E-commerce Solutions > Business to Business Solutions > Effective B2B Web Sites

Effective B2B Web Sites

Even if your B2B web site doesn’t have transactional capabilities, you still need to be updating it regularly and optimising it for lead generation. That’s because other web sites are doing the same thing and static ones are only going to be left behind.

We have a decade’s worth of experience in creating effective B2B web sites and have identified the following best practices as essential for generating leads. Are you:

Clearly describing the problems your business solves?

Prospects aren’t interested in your business – they’re interested in what your solution can do for theirs. Make sure your copy leads with benefits experienced from picking you over a competitor. Remember: inform first, sell second.

Offering informative and valuable content to visitors?

Write free white papers, case studies – anything else that visitors could use to help them run their business and make a decision about your solution. Out with empty ‘marketing speak’ and in with ‘valuable content’.

Updating the home page with fresh content on a regular basis?

This shows Google and other search engines that your site is likelier to have relevant, up-to-date content for visitors. Linking to most recent blog posts and press releases from your home page is a simple, time effective way of doing this.

Optimising your web site for search engine traffic?

You can bring an influx of free search traffic by targeting key phrases relevant to the problem you solve. Position them strategically across your web site and encourage other sites to link to you using the same phrase. The more incoming links you get, the higher search engines will rank for your chosen phrase and the more traffic you will receive.

Directing visitor behaviour with clear calls to action?

Capitalise on visitors’ interest by providing clear, benefit-led instructions on key web pages to get them to next stage of the sales cycle. For example: if you want people to sign up to your newsletter, tell them, “To learn the secrets of successful e-commerce ownership for free, sign up to our newsletter today.”

Supplementing search traffic with pay-per-click advertising?

It requires a strong time & cost-commitment in order to remain competitive in the long run, but pay-per-click advertising campaigns can boost visitor numbers and provide strong returns on investment when targeted effectively.

Finding out who is visiting your site through data capture forms?

These can be newsletter sign-ups or registration forms for free white papers. Your aim is to gather as much information about visitors as possible: that way you can contact them, find out whether they are strong leads and then begin marketing to them.

Using HTML more than Flash?

We recommend you keep most of your web site HTML based; too much Flash makes it difficult for search engines to read and index appropriately, and what good are impressive visuals if no-one can find them online?

Does your site have the elements of a successful B2B web site already in place? If not, why not? With the steps to success laid out so clearly in front of you, increased lead generation and sales can't be far away.