Investment · 7 min read
How to build the business case for a website redesign.
A practical structure for presenting a website investment to your CFO and board.
By the Sovren studio · November 2026
Most website proposals are approved or rejected on taste. A strong business case moves the conversation to value, risk and cost, the terms your CFO and board already use.
1. Start with the commercial goal
Name the one result the website must support: more qualified inquiries, a stronger price position, presales, recruiting, or credibility for a raise. Everything else in the case follows from it.
2. Put a value on one new client
Use your own numbers: average client value, typical close rate and how many new clients a year you need. Here is a worked example, for illustration only. If one new client is worth $250,000 and a better website helps you win two more a year, that is $500,000 of revenue against a fee of, say, $90,000. Your figures will differ; the point is to show the scale of the decision.
3. Bring outside evidence
94%
of B2B buying groups rank preferred vendors before first contact (6sense, 2025).
+8.4%
retail conversions from a site just 0.1 seconds faster on mobile (Deloitte for Google).
+32 pts
higher five-year revenue growth for top-quartile design companies (McKinsey).
These studies do not predict your result, but they show why buyers now judge firms online first, and that speed and design quality are linked to commercial performance.
4. Show the cost of doing nothing
An average website rarely fails loudly. It loses referrals who check it and go quiet, visitors who leave slow pages, and buyers whose AI assistant recommends a clearer competitor. Add the risk side: 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts in 2025 (Seyfarth Shaw).
5. Show the full cost over three years
Include design and build, hosting, licenses, content updates and ongoing improvement. A fixed fee and a three-year view remove the most common objection from finance: the fear of open-ended spending.
6. Define how success will be measured
Agree measurable quality targets for the website itself, such as speed, accessibility, usability and security, and the business measures you will watch, such as inquiries and close rates. Report both at launch and after 90 days.
7. Fit it on one page
Goal, value of one client, evidence, cost of inaction, three-year cost, measures, and the decision needed. Our board briefing is an example of the format.