The majority of B2B websites “fail miserably” to provide content that is interesting, compelling or interactive for customers.
Forrester analysed 60 websites in 12 B2B sectors, including HR, security software and medical products, across 15 different criteria. This criteria included: Does the website provide content targeting different audiences or roles? Is any of the content entertaining or emotionally inspiring? And does the website invite the reader to rate, comment on or share the content?
Each of these were rated out of three, where zero was no evidence of capability, and three was if it exhibited best practice. A score of 30 should indicate a passing grade, but the research firm had to lower this to 25 just to get four websites to pass.
This was blamed on content that focused only on company capabilities rather than customer needs.
Laura Ramos, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, wrote in a blog: “Let’s be clear: Our objective for publishing this research is not to call out any particular organisation for its marketing content practices.
“Instead, we want to show that: 1) B2B industries outside of technology also struggle to create customer-centered content and 2) B2B websites require more work immediately to reverse this trend.”
Three key areas of improvement were identified where companies could improve; create content with a human voice, address customers’ concerns and industry issues, and give buyers a more interactive and engaging experience.
