Build Dynamically and Launch Faster

Welcome to 2019’s always-on marketing environment where content is dynamic, campaigns A-B test continuously, and monolithic site architecture is dying. Agility is everywhere, so build cycles are getting shorter and marketing teams are pushing for site builds to go up more quickly. To perform, successful teams are collaborating more swiftly than ever before.  

In my mind, web development is changing in the aspect that we are moving from building static websites to developing fluid content and brand collections that can be crafted into a campaign or condensed into a post and distributed across various channels.

Here at Formulate, we’ve spent the last few years building  websites and landing pages that serve as marketing hubs and sales funnels for clients, removing code as an obstacle.  After dealing with site crashes, messy code, and unfriendly UX, our team moved to Webflow. To this, I want to share the insights we found after the builds and blunders that prompted our shift to this tool  

‍What is important in publishing and site builds, and why we use Webflow?

Because it helps teams:

1. Move Quickly

2. Build Responsively

3  Design and Animate Intuitively

4. Work Collaboratively

5. Publish and Create a Sales Funnel

Move Quickly

Products are launching faster and innovation moves at lightning speed, so efficiency is not optional. The minute a client signs the engagement, we have to be prepared to move quickly from idea to implementation.   We can launch a site from scratch in a matter of days (if we need to) with a drag-and-drop interface that looks and feels like an Adobe tool, writing clean, semantic code as we build.   Does your marketing team need a landing page up next week?

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Build Responsively

We create modern, responsive websites—without writing a single line of code.  Projects in Webflow are responsive by default.  We optimize the CSS for many types of screens and make responsive designs. so that the experience is great in various viewports.  Usually, this means mobile, tablet and desktop screens.   The advent of giant screens, which are 2560 x 1600 pixels pose a number of challenges.     We “optimize” for a desktop and manage the responsiveness on a “giant” screen with upfront planning. Scaling to smaller screen sizes and resolution does not pose the same problem as scaling to ultra-high resolution. Designing for tablet and mobile can be done in the browser and we don’t require a "separate" design for it.

Design and Animate Intuitively

The subtle use of interactions can increase user engagement with the page, so we like to weave it into the website design. Webflow makes it easy to seamlessly combine many different forms of visual stimulation to convey information. The Webflow University has a set of tutorials that support the build of inter-activities and movement. The great thing about the tool is that you can preview the interaction as you build.

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Publish and Create a Sales Funnel

Webflow represents the point at which content marketing goes from problematic to practical. Because Webflow sites have a dynamic CMS, they can be used to perform low-cost online publishing and integrated marketing campaigns.  This serves the day-to-day life of a marketing team in the management of content, from production to distribution and how consumers interact with the content. Sites are SSL enabled and are automatically backed up, ensuring that no site disappears into thin air, giving clients more confidence in their web property.  

Webflow enables teams to build content that draw prospects in and implement Search Engine Optimization best practices to help you get found organically through a Google search. Once prospects enter your funnel, Webflow offers plenty of integrated tools, like Zapier to grab an email address so you can set up an email sequence.

Building out a sales funnel is a complex task but well-constructed Webflow site can be a powerful part of the process.

Work Collaboratively

Webflow lets design, content and development teams collaborate and work openly to create better projects.  Our copywriters can edit copy in the live build with an editor link and have a team member drop in with senior edits. Likewise, in the review phase, a client can edit copy in the same manner,  This is critical because it is not productive for developers to make client requested copy edits, but they are often asked to do so.  

Clients review the design as a web page, which speeds the review process. After the site hand-off, the client can use that same functionality to make edits right on the site itself.  

Summary

As the B2B space transforms to make content production more fluid for marketing teams and everyone involved, we employ the tools and best practices that help in the effort. Weblflow mitigates the inherent risk in the web platforms because their code is clean, and the sites are automatically backed up.  This means that websites can be restored, transferred, and exported without any degradation.

What tools are you using for publishing content in coordination with your web team?