Your Marketing Site Really Should Be Even Better Than Your Product

When a new head of marketing joins a start-up and the first thing they want to do is “refresh the marketing site”, I always quietly groan a bit.  Look, a marketing site is important.  But don’t leads matter more?  Shouldn’t improving the funnel be job #1 first?  Shouldn’t updating lead scoring, and lead routing, and so many other things come before a big “refresh the marketing site” project?

Well.  Yes, of course leads come first.  But these marketers aren’t wrong.

Because the good VPs of Marketing know something:  Your marketing site should be even better than your product.  And when it is — you’ll move more leads down the funnel.  And close more of them.  Than you would with a mediocre website.  And since this upgrade really doesn’t require shipping any new features, fixing any bugs, or really needing anything from any other functional group … it makes sense to be a Top 3 project for a new marketing lead.  Because it will move the needle.

And importantly, I find SaaS start-ups in the $1.5m-$10m ARR often fall into this trap.  They start off all excited about their vision, and the marketing site they build at $0.1m or $1m ARR is pretty good.  But then, the product gets richer. The logos more impressive.  The integrations deeper.  And importantly, the target markets broader.  And the marketing site doesn’t keep up.  It looks like a marketing site from a year ago.

Don’t let that happen.  Especially just as you are getting a mini-brand.  As prospects start to hear about you, make sure when they drive by, they are impressed.

A few simple thoughts:

• Get your exec team around the table and just ask: “Is our marketing site better than our product?”.  Ask everyone.  If they don’t agree, make changes this month.
• Adopt the persona of any customer segment with > 10% of your revenue.  Does your marketing site really speak to them?  Are you sure?
• What are the top 10 objections in sales.  Does the marketing site answer them?  Are you sure?
• It is super, duper easy to contact sales, support, marketing, the CEO, anyone?  No?  Why not?
• Does the marketing site make you look like you are at least 2x larger than you are?  Why not?
• Does the marketing site let me get information how I like it to process it?  Is there a weekly webinar?  A whitepaper?  An FAQ?  Intercom?  Why not?  Why do prospects have to process information one single way?
• Is the marketing site faster loading, slicker, more responsive, and better designed than your product?  It should be.  You don’t need all those engineers.
• Are your top customers all signing your praise on your marketing site?  They should be.  Go ask them.
• Is your marketing site more professional than the competition? It isn’t?  Then why would I pick you?

This works, folks.  Buyers now have 100s of SaaS apps deployed and evaluation 1000+ over their buying lifetimes.  They are looking for signals.  Is this the right vendor for me?  Can it be trusted?  Will they deliver for me?

And those are the questions your marketing site answers.

Upgrade your marketing site to be even slicker than your product itself.  And watch your close rate go up.  Easy peasy.

And you can look as big or better than Snowflake or really anyone.  Even with the features and revenue you have today.