Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Writing A B2B Vs B2C Website

There is a big difference between how you should approach writing your company's website if you are a business-to-business versus a business-to-consumer company.
If you are writing a B2B website think clarity, content and following completion of those two, then tackle the issue of image. When prioritized in a different manner, your bounce rate is going to be significantly higher while you're conversion rate will prove significantly below that of other organizations in your vertical.
Furthermore, if you are writing a business-to-business website, keep in mind that within two to three seconds of the visitor getting to your website they should know exactly what you do.
Despite this formula being straightforward, many B2B websites prioritize formats that are visually catching, have lots of add-ons, but remain vague in content. When this happens, that pretty layout becomes unappealing to the visiting decision-maker who does not have time to weed through the beauty to get to the necessary information.
What Then Is To Be Done About The Style?
It is at this juncture where website writing and, subsequent design for a business-to-business driven site gets more complex.
Obviously, if you are a business-to-business firm, you do not want to have 100% information. The website visitor ought to have some interaction with the site which makes the balance between the website's balance between what can be referred to as image and information evermore crucial.
What percentage between image and information works best? A B2B website functions best when the balance between image and information is roughly 70% information and 30% programed with image in mind.
The image aspect i..e. pictures, designs and other aesthetics must come into play right off the bat when someone lands on the website. After these initial seconds, your site then has to transition and be content or information driven from that point forward. (remember to think image for the first few seconds and then, once your firm passes this test the visitor is going to immediately be information driven.
Here are some tips to ensure you have the aforementioned ratio in the manner necessary:
1. Write the content yourself first, then outsource the design -it is always best that your design is based off of your content and not the other way around. Come to terms with the fact that you are the best content writer for your website and you know (not anyone else) what is needed and what drives your buyer. Only after this is done properly should work be done on the aesthetics of the site.
2. Play around with the content keeping close tabs on Google Analytics's bounce rate, time spent on site and number of pages viewed per visitor until you feel comfortable enough to put aesthetics into play. If you do both at the same time you could find yourself with a very high stress level and a very low conversion rate with high programming costs because the aesthetics need to be constantly adjusted.
3. See what other firms in similar spaces (though not direct competitors) have done to balance out this ratio and never copy, though use what these firms have done as a basis as to what routes you think may be best.
In closing, your website is the face of your company. Therefore, treat its formulation with the utmost importance and urgency. Doing so will prove an outcome that is not only satisfactory, but is highly advantageous.

No comments:

Post a Comment