The fix is not a website redesign
Updated: 7 hours ago
Short answer: when growth stalls, most founders fix the most visible thing, which is usually the website or the ad budget. The leak is rarely there. It's more often earlier (the wrong people arrive) or later (the right people enquire and nobody follows up well). Find the step where most people drop off before you spend more on anything.
The usual sequence goes like this. Sales slow down, so the founder looks at the website and decides it's tired. A redesign follows, or a bigger ad budget, or a new channel someone recommended. A few months later the numbers look the same, the money is gone, and the team is even less sure what's working.
The redesign wasn't the mistake. Fixing something without first knowing where it breaks was.
Why marketing isn't converting: the fixes founders try first
If two or more of these sound familiar, read on before you brief anyone:
Traffic is up, but sales aren't.
You've tried three or four channels and can't say which one pays for itself.
Your agency's answer is a bigger budget.
You suspect the website, mostly because it's the part you can see.
Enquiries come in, but few turn into customers, and nobody can say why.
Here's what usually gets tried first, and why it so often disappoints.
The fix | Why it usually disappoints | Check this first |
A bigger ad budget | You get more of the same people, who drop off at the same rate. If the leak is further down, you pay more to lose more | Are the people you already reach the right ones? |
A website redesign | A new look on the same message. If visitors don't see why it's for them, a nicer page won't change that | Do people leave because of the page, or because of what it says? |
A new channel | The same budget and attention, spread thinner | Is one of your current channels working but underfed? |
A new agency | New hands, same unclear brief | Can you tell them which step to fix? |
None of these is wrong in itself. Each one is wrong as a first move, because it changes something before you know where things break.
The five steps every customer takes
Whatever you sell, people move through the same five steps before they pay you. Count each one, and the problem usually stops being a mystery.
Step | What it means | What to count |
1. Find you | They come across you | Visitors, people reached, per channel |
2. Understand you | They get what you do and that it's for them | How many reach your services, pricing or product pages; replies to outreach |
3. Trust you | They believe you can deliver | Return visits, downloads, sign-ups, questions |
4. Act | They enquire, book, start a trial or add to cart | Enquiries, bookings, trials, carts |
5. Buy and come back | They pay, and pay again | New customers, repeat purchases, renewals |
You don't need perfect data. Rough counts for one month are enough to see the shape.
Find your widest gap
Here's an example. The numbers are invented for illustration. A small service business looks at one month:
Step | People | How many move on to the next step |
Find you | 2,000 | 35% |
Understand you | 700 | 43% |
Trust you | 300 | 20% |
Act (enquire) | 60 | 10% |
Buy | 6 | — |
The founder wanted a new website. But the website is doing its job: 60 people a month ask for a conversation. The widest gap is the last one. Only one enquiry in ten becomes a customer. That points to what happens after the enquiry: slow replies, no follow-up, or proposals that don't match what the person asked for. A redesign wouldn't have touched any of that.
Look at the percentage that moves from one step to the next, not the raw numbers. The step with the lowest percentage is the one to fix first. Fix one gap at a time, then count again.
Keep, fix or kill each channel
For each channel you use, answer four questions:
Does it bring the right people, not just more people?
Can you trace at least some customers back to it?
Has it had enough time and budget to judge it fairly?
Would you notice if you stopped it for a month?
Then decide:
Keep it if it brings in customers you can trace.
Fix it if it brings the right people but loses them at a step you can name.
Kill it if, after a fair try, you can't link it to a single customer.
Killing a channel isn't a failure. It frees budget and attention for the one that works.
Two numbers that tell you if growth can pay for itself
What it costs to win a customer: your marketing spend in a period, divided by the new customers you won in that same period.
What a customer is worth to you: average yearly revenue per customer × your gross margin × the number of years customers usually stay.
If the first number is well below the second, you can afford to spend more to grow. If it's close to the second, or above it, each new customer barely pays for itself, and more traffic will only make you busier, not healthier. Rough numbers are fine. The point is to know which side of the line you're on.
Be careful with anyone who guarantees results
When growth stalls, a confident promise is tempting. But nobody can promise you numbers before they know your business, your market and what you can put behind the plan. Results come when you agree the goals together, both sides commit, and the budget matches the goal. Anything promised before that is a sales pitch, not a plan.
When it isn't a conversion problem
Sometimes the funnel isn't where the problem lives.
If people drop off at "understand you", the problem is usually positioning, not conversion. Read Your logo is the last thing you need.
If the plan is clear but nobody has time to carry it out, it's a capacity problem. You need hands, not a new funnel.
What a growth project gives you
This is the work my Growth Gameplan project does. You get an honest look at where you stand, an audit of your conversion funnel and a proposed funnel, a content strategy, priorities across organic and paid channels, and a 90-day growth plan with priorities and budget direction that your team, freelancers or agency can carry out. You also get a decision filter, so you can judge new channels, ideas and requests on your own.
We agree three or four numbers to watch, so you know whether it's working. Before I finish, we have a call to validate the direction together. About 30–45 days after delivery, we have one more call to go through what you've put into action and where you're stuck.
The bottom line
Before you redesign, rebrief or spend more, count. Find the step where most people leave, fix that one, then count again. The fix is often cheaper than the redesign you were about to pay for.
Not sure where your growth is stuck? Book a fit call. I'll tell you honestly what fits your stage, even if the answer isn't me.
