder
• Freelance Writing Gigs
• iFreelance

It can’t hurt to set up profiles on on freelance online communities — especially if you’re just starting out. It gives potential clients another opportunity to find you and seek out your services.

7) Consider joining forces with other freelancers.

While we often think of freelancing as an inherently solo endeavor, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. In fact, combining forces with another freelancer (or several others) in an adjacent niche can help everyone involved reach more clients and ultimately earn more.

This doesn’t mean you have to launch a startup agency. By sharing resources, referring clients to each other for projects, and even collaborating on large, more demanding projects, you can increase your capacity to take on bigger clients — which increases your earning potential.

What’s your freelance new business plan this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Let me ask: What are some of the biggest problems you’re having with your website?

Here are some we hear often: 

• The design gets outdated so quickly, and we don’t have the resources to update it every 1-2 years.
• I have trouble demonstrating ROI from my website and tracking meaningful analytics.
• I want to make improvements, but don’t have the skills.
• My website isn’t really benefiting my marketing/lead generation strategy.

What if I told you that there’s a new website model that solves all these problems? (I’m not usually one for hyperbole — but this one, I really mean.)

We call it an “inbound website,” and it’s a great partner to an inbound marketing strategy.

Gone are the days when static brochure websites fit the bill: 

You know the type, with basic information and a “contact us” page? Your website must now be an online sales platform for your business — an integral part of marketing to prospects. If your website isn’t selling around the clock, you’re missing out on leads and revenue.

The inbound website is a new way to think about your online presence.

Here’s how it works:

• Your inbound strategy and marketing funnel are baked right into your website.
• You have a dedicated web team (in-house or hired) that monitors performance and makes changes monthly.
• You typically host on a platform that makes growth-driven design easy. 

An inbound website is still a relatively new idea for many marketers, so I’d like to break down how the model works. 

Here’s are the advantages of an inbound website redesign: How it can grow leads and conversions, trade cost for value, and improve ROI for your business.

Download the free eBook, “Grow Leads and Revenue With an Inbound Website Redesign.”

1) You’ll drive conversions by creating a 24/7 marketing funnel.

Oftentimes marketers think about a website as a piece of a marketing strategy.

But starting right now, don’t think about your marketing strategy and your website as two different things.

They’re entwined. Your website is the hub for your marketing and sales strategy — a complete lead generation platform, with marketing strategy baked right in.

How does that work?

Think about how your marketing funnel works with the inbound equation. You have different elements and assets to attract, convert, close, and delight customers.

When you attract attention online, where do you drive traffic? Your website.

Where do you primarily host your blog and content offers? Your website.

Where are people converting on your offers? Your website. 

How do you host forms to gather more information about people, so you can effectively market to them? Well, you know by now.

Your inbound marketing strategy should be the driving force for your website — and should dictate your website’s organization and user pathways.

More simply, you’ll set up your website to align with the inbound methodology. 

Your inbound website funnel should include:

• A blog and search-engine-optimized pages to attract site visitors at the top of your funnel.
• Corresponding conversion elements, like landing pages and calls-to-action, to help convert visitors into leads.
• Forms and other tools to gather lead intel, so you can better nurture leads and eventually close them into customers.
• Personalization and smart content that tailors your website to customers, helping to delight

When you start on your inbound website redesign, you don’t just think about aesthetics — you consider functionality, too. Ideally, you’ll redesign your site’s entire structure in accordance with the inbound methodology. 

That is, each page serves a specific purpose, and corresponds to a specific point in the buyer’s journey.

A visit to your website isn’t random. It’s the first step on a pathway towards conversion. Each click should be logical and clearly defined — One page leads to the next, as you move users further down the journey. 

What are you left with?

A website that eventually works as a 24/7 marketing funnel, driving conversions while you sleep.

2) You’ll generate leads by showing up earlier in the buying cycle.

Did you know that buyers complete more than half of the buyer’s journey before talking to sales?

This means that your buyers are already researching and deciding on solutions long before a sales call.

The most successful companies are present in the first half of this journey — their websites help educate buyers throughout the sales cycle.

Is your website up to the task?

With a traditional website, you may publish basic information about your services. Then, you wait for website visitors to visit “Contact Us” and place a call.

It’s a far stretch from website visitor to final customer, and your website experience doesn’t nurture the gap in between. (Think of a large ravine. Now imagine that you’re expecting people to jump over that ravine to purchase from you. An inbound website model builds the bridge in between.)

With an inbound website, you nurture leads gradually, from first touch to final purchase.  

Your website is paved with content for the buyer’s journey… AKA, those three stages that buyers take before purchasing a product.

1. Awareness — Person is aware they have a problem, and they’re looking to identify and understand it.
2. Consideration — Person becomes aware of potential solutions (including your product or service!) They actively seek to understand these solutions better.
3. Decision — Person is fully bought in to the solution, and is now deciding where, when, and how to purchase. 

Do you see how your website content has a chance to address all three stages? 

By hosting content throughout the buyer’s journey on your website, you write the narrative of first how and then why your solution is best for person’s problem. 

That makes you present for that “zero moment of truth,” the critical moment when people are researching and deciding on where (and how) to purchase.

Without such a content strategy, your business will have a hard time generating leads online and driving sales.

3) You’ll see steady improvement in performance and design.

Are you redesigning your website every few years to keep with current trends? What happens in between redesigns?

Chances are, if your website isn’t improving all the time, it’s missing out on leads and sales.

