Easier said than done. B2B purchases can be a high stakes game for your customers. Many B2B purchases involve multiple decision makers, several months, and large sums of money. That is why it’s so important to build trustworthy relationships and to create a streamlined sales process. From securing your site to offering live chat, here are five ways B2B websites can generate higher conversion rates and more sales.
Track Everything
There is one trait that is shared by most successful small businesses, they track everything. Without tracking your business you cannot know what works and what doesn’t. Currently, over 40 percent of B2B marketers say that a lack of quality data is their biggest barrier to lead generation. Without tracking, it is difficult to see where the inefficiencies are and how they can be improved upon. At a minimum make sure that analytics and conversion tracking are installed. But don’t stop there.
Track your customers using a solid customer relationship management (CRM) and tracking tool. You can track everything from lead acquisition to customer retention. Ensure your employees are getting projects done on time through project management tracking. Consider using SEO tracking to see how your keywords are performing over time. Make sure you are split testing your landing pages to see how to lower your bounce rates. Remember, you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Secure Your Website
SSL (https) is the technology used to establish a secure HTTPS link between a web browser and server and ensures that the data passed between the two cannot be intercepted. Back in 2014, Google began ranking websites without SSL lower in search engine results, but they recently released an even newer algorithm. Now all websites without an SSL certificate that ask for visitors to enter data will see a “not secure” warning notification beside the URL.
If you’re a B2B business working with inbound methodology, not having an SSL is bad. First, visitors will not be attracted to your website. Secondly, you are indirectly telling your visitors that you’re not professional enough to provide them with security. GlobalSign found that up to half of people check a site’s security certification before giving up personal details. This could be devastating for B2B websites who rely on visitors and customer trust. B2B buyers love the ‘safe bet’ company. In addition to securing your website consider your credibility power through third-party validation. A strong client or ‘featured in’ credential bar can have a big impact. And don’t forget to showcase those great testimonials from satisfied customers.
Website Appearance
One glance at your website should give your visitor everything they need to know about the pages’ content. And the easiest way to do that is using headers. H1s are one of the strongest UX elements that you have at your disposal. While your reader is glancing over the website make sure that you can grab their attention with an engaging call to action. Over 90 percent of users who read the headline also read the call-to-action (CTA). Low conversion rates could be fixed by revisiting your CTA. One thing to avoid at all costs in using the word ‘Submit’.
Pictures are worth a thousand words. And on a website, good images increase readership, while stock images do not. If you’re using videos on your website that is great, too. If you are embedding from YouTube make sure to remove ‘related videos’ at the end. After getting visitors to your website you don’t want them watching someone else’s video. Keep your website copy succinct. Don’t overload sentences with information, especially in your opening paragraph. Studies show that users only need 14 words to understand the majority of what you are saying.
Make sure that your website is offering visitors valuable content. Typical B2B buyers consume three to five pieces of content before engaging a sales rep. And your potential customer generally already knows what solution they are looking for. Don’t spend time or space reiterating the ‘what.’ Instead, write benefit-centric content. Insightful content which aids your customers’ purchasing decision will go a long way.
Mobile Responsive
Executives rely on mobile devices to conduct business research. In fact, almost 80 percent of decision-makers use their mobile device to research a product or service for their business before contacting that business. And over 40 percent of researchers use a mobile device during their B2B purchasing process. B2B companies who have viewed mobile as a luxury add-on are getting left behind. If you want users to come back and convert, make sure your site works on mobile.
Closely related to mobile responsiveness is the need for speed. 40 percent of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Mobile users will abandon a website faster than desktop users. Make sure that you use a content delivery network (CDN) or compress images to ensure maximum speed.
Live Chat
What is the most important feature a website can offer? 44 percent of people say live chat with a real person. This one feature could be the most important part of your website in aiding conversions.
If trust is a key factor for how B2B can get higher conversions and more sales, you can build that trust through secure websites, live chat, and website appearance. Don’t forget to track what you are doing to measure your success and find additional areas to improve.
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