Your Website Is Not a Brochure—It’s a Growth Engine

If you are like most businesses, you treat your website like a digital flyer—something to point people towards, not a platform that actually move the needle. Don’t take it personally, for most of my marketing career, that is how websites were built. Informational, branded, and static. Pretty but passive. Tons of work upfront, but then kind of just fading into another marketing asset rather than an engine to drive growth.

In todays market, a passive website is actually a liability.

Websites should generate revenue, not just impressions.

As I have waxed on about in nauseum, the modern customer journey is fragmented and non-linear. People aren’t just landing on your home or landing pages and just immediately filling out a contact form. They bounce between pages, look you up on social media, read every negative review they can find, check out your content, etc., all before most business owners even know they exist.

If your website isn’t designed with a strategy to guide and convert this anonymous visitors in to qualified leads, than it is failing at it most important function. Your website is not a brochure, it isn’t a text book, and it isn’t a welcome mat, it is the starting line of your sales engine.

What separates growth driven websites from static ones?

If we are honest with ourselves, the vast majority of websites look fine on the surface, but are bleeding opportunity underneath. Fixing this problem can seem like a bit of a daunting task, so I have put together the most common areas where things fall apart so you have somewhere to start diagnosing.

• Slow load times and poor mobile optimization. Search engines and users penalize it. User bounce has massive impact on your site and it is a relatively simple fix.

• Lack of clear conversion pathways. If you aren’t showing users the next step, they aren’t going to take it. Period, its that simple.

• Generic messaging. This is becoming more and more of a problem as people have AI write their content instead of rolling of their sleeves and writing it themselves. Your website should sound and feel like you, not some corporate template or some AI generated jargon. People like people.

• No data feedback loop. This is not the time to “set it and forget it.” If you aren’t testing, tracking, and reiterating, you are making assumptions rather than improvements.

The role of UX, Speed, and Conversion Strategy

The very best, high performance websites on the market aren’t just pretty, they are purposeful. Every element serves a function to support the primary objective of the site, conversion.

Here are some of the common aspects of the most effective websites that give them an edge over their competition:

• Speed First- For starters, effective websites are fast…like under 2.5s load time or you are losing leads, prospects are bouncing, and you SEO is suffering. You site needs to feel instant.

• Frictionless UX- The design should get out of the way of the message. Despite the incredible talent and creativity of our graphic designers, function and message should always be the focus. Clean navigation, mobile first wins every time.

• Conversion Pathways on every page- More than just a call to action at the bottom of a landing page, the most effective sites guide the user on every single page. Soft asks, hard asks, and contextual prompts keep momentum towards conversion.

• Designed with User Psychology in mind- The use of authority signals, scarcity cues, testimonials and social consent, as well as visuals that reduce uncertainty and built trust are all standard in any conversion focused website.

Real-world changes that drive actual Real Growth

Like most things in life, a small strategic shift in thinking and planning will lead to massive performance gains. I have seen conversion rates double after rewriting a single headline to better reflect a customer’s pain point. I have had websites reduce bounce rates by over 40% overnight by shaving a couple seconds off of load time. A couple of years ago at a Solar Engineering Firm whose lead generation I was managing, we tripled our lead volume while reducing our CPA all by just adding a simple downloadable checklist as a mid-funnel magnet.

The Bottom Line

Your website isn’t a billboard, it isn’t a brochure. It is the engine that fuels your growth. If it isn’t tuned to convert, it is costing you money every single day. The bright side? Most sites only need a few focused changes to go from flat to high performing.

Let’s make this work for you!

I don’t just build pretty websites. I build systems that scale.
I take a hands-on role in optimizing your site to drive traffic, capture leads, and convert attention into action.

Stop Guessing: Using AI to Sharpen Your Audience Targeting

It’s not that you are bad at ads, it isn’t your creative team that is failing. No matter how good the ad is, if it is aimed at the wrong people it will be ineffective and inconsistent.

The real reason your ads aren’t working

It’s not your creative, it’s not your offer, it’s not your “call to action.” Most importantly, it probably isn’t your budget either. Chasing that solution gets really expensive, really fast!

The main reason your marketing isn’t converting and your cost of acquisition is so high…the wrong people are engaging with it.

