Key takeaway: If you want your website to help your business, it first needs to help your customers. So, make sure it’s designed to fit seamlessly into your customers’ buying journey. Provide the information your buyers are looking for in a clear, concise format that’s quick to find and easy to access. It’s time to move your business forward by having a buyer-first website.
Customers spend roughly two-thirds of any B2B buying journey researching their options and learning from whatever information they can find.
And the information they find matters enormously because buyers rely far more on this than on people when making their decisions.
This means there’s an opportunity for your business to make purchasing decisions much easier and quicker for buyers by simply providing the information that they’re looking for.
Your website can and should act as a hub for all that information. To do this, your website must serve your buyers’ needs first, not yours.
With this in mind, what makes a ‘great’ website?
That’s a loaded question, and the only honest answer is that it depends on your buyers’ needs and your business objectives. At a minimum, however, we believe every business website should do the following:
Provide value, facilitate conversations, and encourage active engagement
Does your website give users answers to their most pressing questions? Does it make it easier for potential buyers to navigate their research process to make a purchasing decision? Do you give users a good reason to visit frequently or reach out to your team? These are key requirements for a buyer-first website.
Reflect your team in an authentic manner
Does an outdated or poorly functioning website reflect the quality and capabilities of your team? Like our parents have said, “First impressions matter.” Your website should make a positive impression based on not only its appearance, but also its functionality and logic, as well as how it represents your brand and culture. This is the first step to earning trust.
Align with your buyers’ purchase decision-making process
Does your website actively help users progress through your marketing and sales funnels? If not, then you’ve got work to do! Putting your buyers first means changing the navigation and information to cater to your buyers’ decision-making process rather than to your internal structure and business processes.
Be at the heart of your digital marketing efforts
Some may disagree with this, yet we believe your website sits at the centre of your marketing and buyer-enablement efforts because it’s one digital platform you have full control over. This means you can track all data through your website and ensure it is communicated to all other martech platforms, from marketing automation to CRM to social media management. To reap the full benefits of this, all the marketing channels you establish should lead buyers to your website.
What does a website’s role in driving business growth look like in practice?
Check out these examples:
- A strategic digital presence built for a family-run chain lubrication manufacturer that yielded over 70 RFQ requests. Read ALT Case Study
- An award-winning website designed and developed for a human-centred design firm created a better digital experience for their clients. Read Overlap News Announcement
