What are the Pros and Cons of Growth-Driven Design?

In a world where the internet has become the lifeblood of commerce, having the proper web presence is essential for marketing, outreach, and a company's survival. Relying on yesterday's traditional outbound marketing approach is insufficient in today's e-commerce environment. 

So, how do you maintain an agile website that works hand-in-hand with your marketing efforts? Growth-driven design.

Taking Your Web Presence to the Next Level

Not all web design approaches are equal. The traditional web design approach requires substantial time to develop or revamp the website and significant upfront costs for each iteration. Think of this approach as similar to building a new house from scratch or sketchy blueprints from an earlier model.

Many new businesses embrace a strategy called Growth-Drive Design (GDD). Instead of building a new website from scratch or reinventing it with a substantial revision, GDD methodologies incrementally make enhancements, improvements, and modifications. Understanding how visitors react to the website is important to this process.  

These changes don't occur in a vacuum but are driven by ongoing data analysis. Rather than creating the perfect digital castle, this approach to website design considers measures such as customer reactions and site traffic patterns.

Understanding Growth-Driven Design

Growth-Driven Design boils down to a simple concept: The web presence of a company grows, evolves, updates, and revises based on what data says about your customers and how successfully you reach them.  

With an emphasis on agility, GDD focuses on data-driven tweaking in segments based on realistic, measurable goals rather than broad, sweeping redesigns. By meeting customers' ever-evolving expectations and needs, these incremental and ongoing improvements may occur more frequently and cost-effectively than a one-time revamping or reconstruction of a website. 

GDD emphasizes responding to customers with limited delay, creating new content to meet new marketing areas and demographics sooner rather than later, and improving website performance in continuous stages rather than massive updates scheduled far into the future. This approach places a very high priority on user experience (UX). 

Businesses should consider both the pros and cons of GDD. They are presented below. 

Pros of Growth-Driven Design

1. Faster Deployment

Instead of taking substantial time to revamp and redesign, most GDD initiatives roll out changes incrementally and quickly after a review of user data. These updates do not occur based on emotion but instead follow four important phases:

1. Planning: Before redesign occurs, those involved evaluate goals and best marketing practices to ensure their assumptions are valid and their goals realistic.

2. Developing: Changes usually appear as a "launchpad", internally tested before going live so that marketing teams and other stakeholders can review modifications, give feedback, and evaluate.

3. Learning: This phase involves analyzing data, adjusting design and content as necessary, and assuring flawless functionality.

4. Transferring: As knowledge of the redesign's effectiveness is shared throughout the organization, additional research occurs, final changes are made, and the site goes live. 

2. Gradual Investment Period

An important benefit of GDD is that a substantial capital outlay for site updates is not required at once. Like paying in reasonable installments rather than putting all the money on the table simultaneously, the gradual costs can be budgeted as an ongoing operational investment instead of a one-time hit.

New design elements appear more quickly, with less cost, and after they have been implemented based on real data. ROI increases since these design changes occur due to user data instead of speculation. Like ongoing building maintenance activities ensuring the physical workspace meets present and emerging needs, this data-based, ongoing investment assures that the website never becomes outdated.

3. Continuous Site Improvements

Revisions focus on specific targets, goals, and careful evaluation of data. Similar to how investment is gradual and continuous, site improvements occur incrementally. Rather than trying to create the "perfect" website for all times, GDD acknowledges that, in most cases, a large and all-encompassing project never ends but instead continues to evolve and transition. 

Site improvements compare goals versus overall performance and include additional research to ensure that the website meets your expectations or includes changes necessary to move in the best direction. Marketing and sales data are important metrics that shape these site improvements. Looking at broader marketing trends, supply-and-demand balances, and forecasts offers a broader picture, focused more on how the company has performed through its sales.

Using GDD, short-term "failures" are not disastrous. If sales fail to meet expectations or if website traffic fails to flow as planned, an analysis of data allows for faster site improvements that do not have to wait for a horizon far into the future. Companies used to older web design approaches that have transitioned to Growth-Driven Design must embrace a focused approach of making appropriate incremental improvements rather than abandoning this process by tossing out the digital baby with the bathwater.

4. Meets Customers' Changing Needs

Knowing your target audience and adapting the website to meet their needs improves the conversion rate and increases sales. Implementing GDD allows the website to find more qualified leads because you have developed it in a way that meets the needs of your target audience, boosts SEO, and appeals to prospective clients. 

The conversion rate will be optimized by updating the site based on accurate and current data. Regularly reviewing traffic allows for decisions and changes to be made quickly rather than postponed for some future release. Web-tracking technologies allow to determine your users' specific wants and needs. 

Interested to see how your website stacks up? Use our free website grader!

Cons of Growth-Driven Design

1. Requires Regular Updates

GDD is a continuous process, not a one-and-done approach. Rather than creating a static web presence and letting it do its magic, this approach requires regular data evaluation, tweaking content, and testing new approaches to improve sales, outreach, and performance. 

More than being a location with basic background and contact information, effective sites include tools that make them more than digital brochures so they can meet the robust needs of the business. Understanding the metrics necessary to keep a website vibrant is essential. Companies unable to maintain the regular revision that customers expect today should consider outsourcing their design to a qualified agency.

2. Requires an Understanding of Design and Aesthetics

If website designers for a company lack a good eye for design, results will suffer. GDD requires reviewing data performance, regularly making content changes, and enhancing the company's web presence by incorporating best design practices. 

One-time static website rollouts have a limited shelf life. GDD requires more frequent updates and greater vigilance to maintain. A better solution for those who want the benefits of GDD but do not have the top designer talent is to outsource with a partner with this experience. 

3. Requires Audience Targeting

While traditional website design may be an option for brands with fantastic marketing momentum, the ever-evolving demographic the company wants to reach requires continuous review and targeting. 

The best website solution for each company depends on whether investment and changes happen in profound and occasional iterations or through a process that emphasizes Growth-Driven Design to meet the needs of today's customers and anticipates tomorrow's trends. Businesses should consider GDD as a way to reach customers effectively through targeting measures. 

While there are some "drawbacks" of GDD, they can be easily overcome with the help of a qualified provider. Partnering with experts in inbound marketing and growth-driven design companies can easily facilitate a fluid, agile, and continuously improving website. Your partner can handle regular updates and website maintenance, ensuring your site always aligns with your company and customers.

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