All too often, when it comes to designing and creating a new company website, the focus tends to be on what you want to say about your products or services rather than what your customers are likely to be looking for.
For the most part, companies understand that the top three most important factors about the design and content of a website are:
- Providing answers to the most asked questions
- Simple and quick navigation
- Expert advice/insights
Not enough attention, however, is paid to the design elements of the website; this, despite research indicating that B2B visitors place a high value on such aesthetics. Additionally, alongside testimonials that confirm what your company can deliver, visitors like to see photographs of key people in the business as they provide that all-important ‘human’ connection.
What B2B website visitors want
It is very rare to find ‘web surfers’ visiting B2B websites. Visitors to your B2B site are there for a reason, they haven’t landed there by accident. Time is of the essence; they’ve got a problem to solve and they’re looking for solutions.
When they land on your homepage, they want to know they’ve arrived at the right place to address their unique challenge(s). The last thing they want to have to do is think – they want to quickly and intuitively navigate around your site to find answers to their questions.
Search boxes can be a huge help – they act as a shortcut for visitors wanting to find specific information. Depending on your industry, chatbots or live chat features are also considered by many as a helpful tool to access general information fast – although personally, I have reservations about these as they can be frustrating to use unless manned by real people (who, of course, add expense).
We all value third-party endorsements which is why testimonials are great for building trust amongst your website visitors. Note, however, that if you aren’t specific as to who gave the testimonial (name, job title and company), such quotes are easily dismissed as puffery and carry very little weight.
Written and produced professionally, blogs and case studies are powerful tools. Blogs need to be informative and long-form (1000 to 2000 words or more), whilst case studies must demonstrate real benefits backed up with figures where possible.
For some time now, the influence of videos has been widely understood, but to maximise impact, testimonial videos are the way to go. After all, if someone is prepared to go in front of a camera and expound the benefits of your product or service, then it’s far more believable, isn’t it?
What B2B website visitors DON’T want
Features that can irritate visitors include:
- Navigation that is whacky or ‘clever’ and consequently far from intuitive. It may well be seen as ‘creative’ for B2C websites, but don’t get drawn into this rabbit warren of invisibility if you’re in the B2B space.
- ‘Gated content’ (where they have to enter contact details to get access) unless, of course, there is a very real and significant value to such content.
- Pages that take too long to load. People are in a hurry and having to wait for pages to load is frustrating to say the least (Google hates these too and penalises your website score accordingly), so make sure this isn’t a feature of your website.
- Pop-up boxes (equivalent to the all too eager shop assistants asking you if they can help as soon as you walk in the store); like good shop assistants, however, used sparingly pop-ups can be very effective in increasing conversion rates.
- Unnecessary detail or waffle. Remember your website works best as a website, not a brochure or product manual. People will not read it word for word, they’ll scan the pages, so keep the information relevant, concise and interesting.
Finding your website – a needle in a haystack
It comes as no surprise that search engines (in particular, Google) are the number one tool used by B2B people to find new suppliers. Search engines’ dominance is such, that it is astonishing there are still B2B companies out there that invest little or none of their marketing budget promoting their websites.
After all, there is absolutely no question that your website is the most valuable tool in the B2B decision making process. It is the front line of your marketing and deserves the appropriate level of investment, both in its design and development, and its promotion.
That means that top of your annual marketing budget should be search engine optimisation (SEO). It’s a vital element to give your website the best chance of appearing on page one of the search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords.
If you do nothing else in the next 12 months, invest in a professional SEO campaign. Without it, the chance of visitors finding your website is slim to none, and Slim just left town.
Paid search is another great tool to bring your website to the attention of B2B people at the precise moment they’re looking for solutions. When people enter very specific search terms in Google or other search engines, they have a very definite need. By investing in a Google Ads campaign you can take advantage of such hot leads.
Not only is a Google Ads campaign cost-effective, but it is also totally measurable. This means that without spending large sums of money, you will know very quickly what works and what doesn’t. You can then refine or ditch the campaign accordingly.
Why make life difficult?
When, on 25th May 1961, President Kennedy stood before Congress and proposed that the US “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon,” he added the all-important phrase, “and returning him safely to Earth.”
When you commission a new or re-designed website, remember the two key elements that go together:
- Providing easily accessible great content your B2B visitors are looking for
and
- Setting aside a budget to promote the website so it can be found easily by the people who are looking for the solutions you provide
Doing one without the other is like sending a man to the Moon without first figuring out how to get him home safely – it’s madness.
A helping hand
If you’d like help in designing and building a new or refreshed website that serves your business and meets its goals, our team here at Leapfrog Marketing are eager and ready to guide you through the process.
We’ve developed a ‘7 Step Plan for Success’ to do just this. It will help deliver a powerful website offering a great user experience.
I’m eager to develop a new website…
Our SEO and Google Ads experts will then work with you to develop campaigns to promote your website. They will make sure that for the right keywords and phrases, your website has the very best opportunity to appear on page one of the SERPs.
I’m keen to start test campaigns…