73% of B2B buyers look at the supplier’s website before contact. Especially now that most buyers have claimed that in-person purchasing is going to become a thing of the past. Your website has never been more important. What mistakes could be turning off those corporate buyers even before they hit Enter?
Brochure vs. Lead Funnel
If your gorgeous, glossy website is a glorified online brochure, I’m sure it’s lovely but probably doesn’t get a ton of leads. Instead, I want you to treat your website like a successful lead generation magnet and funnel. Read on to see how to achieve this.
No Focused Single Message
Like the rest of your business strategy, I’m willing to bet that your website is trying to do too much. It’s trying to be too many things to too many people. Instead, if you could focus on either one industry or market segment you serve and one problem you solve for them, your website could be a love letter to them. Confused minds don’t buy.
Too Much Info
I’ve often loved the term “Infobesity” coined by one of my favourite communication coaches Sam Horne. It refers to drowning people in too much information and turning them off. Instead, lean out your site. If people want more info about one specific problem, structure your website to carry them into funnels that offer meetings, presentations, videos, Infographics, white papers etc.
No CTA
Yes, CTA is the call to action that you need to build into every page of your website. A blog page should have a CTA to subscribe to your newsletter. An About page should have a follow on social media CTA. A What We Do page should have a “Take this free assessment” CTA. Without a CTA, you have a brochure.
Thinking of Mobile Last
50% of websites are now viewed on mobile, even in B2B. So by designing your website for laptops and desktops rather than for tiny hand-held screens, you will definitely change your thinking. You’ll now think twice about how much info to put on a page, how to flow the info and so on. In addition, Google ranks you according to your website mobile usability score. So stop ignoring mobile and adapt.
Bad User Experience
B2B buyers are busy and they don’t want to spend their valuable time looking for the info they need. Map out their web journey by strategically asking questions about their thought process and work on how to structure the info in the website. Other things that leave a bad taste in buyers’ mouths are things like Carousels (the changing pictures on the top of a web page), pop-ups, broken links, endless forms and slowly loading anything. Keep up your website maintenance spend to make sure things are running fast and smooth.
Nothing New
My biggest pet peeve is going to a business website, looking at their blog page and seeing one blog from the year that the site was built. If you’re not going to keep adding to or refreshing your website, then at least don’t make it so obvious. Keep prospects (and Google) happy by posting new content, ensuring loading speeds keep up and fixing links that no longer work.
Your website is your virtual office. It’s a huge representation of your brand. Take the time to bring it to the year 2022 with these tips and keep your prospects rolling in.