You’re targeting the wrong people—or most likely, and even worse, you are relying on outdated personas built on assumption and targeted based on gut feelings.

The modern digital landscape does not reward guesswork. It rewards precision, and the most powerful tool for getting precise is AI.

From Static Personas to Dynamic Models

The traditional marketing personas we have all been using for decades are similar to cardboard cut outs of people. They are flat, rigid, and worst of all generic.

• “Stacey S, 35, soccer mom, married, homeowner, shops online”

• “Jeremy F, 28, tech savvy, gym membership, college graduate”

These types are targeting personas don’t work for consistent results. Real people are way more complex than a simple persona and a binary yes or no from a list of interest, and your targeting has to reflect that complexity.

With LLMs you can simulate real buyer behaviors, generate nuanced customer journeys that adjust in real time based on actions, and stress test your messaging from thousands of different directions in minutes. Combine that with behavioral modeling and first-party data, and you have a living, evolving understanding of your actual audience.

Lookalike Audiences VS Predictive Targeting

I have built some massive campaigns in my career and have seen a ton of success with lookalike audiences. They were really great…10 years ago.

The way lookalikes work is by cloning past customers that have converted via your marketing, the problems arise when you have any changes at all in your product, you value proposition, your funnel, or basically anything else. You can end up chasing shadows and burning budgets very quickly.

Predictive Targeting, or predictive audiences generated by artificial intelligence flip that script. Instead of mirroring the past, it gives us the ability to forecast who is most likely to convert based on real time intent signals, evolving engagement data, and in the moment psychographics.

The platforms we are all using like Facebook and Google are dabbling in this technology, but layering in your own tools, ie., SparkToro for intent or Clearbit for enrichment, you gain targeting that adapts with your market, not months behind it.

Building adaptive targeting systems

Good marketers don’t “set it and forget it,” they build systems that actually evolve and learn.

Using the right AI tools you can:

• Ingest performance data and update audience segments automatically

• Run message simulations to see how different groups are most likely to react

• Cluster intent signals to personalize campaigns even before launch

Instead of a one size fits all campaign and generic targeting, you can create a living ecosystem where every customized audience member gets what they need to hear when they are most ready to hear it.

Are you ready to see what AI-Powered Targeting actually looks like?

If you are still guessing who your audience is, you are basically burning cash. Let’s map your actual customer journey, identify your targeting blind spots, and set you up with an adaptive system designed to evolve with your market.

Why Your Marketing Funnel Is Failing—and How to Fix It

Let’s be real—most marketing funnels suck.
They look good on paper, they have worked for all of us at one point or another, but in the real world over time, they leak leads, burn ad spend, scare prospects, and leave you wondering why your growth has stalled. The good news? The problem isn’t your product. It’s your funnel—and we can fix that.

The Problem: Most Funnels Are Built for Awareness, Not Action

Awareness is easy. You can throw a few bucks at Facebook and generate impressions all day. But impressions don’t pay the bills—conversions do. And if your funnel isn’t guiding people through the decision-making process with intention, you're just generating noise.

Here’s where most businesses go wrong:

• Generic targeting that brings the wrong people in.

• Weak middle-funnel content that doesn’t build trust.

• Unclear CTAs that leave people hanging at the finish line.

The Breakdown: TOFU, MOFU, BOFU

Let’s simplify the funnel:

• TOFU (Top of Funnel) – Grab attention. Think hooks, headlines, ads.

• MOFU (Middle of Funnel) – Build trust. This is where most funnels fall apart.

• BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) – Convert. This is your close—the call, the offer, the click.

Each stage needs to be treated like its own campaign, with content and messaging that matches where your lead is in their journey.

The Fix: Strategy Meets Systems

Here’s how I help clients plug the leaks and scale:

Audit the full journey – not just ad clicks, but post-click flow and nurture.
Fix your MOFU – Inject case studies, trust-builders, video walk-throughs.
Upgrade your CTAs – Make them clearer, bolder, and benefit-focused.
Set up tracking that actually works – Know what’s converting and what’s fluff.

Want a Funnel That Works? Start Here.

I built the Compass Plan specifically for this.
We do a full breakdown of your funnel—what’s working, what’s bleeding—and I hand you a strategy that shows you exactly how to fix it.

Monthly reports
A live strategy call
A plan your team can execute (or I can do it for you later)