That’s the genius of a growth-driven design — a fundamental part of the inbound website model.

You wouldn’t ignore your marketing for a year, let alone a month… so you shouldn’t let your website gather dust, either.

Instead of yearly redesigns, you invest in monthly changes to your website design and strategy.

Here’s how it works in a cycle:

1. Your web team (or an agency with an inbound website service) will set or revise SMART goals to pinpoint certain metrics of value to your business. 

2. They will analyze data on your website performance. They’ll monitor things like content conversion, button clicks, popups, design organization, landing pages, and the purchase path as a whole. They can use tools like Hotjar, implement user testing, and watch performance in Google Analytics or your CMS. 

3. Then, they’ll make frequent improvements reacting to the data — ideally, on a monthly basis. Then, repeat with step 1!

Marketers love this model, because they’re always aware of how a website is performing. (Now I can’t imagine going a day without knowing how my website is doing!)

You’re not waiting for the next redesign to roll around to make improvements and fix problem areas… you’re proactively committing to your website’s success.

The result? Your website is constantly showing its best face to buyers.

It’s converting at a higher rate and growing. You can head back to the C-suite to brag about your great ROI!

4) You trade one-time cost for long-term value (and prove ROI). 

When you think about a website redesign, you might be planning the appearance of your website.

But what about the functionality? What about lead generation potential, and conversion opportunities?

Many businesses use periodic website redesigns to keep their websites up-to-date — and they focus mainly on aesthetics.

This can get costly for several reasons:

1. You go into a redesign without much strategy, so you inject money without promise of ROI.
2. Redesigns can (and often do) go over budget and take longer than planned.
3. In between redesigns, your website isn’t growing and improving — meaning your investment only generates return as long as that strategy is relevant.

With an inbound website, you don’t need to cram all of your strategy for the year into one redesign — you’re constantly improving.

You can generate more value by investing month-to-month in incremental changes, instead of one big website redesign cost up-front.

There’s also immense value in being able to prove ROI: According to the 2016 State of Inbound report, organizations that can calculate ROI are 1.6X as likely to receive higher budgets. 

With an inbound website model, you’ll always be monitoring data, so you’re aware of how your site’s performing — and proving that your changes are having an impact.

5) You’ll qualify contacts with smart content and baked-in lifecycle strategy.

 According to the Annuitas Group, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

It’s simple: Better educated leads have more trust in your solutions, and make more confident investments.

What does your lead nurturing process look like now? 

For many marketers, it’s either manual and cumbersome, or nonexistent.

Are you manually moving people in and out of different lists, emails, and processes — trying to figure out where the heck they are in the buying process so you can tailor to them?

Or, are you not nurturing leads at all, and applying a wide umbrella experience to everyone?

Either situation is a mess… and leaves business leads on the table.

When an inbound website is set up correctly, though, it creates a complete lead nurturing process automatically.

This makes qualifying leads a snap.

With clear pathways for the buyer’s journey baked into your website, you’ll have an idea of where people fall in your sales cycle based on which pages they visit, which offers they’ve downloaded, and which forms they’ve filled out.

You’re not piecing together different actions to try and understand intent — you’ve set up a complete customer lifecycle with your website content.

Qualifying people is as simple as seeing how far leads have advanced down it. (This is made even easier with a lead database system like HubSpot, which clearly shows how people have engaged.) 

How to get started with an inbound website redesign

Maybe you’ve downloaded a website template and are wondering how it’s going to generate leads and produce ROI.

Maybe you’re dabbling in inbound strategy elements — like blog posts, landing pages, and calls-to-action — but aren’t seeing them come together.

An inbound website will give direction to your strategy and web design.

Real success comes in combining both elements: a solid inbound marketing strategy and an inbound website to execute it. 

We see many people start with strategy planning and then try to redesign their website — but they really must happen in tandem. 

Here’s how to get started with your own inbound website redesign: 

1. Download the free “Inbound Websites” eBook if you’d like to learn more about the process and how it grows revenue.
2. Decide if your web team could handle an integration with your marketing efforts — or if you need to partner with an inbound website agency.
3. Analyze your current web hosting platform and CRM to see if they can easily sustain the inbound website model.

A note on platform: Your website’s hosting platform can make a huge difference to your inbound website.

If your website’s design relies on hard code, you’ll need someone with marketing background and coding chops (not to mention a lot of free time) to monitor the site and make improvements.

Free platforms like WordPress, on the other hand, can be a great easy-to-use hosting option. But these often don’t relate as closely to your marketing elements… and you might have to spend time managing different marketing tools. 

If you’re able to host on an automation platform like HubSpot, however, you can accomplish a lot very simply. 

For example, you can continually monitor the performance of each page. You can see conversion rates on your landing pages and calls-to-action. You can set up easy A/B tests for different elements, like forms and buttons, to see what performs better. 

Marketing automation software also tracks how each lead interacts with your website, so you can improve pages based on actual user behavior.

With HubSpot or a similar platform, you’re able to more easily monitor the success of marketing elements on your website, which makes monthly improvements smooth and effective. 

No matter which platforms and tools you choose, the principle of an inbound website is what’s important. 

Let’s recap. What is an inbound website model? 

• Your inbound strategy and marketing funnel are baked right into your website.
• You have a dedicated web team (in-house or hired) that monitors performance and makes changes monthly.
• You typically host on a platform that makes growth-driven design easy.

 Grab the free eBook, “Grow Leads and Revenue With an Inbound Website,” to learn more!