Skip to content
Butler Branding
Branding With A Purpose
Butler Branding
  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
    • Brand Strategy
    • Brand Identity
    • Website Design
      • Website Design Process
      • UX Design
      • Monthly Maintenance
    • Digital Marketing
    • Commercial Photography
    • Videography
    • Podcasting
  • Our Work
  • The Feed
  • Shop
  • Start a Project
Facebook page opens in new windowInstagram page opens in new windowYouTube page opens in new window
  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
    • Brand Strategy
    • Brand Identity
    • Website Design
      • Website Design Process
      • UX Design
      • Monthly Maintenance
    • Digital Marketing
    • Commercial Photography
    • Videography
    • Podcasting
  • Our Work
  • The Feed
  • Shop
  • Start a Project

How and Why We Redesigned Our Homepage

You are here:
  1. Home
  2. Website Design
  3. How and Why We Redesigned…

Every business’s website needs a refresh now and then – even a web design agency’s. As we learn more about what connects with our prospective clients, and how to lead them on the path toward partnering with us, we’re constantly refining our messaging, tweaking our design, and making it easier for visitors to TAKE ACTION after they find us.

But recently, we made some website changes that go beyond simple adjustments. We overhauled our homepage to read, look, and feel incredibly different … while actually retaining a lot of its previous structure.

Why would we take the time to make a set of changes like this, which you might not even notice unless you’re us? Well, like we tell our clients, it’s all about brand positioning. And we had unknowingly succumbed to one of the fatal flaws that tempts all brands: Getting too wrapped up in your own story.

Donald Miller Was the Spark That Started the Redesign Fire

True fact: I’ve wanted to update Butler’s homepage since starting here in October of last year. While our old homepage conveyed our creativity, work ethic, and collaborative spirit effectively, it did so by talking about US a lot. Three of our first four pieces of copy defined what Butler is, instead of speaking to our prospective clients’ needs and desires.

Butler Branding Web Design Fresno
Notice how both of the sentences above define Butler first, and speak to clients’ needs second.

In the world of the 15 Second Rule (you have less than 15 seconds to convince someone to stay on your website – at that point, they often bounce), talking about yourself for so long is a death sentence. Even if your story is interesting, prospective clients usually don’t want to hear it. They just want to hear how you can solve their problem(s).

While I’ve wanted to overhaul our messaging to more directly speak to our clients’ needs for awhile, it took a recent team viewing of Donald Miller’s 5 Minute Marketing Makeover videos to convince me to pull the trigger. Miller talked about the “wrapped up in your own story” fallacy that I’d been meaning to help us dodge, as well as a number of other design elements that I knew we could take advantage of.

Applying the StoryBrand Approach to Our Homepage

So how did we actually go about applying Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework to our homepage? It started not with that updated messaging I keep harping on, but with a whiteboard drawing:

Whiteboards are quite underrated.

That drawing might look like a mess (listen, I was hired to write words), but it’s the start of a homepage that speaks directly to prospective clients – and makes it EASY for them to decide to partner with us.

To start, our webmaster and I decided to eliminate a couple items from our navigation menu, and change our previously nondescript “Contact” link into a bold “Start a Project” button. If your eye was drawn directly to the yellow rectangle at the top, right-hand side of this page before you started reading this post, that happened by design. In most cases, we want prospective clients to do one thing when they land on a Butler Branding web page – start a project with us. We’ve now made it much easier (and more likely) for them to do so.

Butler Branding Nav Menu 2019
The new Butler Branding navigation menu.

From there, I began revamping the words we use to talk to clients, and adding additional sections (like our new Process section) and design elements to convey Butler’s value. Instead of talking about ourselves, I strove to speak to our clients’ needs and desires, using as few words as possible.

I also looked for places we could show our work (using either video or graphics) and guide clients through the journey they’d go on if they chose to work with us. While prospective clients might not get as robust a sense of Butler Branding’s culture from this version of our homepage, they’ll definitely get a fuller sense of how we’ve served other brands – and how we can solve the same problems for their business.

