Your website. It’s the core of your business. Often, it’s not just the first touchpoint in a B2B buyer’s purchase journey, but a continuous reference for customers who’ll need constant reassurance they’re making an informed decision.
And you know what? We’re a fickle bunch, even in B2B. Make a spelling error on your homepage, or clog it with high-res graphics so the loading times are torturously slow, and your website visitor is likely to leave, perhaps not without closing the front door, but certainly the window.
So, our latest infographic of the week (below), courtesy of the folks over at Sagefrog, underlines 10 essential components of any successful B2B website homepage:
1. Outline who you are and what you do
If someone visits your website and can’t ascertain who you are and what you do within a few seconds, you seriously need to reconsider the design, layout and wording of your homepage. Drop the arrogant attitude and don’t assume every single visitor knows what you’re all about. Make the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ clear, from the off, in as transparent a manner as possible.
2. Show them why you’re better than the rest
Informing a visitor what your company offers isn’t enough on its own. It’s tricky, but your next step must be to succinctly outline why your business is the best choice for the product or service you’re offering. If you don’t, a quick Google search will unearth a better choice, and your potential lead will be lost.
3. Know your target audience
As the infographic explains, homepages are often littered with technical jargon. Look, it doesn’t make you seem any more intelligent if you cram your website full of technical terminology. Visitors want homepage browsing to be a straightforward process. You should be doing the legwork, not them. So, only use language you know your target audience is going to understand.
4. Make it mobile-friendly
You’d be surprised how many websites are still not responsive across all platforms. With B2B brands finally beginning to recognise that their customers are people, and therefore susceptible to marketing while browsing their smartphones, it’s essential they get with the times and make sure mobile users are treated to as seamless an experience as desktop users.
5. Make your call-to-action obvious
Great, you’re drumming up a few thousand homepage hits a week. But unless this traffic can be directed towards some kind of conversion, it’ll remain a mere vanity metric. Therefore, it’s vital your respective call-to-actions should be immediately visible on your homepage, without the need to scroll or follow another path on the website. Identify your primary call-to-action, and make this the most prominent. Subsequent calls-to-action can then be distributed accordingly.
6. Provide simple navigation
Imagine your website visitor is a tourist exploring a new city. One of the first places they’re likely to visit is the tourist information centre. And how are they going to know about that picturesque church or trendy marketplace if there’s no information about it? Make sure the navigation on your homepage is user-friendly and intuitive. Don’t overwhelm your visitor with a plethora of top-level tabs, and keep drop-down menus to one level.
7. Speed up those loading times
In an age of expected instant gratification, attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter. If your website takes an age to load, users will inevitably lose interest and click away (we’re all guilty of it). Optimising your images, limiting the number of redirects and using cache plug-ins will all help to limit website loading times, and thus keep your visitor engaged for longer.
8. Brag about your social worth
Trust is the foundation of all B2B purchases, and by advertising ‘social proof’ on your website homepage you’re providing users with a good reason to choose your product or service. Social proof can come in the form of client testimonials/logos, reviews and case studies.
9. Always stay on brand
Branding is not just an essential pillar of B2B marketing, it’s a core component of any business. Make sure your brand design and voice is consistent across your homepage, and indeed your entire website. This maximises the chances of your brand message resonating with your website visitors.
10. Don’t forget the footer
How many times have you scrolled to the bottom of a page in search of more information, only to find it blank? You’re left dazed and confused. How do I contact this company? What’s their address? How do I find them on Twitter? The footer of a website is often a crucial last stop for visitors, and should provide all the necessary contact information, copyright details and social media buttons.
Want to get your infographic featured on our ‘infographic of the week’ series? Send it to [email protected]
