Can a website actually affect B2B sales? Many believe grit, salesmanship and quality products already generate business leads and boost sales activity, so they don’t view their website as a part of the sales conversation.
If this is you, we need to tell you something important. Your mindset is not only standing in the way of explosive growth, but it’s opening the door to your competitors. Your B2B website is not just a shop window or an online brochure, but a vital part of your overall sales strategy.
World class sales teams are wonderful, but speaking plainly, most companies have a few top performers, but the rest of the team would benefit dramatically from better leads and a prospect who has already seen or heard great information about your offering.
Research shows that the average B2B buyer is 2/3 of the way through their buying decision before they agree to engage a sales rep. Potential customers are doing their research, sizing up your business, and making gut decisions about your worthiness based only on your marketing (or lack of it). If your website scares prospects instead of inspiring confidence, creates confusion instead of answering questions, or creates disconnect instead of driving engagement, then your B2B company just sabotaged its own time and sales efforts.
That’s why Blender has decided to wage war on ugly, boring, and undifferentiated B2B websites.
We WANT You to Drive More Website Sales
How would you like to:
- Increase leads?
- Close more deals?
- Improve the quality of sales leads?
- Influence an RFP?
- Be seen as the premier provider in your industry?
- Set the buying criteria?
- Speed up the sales cycle?
- Get more ROI out of all of your marketing efforts?
Your website anchors your positioning and the truth of your product or service. It influences every one of your sales interactions and opportunities.
Below are five ways to turn your website into the sales powerhouse it should be!
1) Create a web design that visually tells the truth about who you are.
According to Google, it takes about 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about your site. Even if they come across your website with a referral, an underwhelming design won’t be able to hold them long enough to solidify their interest in your products or services. This renders the work of your dazzling sales executive or your awesome marketing team useless. They might wonder, ‘Is this company really who they say they are or is this just a case of a charismatic sales person at a mediocre company?’
But not only that. Your website should also be clear in communicating your differentiation and set the appropriate expectation. Great website messaging can help you more effectively engage your target customers.
2) Ensure your website is not only search engine optimized, but also mobile responsive.
Nearly 60% of online searches now come from mobile devices. And because of this, mobile responsiveness has become a key element in web design. Mobile is a great way to introduce your company to a whole new audience or even to reinforce your brand with existing customers who are also mobile users. If your website is not mobile responsive, this diminishes user experience and affects your revenue by causing customers to tune out your website. Worse, they’ll switch to your competitor to solve their problems!
Don’t miss your chance to make a sale! With mobile’s increasing role in the buyer decision process, it is essential for your website to be mobile-friendly so that prospects can browse and find information whether they’re using a phone, tablet, notebook or desktop.
3) Educate your visitors with compelling content.
You must anticipate their questions and immediately meet their needs. While reading your buyers’ minds might sound daunting, let me give you a head start. The first question you must always answer is ‘What’s in it for me?’ When you provide meaningful content during your customers’ decision process (content that helps them make a more informed decision), you become more relevant and that helps you earn a position in their consideration set.
Avoid sounding salesy or blasting your prospects with loud advertising messages. The sentences on your home page should never start with your company name or the pronoun “we”. CONTENT IS KING! So, use your industry insight to maximize their experience and time on your site to increase your chance of landing the final deal.
Below, Kissmetrics lists a few statistics to help you create compelling web content:
-You have 0-8 seconds for your headline to grab their attention.
-Approximately 96% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to buy.
-The more landing pages you have, the more leads you are likely to get.
-Videos can increase purchases of a product by 144%.
4) Make it easy to convert customers’ interest into leads.
We see a lot of B2B websites that improve visual appeal, but nothing more. Your website should have a conversion path. This means that your site provides your visitors with appropriate calls to action and information that leads them closer to a sale.
The more you make potential customers comfortable as they go deeper into your content, the closer you get to a sale. Keep in mind that one of the most important activities for your website is online conversion (changing a visitor to a lead and a lead into a customer). Hence, it should be structured in a manner that anticipates your prospects’ needs and deepens their trust each step of the way.
5) Ensure your website is built to scale.
For your website to drive more traffic and capture more attention, you will need to listen to your market and sales team and add new elements along the way. You can use common sales questions, common objections, and other sales conversations to help you generate online content that educates the buyer from the comfort of their own device.
Thus, your website must have the flexibility to grow with your business. Otherwise, you are funneling money into something that won’t be sustainable for the long-term. Make sure to consider the big picture when choosing a web design company. If you want to drive sales and garner real ROI from a website redesign, you must accept the fact that your website is a key influencer of the sales relationship.
Here’s a quick exercise for you. Check out your competitors’ websites. What do you think are they doing right? How do you stack up based on the tips above?
So many companies are sluggish in their marketing efforts. Your website is likely be to your next secret weapon to truly dominate your market in 2017.
If you are tired of slugging it out with inferior competitors and listening to your sales team settle for lower margins, check out the webinar recording below. The strategies discussed in the webinar have helped double and even triple the revenues of our clients. Find out how you can transform the growth and position of your company.
Blender loves helping B2B companies find exciting growth by using marketing to propel sales. Click here if you are interested in a free marketing audit and analysis of your website.
Interested in FREE advice that will help you propel your sales? Join Blender’s Blog today!
