An Inbound Marketing Website Design Inspired by an Apple Store visit

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I visited the Apple Store in Monterey CA., three times in the last three months to buy products and noticed what a pleasant experience it was. These experiences combined with learnings from a recent MECLABs webinar, contributed to the criteria for our Website redesign.

Our Website is critical to generating inbound leads for business and our prior design was overdue for an update, it was text heavy and I was not happy with the look and feel and the CTA’s were clunky and hard to read.

The Apple Store Experience

The first thing you notice when you walk into an Apple Store is how
clean, light and well organized the place is.
Apple Store NY


There is no clutter, lot’s of white-space and it feels good to be there. Take 15 paces into the store and you are greeted by an enthusiastic person who politely inquires as to your interests.
If appropriate the person will handle your inquiry themselves, or if a specialist is required, you will be introduced to the right person to handle your inquiry.

If it’s really busy, you may have to find your own way to the product section of interest, but this isn’t really a problem, because all of the products are arranged in separate areas and it’s obvious where to go.

Getting Advice and Making a Transaction

Ten years ago I owned 2 Sony TV’s, 2 Walkman CD’s, a waterproof Walkman cassette player, a Sony PC and a Sony minidisc player. Buying all of the Sony stuff was a consumer experience, I dont think I bought any of it at a Sony Store. They are all gone, replaced by;

  • 3 Macbooks
  • 1 Macbook Air
  • 1 iPAD
  • 1 iTouch
  • 3 iPODS
  • 1 27″ Apple monitor (great).

I bought all of the Apple stuff at the Apple Store and each time it was a very positive experience.

Which model do you choose when buying a new MAC or iPAD? The answer is, it depends on what you need and I have found the advice from Apple sales assistants to be helpful in making a decision and the check-out experience to be excellent.

Only once or twice have I had to wait in a checkout queue and this was a couple of years ago in the UK. Most of the time the sales assistant is able to get you what you need, make the transaction on the spot and email you a receipt, which is in your inbox before you get home. You are thanked for your custom and you leave the store with a smile on your face and the shiny new product in your hand.

New Website Design Criteria

The visit to the Apple Store was the opening brief with John McTigue of Kuno Creative who did our redesign. The critera for the design was hevily influenced by MECLABS advice and anyone who has attended their Webinars will see a few common themes;

  • It has to look and feel good when you land on the home page or the blog page.
  • Instantly you should feel this is a place you want to spend time and maybe explore a little.
  • Well laid out, lots of white-space, bright.
  • Easy to navigate to available services, but not too many options to confuse the visitor.
  • Clear calls to action with professional look and feel.
  • Landing pages that are clear in their offer and easy to complete.
  • A follow-up page to thank the visitor for making a download.
  • Inside pages, blog and landing pages all share same bright look and feel.

I loved the initial concept Kuno came up with and with only minor alteration to graphics, we went live with the Website last Friday. Initial response has been very positive, inbound leads are up 50% this week, I’m very pleased with the whole experience and highly recommend Kuno’s services.

I’m interested in your feedback on the Website, if you like it, or otherwise, please comment.

If you want to generate an increasing quantity of better quality inbound leads in a scientific way on your Website, then you might find the Inbound Marketing Whitepaper of interest.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Mark Gibson
Mark Gibson has been at the forefront of developing sales and marketing tools that create clarity in messaging value for 30 years. As a consultant he is now engaged in helping sales, marketing and enablement teams to get clear about value creation. Clarity attracts inbound leads, clarity converts visitors into leads and leads into customers, clarity builds mindshare, clarity engages customers, clarity differentiates value, clarity helps onboard new hires clarity helps raise funds, clarity + execution win markets.

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