How to: Design and implement a website that complements marketing efforts

Design and implement a website that complements marketing efforts

It goes without saying that the best websites — B2B or B2C — are those that offer exceptional customer experiences. For B2B marketers, this isn’t always as cut-and-dried as the B2C sector, but regardless of what’s being sold, or whether conversion is indeed the aim, websites need to keep users engaged for longer, maximising their exposure to your brand.

The more users interact with your brand, the more valuable intelligence you can gather about your existing customers, as well as prospects. In addition to building a detailed view of your audience, this information can be used to produce personalised content and marketing communications for different user types.

Of course, the challenge for B2B marketers is that users are often visiting a website without the intention of making a purchase due to a variety of reasons. In my experience, this happens because they are just doing a bit of research or the products and services are highly expensive. While the buying cycle is certainly longer, it’s up to B2B marketers to maximise their opportunities with online and digital customer touch points. So, how do you do it?

1. Use lead scoring to warm up prospects

Firstly, you should make sure you use lead scoring to determine the value of your leads. Essentially, it’s a simple classification system that determines which leads are cold, warm or hot based on various demographics like job title, organisation, or department, and past behaviour, such as frequency of visits and pages viewed. If in doubt, take a look at your CMS platform — here lead scoring is listed as a feature (on most enterprise versions, at least).

All it does is assign a value to the behaviours on your website, from browsing and clicking on links, to downloading brochures and making a purchase. So, for example, if a website user visits a product page, this behaviour is worth 10 points; while if a user goes on to place something in their basket and complete a purchase, it could be worth 50 points. These points are accumulated and analysed in the backend of the site where lead tables are developed. Leads are ranked accordingly and marketers are given an objective view of the likelihood of users being converted into customers or are susceptible for repeat purchases based upon incentives. Lead scoring is an excellent tool, not only to assess sales-ready leads, but those ‘cooler’ leads that can be grown and developed into hot leads. Once you’ve identified your most valuable customers, it becomes much easier to develop personalised content, marketing automation (MA) strategies and promotions based on their needs.

2. Focus on content personalisation

As a consumer I’m more likely to buy a product or service if it’s marketed to me in a way I can identify with. There’s nothing more off-putting than being sent an offer or being targeted with an advert that misses the mark completely — like an advert on a music streaming service for pregnancy ‘flu shots’ if you’re a 12 year-old girl, or a grown man. My second tip is to remember even though there may not necessarily be the same level of customisation in B2B as there is in B2C, B2B customers still have unique personalities and requirements. Just consider the following statistic: at least 91 per cent of B2B companies use some aspect of customisation on their websites — 65 per cent tailor content based on industry trends, while 59 per cent target individual decision makers with customised content, according to a 2014 Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs report.

In the B2B sector, personalisation is based on so much more than geography — it is based on your customers’ interests, motivations and behaviours. You also need to support it by using the tools you have in your arsenal — especially your CMS solution and marketing personalisation.

3. Marketing automation helps convert

MA will help you convert your leads, reactivate your dormant customers and keep your existing customers coming back. It will help you to customise your approach, be it as part of marketing campaigns or your overall digital strategy, and develop and deliver perfectly timed, bespoke messages to different customer segments.

Just think of it as keeping all customers and prospects happy by giving them what they want (relevant promotions, information and special offers) and when they want it (at the right time of day, month, season or special occasion).

Typically, a customer journey comprises various touch points along the experience journey and, in my experience, MA is useful in creating these touch points, from emails and newsletters to special offers and competitions.

4. Don’t be afraid to develop user personas

User personas allow you to start to fully understand your site visitors and what will encourage them to engage more with your website and brand in general. You can develop these personas in the backend of your CMS system based on the user data gathered from their onsite behaviour. Once they’re created and working, you can use them to tailor the customer journey and experience.

You really need to put effort into developing detailed user personas because, without them, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to carry out content personalisation and MA.

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