Stellar B2b Web Sites Need More Than Good Design
Stellar B2b Web Sites Need More Than Good Design
Worried about whether your B2B website is propelling you forward or holding you back? Youre not alone. A large percentage of businesstobusiness marketers plan to upgrade or replace their websites this year.
Thats a good thing because most businesstobusiness buyers arent happy with the websites they visit and they let us know by telling researchers and more importantly by abandoning websites at an alarming rate.
But update or replace your web site with care. At best a poorly development businesstobusiness website might be a colossal waste of money. At worst it could destroy your traffic and your conversion rates.
A good website is not just one that makes you proud to look at it. A good website also delivers a great return on your investment by producing the results you want it to produce. Simple idea but judging by many of the website stats we see one that is often overlooked.
Most people brilliant B2B CEOs and marketers included tend to judge a website by how it slick it looks. This may be a natural reaction to a visual stimulus but when it comes to evaluating websites its a mistake. While a poorly designed website can wreck a sale a pleasing visual design doesnt ensure that the site will do its job. Its not that easy.
The best criteria for evaluating website effectiveness focus on how well the site communicates to the target audiences. This means:
- how well it draws rather than repels qualified visitors
- how much of the site gets read; and most important
- how effective it is in getting the visitor to take the desired actions.
Sounds a little like how you evaluate your sales people doesnt it? Theres a reason for that. Todays website is far more than just an online brochure. A good website actually performs many of the initial activities that used to be the responsibility of a sales team.
Sure a sloppy unprofessional sales person can screw up even the most solid deal. But a slick talking welldress salesperson who arrives unprepared is not going to make the sale either.
Take a minute and think about your customers and prospects and how they make their buying decisions. In general it begins when the prospect recognizes a need. They start to research the problem and potential solutions. In BtoB especially business technology this is usually done online well before the prospect is willing to commit to a call with a sales person.
If youre beginning to think that redesigning your website or creating an allnew one is going to take more thinking than just about the visual design youre right!
Here are the seven major components to a great website:
- Website strategy. This involves taking a close look at your objectives your audiences your competitors and your traffic sources.
- Content. Whether its text illustrations demos or whatever this is what people come to your site for.
- Visual design. Yeah yeah. Its important too.
- Performance. This may not be the sexist part of the site to anyone but a programmer; but nothing will drive visitors away like slow loading pages dead links or a site that cant be read on a Firefox browser.
- Search Engine Optimization SEO. While we recommend against compromising your best selling content in order to meet perceived search engine requirements good search engine ranking is important.
- Analytics. How do you know a website is performing well? You measure it! Analytics provides the proof that something is working or not working and it shows where the greatest opportunities for improvement are located.
- Testing. Even after 15 years of working with websites I am still constantly constantly surprised at how little we really know about how people are going to respond and how small changes can make a great difference in performance.
Redesigning or replacing your businesstobusiness website is possibly the most important step you can take to improve your marketing results. Do so with caution pay attention to the seven components listed above and youll have yourself a powerful marketing hub.
2008 Tatum Marketing Inc.
About the writer: Susan Pascal Tatum cofounder and president of Tatum Marketing is a recognized expert in businesstobusiness internet marketing. She has been helping software information technology and other BtoB firms achieve greater online marketing results for more than two decades. She is a popular author and speaker and regularly publishes internet marketing strategies and actionable tips on her Tatum Marketing blog. Visit Tatum Marketing online for a complementary copy of their latest report Technology Marketing 2008.
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