But lest I sound like a pretentious jerk who came in and somehow had all the right answers for how we should re-do our homepage, I want to stress how collaborative this refresh process actually was. While I provided the initial wireframe, I bounced my ideas off our marketing director and webmaster as I drew (the picture above is version 2.1, actually). A pre-development review session with our CEO ensured that we spoke to prospective clients’ feelings, rather than just their tangential desires, in our all-important hero section. And while I wrote the words “And set your brand apart,” it was our webmaster who suggested that we could do something to convey that feeling visually, using those words.

Butler Branding New Hero Section 2019
For the full effect (complete with video banner and carousel text), click here to visit our new homepage.

So What Were the Results?

Hopefully, the theory behind our recent homepage redesign makes sense. And if you click over to our new version homepage, you can see the full bevy of client-centric updates in action.

But in marketing, results are more important than theory. Which means, in order for this redesign to be successful, we need to start seeing more homepage traffic, longer homepage page views, more button clicks, and more submissions.

While it’s too early to call our homepage redesign a rousing success (the revamped page launched about 20 days ago at the time of this writing), I can tell you that – anecdotally – we’ve seen increased web traffic in July and received more form submissions for the free eBook that we offer near the bottom of our homepage. That means more people are coming to our homepage, scrolling far enough to see the next-to-last section of it, and offering us their contact information – which feels like a win.

We’ve already begun applying the lessons learned during this process to the work we do for our clients (and we’ve found that, in most cases, we were already better at conveying our clients’ value than our own). I’d like to think that, in the process of building a better Butler Branding homepage, we also built a better Butler Branding – one that’s more cognizant of how we optimize on-boarding not just for our clients, but our clients’ clients.

Facebook Comments
Category: Website DesignAugust 6, 2019Leave a comment
Tags: butler brandingdonald millerframeworkhomepagestorybrandweb designwebsite design

Author: Matthew Ledger

Former Sconnie, current Californian, full-time content creator. You can learn more about Matt (and how he helps the Butler team create great content) by clicking here.

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:Butler Book Review: Creative QuestNextNext post:Why ComicHub Is the Modern Digital Marketing That Comic Books Need

Related Posts

Check out our ‘Process’ with a real-life client!
October 21, 2021
Here’s How a Well-designed Website Actually Helps Your Business
June 19, 2019
It’s time to update your website
November 13, 2018
10 Questions You Should Ask to Enhance User Experience
June 30, 2017

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment

Recent Posts
  • We Are Hiring – Marketing Account Manager
    May 1, 2022
  • Butler Branding Podcasting Service
    February 8, 2022
  • Conversion Funnel
    The Conversion Funnel
    January 10, 2022
  • The Basics of Email Marketing
    December 15, 2021
  • What does a Social Media Marketing Agency Do?
    November 22, 2021
  • The Three Things You MUST Have to Market Your Business
    November 4, 2021
Categories
  • Book Review(3)
  • Branding(25)
  • Business(21)
  • Butler Team and Culture(3)
  • Careers(1)
  • Culture(2)
  • Email(9)
  • Events(1)
  • General Blog Posts(15)
  • Graphic Design(9)
  • Interviews(12)
  • Marketing(38)
  • Podcast(1)
  • SEO(21)
  • Social Media(13)
  • Uncategorized(8)
  • UX Design(6)
  • Video(3)
  • Website Design(19)
archives
Butler Branding

700 van ness ave. ste. 116b
fresno, ca 93721
559.797.3414

FacebookInstagramYouTube
Search Site
Services
  • Marketing and Advertising
  • Website Design
  • Brand Strategy
  • Brand Identity
Subscribe
We periodically send unique and helpful resources about branding, design and digital marketing so you can stay informed and inspired. Subscribe to our mailing list – we promise to not spam you or share your information with any third party.

Feed
  • We Are Hiring – Marketing Account Manager
    May 1, 2022
  • Butler Branding Podcasting Service
    February 8, 2022
  • Conversion Funnel
    The Conversion Funnel
    January 10, 2022
  • The Basics of Email Marketing
    December 15, 2021
  • What does a Social Media Marketing Agency Do?
    November 22, 2021
Contact Info
700 van ness ave. ste. 113
fresno, ca 93721
559.797.3414

FacebookInstagramYouTube

Careers
© 2022 Copyright Butler Branding - All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.

A Proud Member Of Fresno Chamber Of Commerce

Fresh Content Delivered Weekly

Like what you see? There’s more where that came from. Subscribe to our mailing list – we promise to not spam you or share your information.