The Four Biggest Mistakes B2B Companies Make With Their Website That Drives Visitors Away To The Competition And How To Keep Them From Leaving. Includes A Website Effectiveness Solution Checklist By Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 1
When a prospect lands on your website what do they see? Does your site Make it instantly clear what your company does and who it serves? Quickly communicate your USP? Back up any claims you make with case studies, testimonials, and client lists? Make it easy to navigate your website, especially if you have more than one offer? Include all of the benefits such as additional resources, consumer forums and support that a customer would get with your product or service? Incorporate involvement devices that grab the reader s attention? Make it easy for your prospect to take the next step and this does not mean just giving them an 800 number to talk to a sales associate? Offer several options for prospects to request further assistance? (eg. chat, email, phone, download a document, filling out a form) Make it easy for someone to place an order right then and there? If your website does not do all of this, you are leaving money on the table and losing potentially high quality leads. More importantly, they will likely never see what else you have to offer. However, create a highly valuable, content rich, interactive and easy to navigate site and you will have a significantly greater chance of succeeding with all of your other marketing efforts. This report discusses the four biggest mistakes B2B companies make with their website, the most powerful online tool that influences business buyers, how to implement it, and ten things your website must have. Also included is a website effectiveness solution checklist. The Four Biggest Mistakes B2B Companies Make With Their Website Your website is the most dynamic marketing asset you have. It s the first thing people see when doing an internet search or when someone wants information about your company. Your website is a real-time extension of your business. It s your 24/7 marketing and sales department. Because the website is so important, B2B marketers need to make sure that their sites communicate effectively. Unfortunately, the biggest mistake companies make is creating or maintaining websites that are confusing, crowded, and lacks a clear focus. Many are too concerned with how the website looks, many are visually appealing, but they are treated like expanded brochures, and they don t capture a single lead. Some of the most common website mistakes B2B marketers make include: creating a boring, empty homepage, being vague about what the company does, overwhelming visitors with information, and having a lack of bread and butter content. A Boring, Empty Homepage Many marketers think that visitors to their website love logging on to a flashy homepage with lots of cool images, and even some music. Wrong. If a visitor has to wait for your site to load, watch a visual presentation, and then press a click here to enter site button, they will probably leave your website. More than any other page, your homepage needs to reflect your business. It should be clean, understandable and inviting. Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 2
Being Vague About What You Do Unfortunately, this happens way too many times. You visit a site you found using a search engine, read the copy on the homepage and About Us section, and come away with no clue about what the company actually does. Too often B2B websites are full of sophisticated language such as: We re the leaders in providing global solutions for industry verticals. If no one can understand what industry verticals are, then you need to change your messaging. Your web site should clearly explain what it is you do and who you are. If you re a management consultant- just say so. If you provide IT services-then tell us. Don t make your visitors guess what you do. Overwhelming Visitors With Information Overload Some companies overload their site with everything that they do. They list every product and every service they provide in great detail and add on 20 testimonials. It is good to inform your audience, but it should be done in moderation. Trying to promote everything all at once may scare your visitors away. Give your visitors as much information as they need, but make sure that it is relevant to the page that they are viewing. Provide them with a little more than just enough information and then direct them to another page on your site via a button or a link for more details. This way the visitor gets the information that they want and may continue to read on if they wish. Having A Lack Of Content Some companies hardly have any bread and butter content on their website at all. Having an abundance of white papers, case studies, videos, and webinars is good. However, before your prospect can get to that content, you must provide lots of bread and butter content including: Services/Product Info. For each service or product that you offer, you should have a page of content describing it. Don t cram everything into one or two pages. Having more pages also makes it easier to optimize for specific keywords. This will make it easier for prospects to find you on the search engines. FAQ Page. Multiple FAQ pages regarding different aspects of your business answer people s questions as well as drawing them to your site from a search engine. Testimonials/Client Lists. Third party endorsements help prospects decide whether they should do business with you. Articles/e-newsletter/or blog. This type of content educates site visitors and shows your expertise. Once you have created a site that communicates an effective message, you then need to develop a content strategy that attracts and engages your visitors. Your website must have a system in place to generate leads and periodically interact with them. Unfortunately most professional service companies don t have this simple, yet very effective lead generation tactic. Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 3
The Most Powerful Online Tool That Influences Business Buyers Too many B2B companies are overly concerned with how their website looks instead of focusing on how to generate leads. Many B2B websites are visually appealing, but most lack the one online tool that influences potential buyers to make a buying decision. According to a survey from MarketingSherpa, 34.1% of technology buyers are influenced by e- newsletters. i The one thing that is missing from 9 out of 10 technology company home pages is an email newsletter opt-in form. You can t find one on many other B2B websites either. On many of these sites the opt-in form is on another page a few clicks away. But even one click away is one too many, because having an opt-in clearly displayed on your home page is a proven, low cost opportunity to capture quality leads, and convert them into paying customers more quickly. ITtoolbox conducted a survey of 2300 IT and business professionals. The results were very similar to the MarketingSherpa study. 34.3% of the respondent s ranked email based tactics among the most influential marketing tactics mentioned. ii Out of 592 respondents of a MarketingProfs study on B2B lead generation 39% said newsletters are the most effective online medium. iii In today s B2B marketplace the length of sales cycles are increasing. People are taking longer to make purchase decisions. Sometimes it takes 10 touches or more before a prospect trusts you enough to consider doing business with you. To make these touches as powerful and memorable as possible you need an e-newsletter. It is by far the best way to make these 10+ touches happen faster, with less resistance, and at a lower cost. The buyers in your target market want timely, relevant, valuable information that will help them do their jobs better, and make their lives easier. So to reach your prospects, you must properly entice them to opt-in to your e-newsletter the moment they land on your homepage. 8 Ways To Optimize Your E-Newsletter Opt-In Form To Get More Quality Leads 1. Understand your opt-in area is ad space. You need an opt-in area on your homepage not a link. To entice visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, you need a little space to make a great pitch. 2. Make a promise of value. Tell your website visitors why they should sign up for your newsletter. Let them know exactly what is in it for them, ideally in two or three bullet points. 3. Limit the amount of information you ask for. Your newsletter should be quick and easy for prospects to subscribe to. Just ask them to fill out their email address, title, and first name only. Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 4
