While B2B sales are typically complicated, your website shouldn’t be (at least not to your user). Below are eight essential things every B2B website design must have:
1. Clear Navigation
Your website’s navigation is not the time to get creative with copy or design. The navigation is a utilitarian element and you want the user to easily find exactly what they are looking for (and quickly) through your main navigation.
2. A Homepage that Tells Your Brand Story
Always assume the user coming to your B2B website knows nothing about your company. As such, you want to take them on a journey, starting with an attractive hero image or video and a short and poignant brand statement. As the user scrolls down the page, engage them with subtle animation, short blocks of copy, and imagery to support it. Your website’s home page must give the user a reason to stay and explore further.
Read more: 5 Quick Tips for Creating Killer Website Copy.
3. Products and/or Services Section
A section of your B2B web design must be dedicated to going into a decent amount of detail about your products and services. This can start with a product or services landing page that gives a quick overview of everything your firm has to offer.
From there, the user should have the option to go one step further and get to a page with more detail. However, when I say detail, I don’t mean a page full of long-form copy. I’m talking about concise, engaging bits of content with imagery, illustrations, photography, and/or videos to support it. You don’t need to tell the whole story, but enough of the story to educated the user so they are motivated to take action, such as filling out a form or picking up the phone.
4. Clear CTAs and Contact Page
Don’t make a prospect or client visiting your website search for how to contact you. Buttons, pop-ups, chat features, and an easy-to-find contact page are absolutely critical to any successful B2B website design.
Read more: Why Your Website Visitors Don’t Convert.
5. Professional Looking Blog and Thought Leadership Content
Selling is easier to an educated audience, so having a blog and other content pieces like white papers, guides, and webinars help make your prospects become better customers. However, no one is going to read the blogs and white papers if they don’t look good so it’s crucial that they look professional and polished.
6. Case Studies, Portfolio and/or Third-party Validation
Prospects want to see proof that you can deliver on your brand promise. Without evidence or proof, your B2B website will lack credibility in the eyes of a user.
Every user learns differently so it’s a good idea to have a variety of content mediums on your website. Your credibility pieces may be video testimonials and lengthy case studies. Or, you may have short case studies with engaging stats and a project gallery full of professionally taken photos. Regardless of your industry, having various types of content to portray the value of your capabilities will drive new client leads.
7. A Cohesive, Contemporary Design
Website design trends change significantly every 5 to 7 years, so you need to make sure you keep the user interface fresh and modern. All the elements of your B2B website design must also be consistent. This means that the colors, fonts, illustrations, and photography style must be consistent, not only on your website, but on your blog, brochures, and any printed materials.
8. Speed and SEO
You may be surprised to see these elements in a post about design, but the design of a website makes an impact on both page speed loading time and SEO. It’s crucial to work with the web development team and SEO managers to ensure the design decisions being made aren’t negatively affecting the website’s page speed or SEO.
Users will leave your website if it loads slowly or they won’t even be able to find it if it’s not properly optimized, both of which will ultimately hurt your bottom line.
Your B2B website design must have all these elements listed above. As websites have become more complex, it’s a good idea to hire an experienced marketing and web design agency to help you tackle a project of this size. They will know how to balance design, user experience, copy, SEO and speed to produce a website that truly meets your business objectives and represents your business in the best light.
