In today’s digital world, decision makers increasingly rely on internet research to identify vendors. In fact, according to a CMO Council study, “87 percent of B2B buyers say online content has a major or moderate impact on vendor selection”. This means your website quickly becomes one of your most important marketing assets. Unfortunately, many companies create their website when they launch without a clear marketing strategy and only occasionally update it when they decide to rebrand. Approaching your website as an afterthought means that all of the other marketing efforts you spend time and money on may not be performing as well as they could with a website aligned with your marketing strategy. Here we’ll dive into what you should include on your website, and how to design it to increase conversions.

Define your website goals

Before you begin outlining your website, you’ll first need to decide what you want visitors to do on your website. The actions they take should align with your larger marketing and business goals. Is the goal to gain more clients or maybe increase engagement of existing clients? You’ll decide based on your unique situation, but the number one goal for almost every B2B company is to generate leads. Specific ways you see these goals in action on a website include collecting emails, inviting consultations, or sign ups for a free trial.

Without thinking about the design of your website, write down your goals to focus on when you move to the design phase.

B2B Website Content to Include

Now that you have your goals in mind, it’s time to start outlining your website pages to achieve these goals. We won’t go into detail on how clients should navigate through your website--it really varies from business to business. Instead, below are the key elements that every B2B website needs in order to achieve your marketing goals.

Cohesive story

Most businesses focus solely on the design details when they create their website. While strong design is critical, if your website isn’t telling a story to your target audience, they won’t take action. Use client personas to understand their pain points and address those throughout your website. Show not only how you solve their problems, but why you’re the best to do so. A strong story increases engagement and it also makes sales conversations easier down the line.

Benefit to client

We touched on this in the story section, but above all, your website should outline what benefits you offer to your target clients. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of writing content about you on your website instead of content for them. Your goal is to help your clients solve their problems, which means you should be focusing on their problems, not your goals.

Overview of services

Within your story, you’ll need to describe the services you offer to solve their pain points. Make sure to include a short overview of your services on your homepage and have separate pages dedicated to each service. The separate service pages allow you to speak directly to the pain points that you solve with that particular service and makes storytelling easier.

Different packages

On your services pages, you should highlight different packages or services available within that category (if you offer multiple). The most common approach is to offer 3 tiers or options. If you have too many, you may need to group them as different services or show that you offer custom options. If you provide too many choices, potential clients will become overwhelmed and leave the page. Stick to 3 main options in the beginning and expand from there as needed.

Social proof

Remember that your website is a marketing and sales resource that tells your story. What does everyone want to know when they read a story? If it has a happy ending. Add social proof to your website to show potential clients what their future can look like if they book with you. You can do this by showcasing testimonials, case studies, and client success stories. It’s also a good idea to include logos of any prominent brands where you’ve been published, hold accreditations, or had as clients to add authority to your brand.

Your Team

Often B2B companies sell services or products that are more expensive than consumer products or services. This higher price tag means they’ll want to know more about you to make sure you’re trustworthy before purchasing. Including information on your team through an about page or a careers page allows you to continue telling your story and highlight your expertise.

Legal requirements

Every website needs to include at a minimum a page for Terms and Conditions and a Privacy Policy. You’ll use these sections to highlight what visitors agree to when they visit your website and outline how you use user data. If you aren’t sure where to start, there are many companies that allow you to buy templates or you can hire an attorney.

Blog

Even if you’re not a writer, you need to create a blog as a way to increase your rankings on search and leverage inbound marketing to attract more potential clients to your business. Having a solid content strategy will improve your blogging efforts, and regular posting can lead to really impressive results. It can take 3-6 months to start seeing those results, but if you stick with it, you’ll create another avenue where clients can find you.

404 page

When visitors click a link that no longer exists or try to find a page that isn’t there, they’ll be directed to your 404 page. You can use this page to guide them back to the content they’re likely trying to find, such as by linking to your blog or directing them to your homepage.

Search bar

We’ve all used search bars on massive websites (think, Amazon), but smaller companies should include search bars as well. If you have a blog, you might find that visitors use the search bar to find relevant blog posts or to search for keywords to see if you support their needs. You can include the search bar in the top navigation bar or the footer, depending on your design goals.

B2B Website Design

Now that you know what content to include, let’s discuss how to include it.

Visually appealing

First things first: make sure your branding and design elements are visually appealing. This means creating colors that represent your brand well without being distracting and typography that is easy to read. Choose graphics and images that are sharp, not blurry, and only overlap text if it remains easy to read.

Make use of “white” space

White space is the term used to describe an area that doesn’t contain text or images. It doesn’t necessarily have to be white, but it shouldn’t be distracting and it should allow your text and images to breathe and complement each other. The goal is to only include content that helps achieve your goals rather than distract from them.

Skimmable content

It’s important to include content that tells your story, but remember that most people aren’t on your website to read a novel (unless you’re an author). Instead, highlight key points in a skimmable layout. This includes using bullet points or headings to separate different ideas.

Contrast for CTAs

To achieve your business goals we outlined above, you’ll need to include various call-to-actions (CTAs) throughout your website. It’s best to include these as buttons in contrasting colors so they stand out as a clear action to take.

SEO in mind

The goal with almost every business is to improve search rankings. Including blog content is a great way to start, but you should also keep SEO in mind on other pages of your website. This means updating image titles to align with your keywords, targeting specific key phrases with each page (especially your services pages), and incorporating keywords throughout your content as applicable (while writing for people, not Google).

Mobile-friendly

More and more people are searching for services on their phone. This means your website absolutely must be easy-to-use on mobile. If you’re using a website builder, such as Squarespace, your website will automatically respond on mobile. Just doublecheck your layout to make sure it doesn’t look strange on mobile devices and update accordingly.

Next Steps

Now that you have your website designed to achieve your business goals, the next step is to monitor your analytics for areas to improve. If you see visitors consistently leaving a page without taking your desired action, conduct tests to see how you can improve that page. Your website will continually be evolving as you grow your business and client base.

B2B Website Design to Increase Conversions