While the design of your B2B website comes with its challenges, it is now more important than ever. There is a wide audience you might be trying reach – managers, CIOs, software users, investors and more. This audience will most likely want to speak to one of your representatives before they decide to purchase, and this is happening a lot later down the sales funnel than it was 10 years ago. Now, the website itself is actually doing a lot of the leg work that salespersons have done in the past. People now want to be more educated before they contact a salesperson. This is why you must pay great attention to the design of your website and make sure you are engaging and educating your visitors.
Follow these 4 general guidelines to succeed at engaging and educating your visitors so they’re more likely to move to the next step in your sales funnel.
1. Keep it Simple
Some of the best advice you can get for your B2B website design is to keep it simple. While your goal is to educate your viewer with informative content, be sure to keep from overwhelming them by cramming in too much. This is especially true before the “fold” (the point where your viewers have to start scrolling down) which is the first part of the page they see. Keep your design simple, and make sure what you’re trying to get across is apparent at the beginning. Don’t beat around the bush with business jargon and unnecessary fluff. Not only will remaining simple keep people engaged, it also decreases load time and increases readability.
2. Avoid being too salesy
Along with keeping it simple, it’s important to avoid being too salesy. The goal is to be informative, allowing the visitor to decide whether or not they will contact you further based on what they have learned by coming to your website. Pushing the sale of your services or product will only come across as pushy and maybe even desperate. Try to focus on educating your visitors about your product/service first, then explain to them why going into business with your company will benefit them. Selling by educating is a great way to gain initial trust and an easy way to avoid sounding too salesy.
3. Tell a story
Give your company some flair and educate your visitors by telling a story. A story about what you can do for them, who you are and why your company stands out from all the others. Imagine your website is a story unfolding as viewers scroll down your page. Speaking of scrolling, there is a myth out there that says users don’t like to scroll. In reality, long-scrolling pages are actually one of the most popular design trends today. This trend is especially good for mobile computing, as it is much more convenient to scroll on a mobile device rather than go from link to link or page to page. Use this to your advantage and tell a story as viewers scroll down your page.
4. Careful use of layout, color and visuals
Careful use of layout, color and visuals can help you to look professional and keep visitors as engaged as they would be on any B2C site. You are a professional B2B company, but professional doesn’t have to mean boring. Your website shouldn’t be like a traditional and static brochure. Using basic design elements, like shape, color, repetition, texture and scale, will do a lot for a B2B website design. Use typeface to your advantage also, making sure each different font chosen helps to make each other stand out and create balance.
So, keep it simple, avoid being overly salesy, tell a story and carefully use design principles. This will help you to not only educate your visitors, but keep them engaged and scrolling. As they learn about your story and what you can do for them, only then will they decide to move on to the next step in your sales process. Make sure your website design encourages them to keep looking (engaged) and your content reassures them that you’re the right product or service for them (educated).
