Is Your Website A Business Asset?
If you're a B2B organisation your website should be more than a simple brochure showcasing your products and services. Being blunt, simply telling people how great you are isn't going to cut it. Instead, it should set your stall out as thought leaders and an organisation that is remarkable in your field of expertise.
Taking this approach will turn your website into a resource that people find on Google™ and this will create opportunities.
The Website Your Business Needs
Web projects can be confusing and they have a reputation for being time-consuming. But if you distil down its purpose, it's simple.
The website your B2B organisation needs is one that gets found by your ideal customers and encourages them to make contact. Success depends on the design, messaging and content. The design should instil confidence in your brand and make you look credible, the messaging should tell a compelling story that builds on the design and the content makes sure your site gets found in the first place.
With these three things in place, a potential customer will type a search into Google, see you in the search results, click through to your site, like what they see and get in touch. It's a simple concept and something a B2B web design agency like us understands, not least because it's how we generate most of our own business opportunities. Here's what's involved in the three key ingredients.
A Design That Reassures And Builds Confidence
The main purpose of the design of your B2B website is to build confidence. It needs to make people feel that you're a credible organisation, a business they want to engage with.
The design needs to impress whilst staying out of the way. As Steve Krug's seminal book "Don't Make Me Think" spelt out so eloquently back in 2000.
Design is important and plays a key role in your website's success, especially when combined with the right message or story.
Tell A Compelling Story
You might think simply telling people what you do is enough to interest them and encourage them to engage in a conversation, but that's rarely the case. Humans revel in storytelling and stories play a key role in our everyday lives. If you want some proof grab a copy of Storybrand by Donald Miller.
Telling people a story about how you solve their business challenges is way more compelling than telling them what you do. Here's a simple storytelling example for a fictitious firm of accountants called Robb & Steel. Which one is a more compelling message?
"Certified Accounts For All Your Business Accounting Needs"
"Giving You The Financial Support Your Business Needs To Flourish And Grow"
The first example is OK, but it simply tells potential customers what they do. The second tells a different kind of story, it makes it clear Robb & Steel will take care of the financial aspects of a business leaving the owners to get on with growing and flourishing. Messaging matters and getting it right is as important as the design that presents it. Strong messaging combined with great design and fantastic content works every time. But what do we mean by content?
Successful Websites Need Creative Content
Any credible B2B web design agency understands the power of content. In fact, content is in many respects the single most important aspect of a web design project, which might seem counter-intuitive, so we'll explain.
When your potential customers recognise they need help to solve a specific business challenge they turn to, amongst other things, Google. They then type questions into Google, and if you want those people to find your website then your content should answer these questions. Doing this is a proven methodology for securing new customers and is the first link in the chain of events that leads to an enquiry.
Too often B2B organisations focus on the look and feel of their website, the design, and pay little more than lip service to their content. This is often because creating killer content is hard, unless you're a B2B web design agency, for us, it's our bread and butter, it's what we excel at.