4. Clearly display a Privacy policy link. This will increase your credibility with your prospect. Even though most people won t read it, they will appreciate your commitment to protecting their privacy. 5. Get some action into your call-to-action. Use action words like Subscribe, or Sign Up Now on your response button. 6. Put the opt-in form on your home page. Put your offer of free, valuable information right on your home page, so your visitors can instantly see it. 7. Keep your entire opt-in area above the fold. When visitors enter your home page, they should be able to clearly see the opt-in area without having to scroll down the page. 8. Make an offer they can t refuse. Offer something of real value to your prospects, just for signing up. Give Your Prospects Valuable Free Information Traditionally, the best performing offers are informational. Highly desirable offers are those related to helping businesspeople do their job better or faster, or to help them solve a big problem. The offer should be relevant and easy to deliver. Informational offers provide the best results for business marketers because they combine three basic ingredients. 1. A strong appeal that has high perceived value. 2. An innate ability to qualify the prospect by the nature of the offer title. 3. Relatively low cost or risk. When creating offers, you need to think about the many benefits your information can bring to your prospect: Ideas for cutting costs or improving productivity. Proof points, such as testimonials, research reports and case studies. Insight in to what is working for the competition. Data that will help sell the idea internally. Fresh insights and trends that make the prospect look good and smart, and feel like a valued contributor to the firm. Here are twelve proven informational offers that appeal to business buyers. Using any of these offers can easily double your response rates, and increase the quality of your leads at the same time. White Papers Case Studies Webinars Podcasts Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 5
Brochures Newsletters Tip Sheets Research Reports Article Reprints Videos Demo CD s Books 10 Things Your Website Must Have 1. An ezine signup form on your homepage. As stated before, this is the most powerful online tool that influences business buyers. If you re hoping to collect e-mail addresses, an inviting ezine or e-newsletter sign up box must be clearly featured on the home page, with a link in the body copy and navigation. 2. A homepage that loads instantly Web-user surveys continue to prove that Flash intros can take too long to load, and many prospects move to another site if there is a load delay. People come to your site to find solutions as quickly as possible. Flash gimmicks and music that appears before your homepage will send away visitors. 3. A homepage that offers a customer-benefit headline (big promise) at the top. Your prospects are looking for solutions to their needs or problems. Your very first message should demonstrate that you understand their problem and can solve it better than anyone else. 4. A lead-generation marketing plan. Your website marketing strategy should clearly spell out your company s lead generation goals and tactics. This is critical because it drives your website content. 5. Make information easy to find. Why do you visit a website? Isn t it because you want to find information? Get answers. Solve a problem? Shop? Buy something? Make sure your site makes information and products easy to find. Use descriptive links, section headers and subheads. 6. Have an order page that sells. The copy on your order page should be clear, conversational, and persuasive. Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 6
7. Show pictures of the products. Even if it s an information-based product like a course or booklet, try to find ways to show it visually. 8. Put an offer on the contact us page. This always increases leads and inquiries. Even on a general purpose company site. 9. Tell readers what to do. Click here for a free demo. Visit our online store for special monthly discounts on supplies. Looking for an easy solution to organizing sensitive data? Click here to learn more about DataLock You get the idea. 10. Support your claims with lots of proof. People tend to be skeptical of what they read online. Especially if the information is from an unfamiliar company. You should prove your claims in any marketing piece. But online, that s even more crucial. Need More Help? Visit www.ksmileycopywriter.com today for more information and to receive my free report, 16 Ways To Use Online Video To Generate Leads And Make Sales. About Keith Smiley Keith Smiley is a lead generation copywriter for aggressive B2B marketers. With over 15 years of experience working in the broadcasting industry, which includes writing several radio commercials, Keith knows how to write attention-grabbing copy. Keith s copy is clear, concise and designed to rapidly generate quality leads to ensure the success of your sales department and the continued growth of your ROI. If you d like to receive more information or a quote on your next copywriting project, visit www.ksmileycopywriter.com or call (317) 625-8505. Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 7
Website Effectiveness Solution Checklist Complete the following checklist to evaluate the effectiveness of your website marketing program and formulate a comprehensive strategy that attracts, engages, and converts qualified prospects into buying customers. 1. The homepage has an ezine signup form 2. The homepage loads instantly 3. The homepage offers a customer-benefit headline (big promise) at the top 4. The website has a lead generation marketing plan 5. Information is easy to find on the web site 6. The website has an order page that sells 7. The web page shows pictures of the products 8. The website has an offer on the contact us page 9. The web site tells readers what to do 10. The website supports all claims with proof Implemented Works Great Implemented Needs Improvement Need To Implement Don t Need i Business Technology Marketing: Practical Benchmark Data for 2006. Marketing Sherpa, August 2006. ii Breaking through to lucrative IT market, Roger Slavens, BtoB Online, September 11, 2006 iii MarketingProfs Research Insights B2B Sales Lead Generation: Integration Of Web 1.0 And Web 2.0 Media. How B2B Marketers Are Using Old And New Online Media To Drive Lead Generation Copyright 2011 Keith Smiley www.ksmileycopywriter.com Page 8