The websites of enterprise-level businesses are often held back by outdated technology and strategy. Learn how bespoke software + service helps you build an enterprise website that keeps pace with the rapid changes of next-generation technologies.
In a digital-first age, your company website is one of the most critical engines for driving business. After all, websites are responsible for a staggering number of tasks, including generating leads, driving sales, showcasing your brand, boosting credibility, and facilitating customer service.
For your enterprise website to succeed at performing so many business functions, it needs best-practice execution across multiple areas. At the same time, it needs to leverage the most impactful features and best-in-breed software to provide consistently excellent customer experiences.
Even if you don’t, your competitors will.
Solving this challenge seems simple. All you need is the right strategy, talent, and tech stack.
Here’s the problem: although technology changes quickly, organisations change slowly. This phenomenon is known as Martec’s Law, which HubSpot VP Scott Brinker calls “the greatest management challenge of the 21st century.”
In the context of building enterprise websites, Martec’s Law states that website technology rapidly outpaces most companies’ capacity to implement it.
This explains why enterprise websites of so many leading businesses are held back by outdated technology and strategy — conditions in which even the best talent can struggle to make an impact.
It’s like being reliant on steam power when the world has moved onto the combustion engine.
Time travel tech support: how software + service beats Martec’s Law
Imagine that a time traveller from the not-so-distant future appears in your office. “This will transform your business,” they tell you, as they hand over a hexagonal device that has thousands of buttons.
“But how does it work?” you rightfully ask. You get no answer. The time traveller has already disappeared.
Sound familiar? This situation is what it’s like to partner with many software providers. They give you a next-generation solution but don’t show you how to use it.
This is especially frustrating if learning how to use software causes business disruption.
Imagine another scenario, where the time traveller teaches you how to use the device. Better yet, all you need to do is press a button on the device and they’ll appear to offer you real-time support.
Soon, you gain proficiency using the device. With a little extra help, you move from proficiency to expertise.
By combining software and service, solutions providers have discovered how to build enterprise websites that help their clients adapt to technological change and expand their capabilities — without falling prey to Martec’s Law.
The focus on providing both software and service reflects a general trend towards favouring customer success, where providers give their customers the tools they need to get the most out of their products.
The engagement shouldn’t end once the website is live. As a continuation of their service, the ideal partner takes responsibility for technology change. They should recommend new features or improvements and put a plan in place to ensure that changes are implemented seamlessly.
Let’s recap: to develop a next-generation, enterprise website, companies need software and service. But there’s one more piece to the puzzle.
To succeed, your website needs to be custom
Driving revenue through your enterprise website requires building your site around the unique aspects of your company, including your brand, value proposition, and the buyer’s journey.
If cookie-cutter website templates aren’t robust enough to do the job and designing a new enterprise website from scratch is too resource-intensive — what option do companies have?
Fortunately, leading solution providers have developed flexible and feature-rich website-building frameworks that enable companies to tailor their workflows and customer experiences to fit the unique aspects of their business.
At Huble, for instance, we offer a service that combines strategic consulting and sophisticated technology to build custom websites that unlock next-level growth.
Custom builds need to accommodate:
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Website strategy — your website should consider the entire customer lifecycle and how customers navigate your offering. This means identifying and catering to critical user journeys — these represent the key interactions that visitors require before they can become customers.
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Multiple business functions — is your website your most effective employee? It should be. Your website expresses multiple business functions, including sales and marketing. It needs to be built to empower each function.
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Content and design — websites need to express your unique brand story, as well as a human-centric visual identity.
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Integrations with other platforms — your website needs to work well with critical tools like CRM, payment apps, and sales automation software. One solution is to build your website on top of app platforms with rich feature sets like Salesforce or HubSpot.
It’s all coming together: the power of bespoke, blended ecosystems
According to Martec’s Law, enterprise-level organisations cannot keep pace with changing website requirements.
If this is holding you back, then the answer may be to find the right website partner — specifically one who blends service and software to provide bespoke enterprise website development solutions.
Wondering if your website needs updating? As a first step, why not sign up for a complimentary website audit? After performing our audit, we’ll share a video unpacking what we would do to improve your website.
As we’ve built or helped optimise the websites of hundreds of organisations across multiple sectors, we’re sure to find one or two areas to improve.
