Clear structures on the website, crisp navigation paths, product descriptions formulated to the point, and short loading times of the website are ingredients of a good user experience design. A well-thought-out and excellently implemented UX design can help transform the website into an efficient sales tool. We provide five tips for operating successfully with your B2b website to get more leads.
User experience sells! 5 tips to get more leads with your B2B website
Companies are faced with the challenge of wanting to transport content clearly and attractively on their own website with a well-thought-out user experience. Everything serves the goal of not only winning or keeping customers but also inspiring them.
But what excites customers and users? During the pandemic, the tendency to buy online has also increased in B2B. 50 percent of B2B buyers have ordered goods online in the past two years that they had never ordered before. 72 percent of users also stated they had already had difficulties researching and ordering goods.
Lead-centric design development can help. Product properties must be brought into line with company goals and customer requirements. If this step is successful, you have the basis for creating an online presence with a high level of user experience.
The following factors help to improve the user experience of a website and thus achieve higher conversions.
Understand leads
At the beginning of a UX project, it is important to get a feeling for who your own leads are. Which target groups visit the website and what interests them?
A few guiding principles should be kept in mind. Marketing personas often already exist. However, these are often incomplete from a UX point of view: they should be expanded and become a UX persona. In contrast to the marketing persona, this captures how these personas interact with digital products and what technical experience and skills they bring with them. These are determined using usability tests based on prototypes. Only when we understand this we can create a design that convinces us.
Think through functionalities
Service is an important term in the B2B sector. But the reality check shows: 44 percent of B2B buyers experience errors when ordering online from their top 10 suppliers at least every two weeks. This can be avoided by thoroughly thinking through a website from the start in terms of its functionalities for users.
Good service starts with the very first visit to the website – with short loading times, pleasantly proportioned bits of information and a clear design of the conversion elements.
A good example of this is verpacken.online , which sells packaging materials. On the home page, the user receives an overview of current offers and can quickly find their way around the shop using clear navigation in the header area. Individual products such as the “made-to-measure box” can be individually and easily configured without appearing overloaded. The personal area – My Account – is also always visible and offers an overview of past orders, which can be triggered again with just a few clicks. The user-friendly login process also makes it easier to get started with the purchase process.
All of this contributes to smooth usability and an inspiring user experience. As noted in a study in 2005, there is a risk of terminations and a loss of trust if processes and usual services do not work or are disrupted.
Underline the brand message
Emotions not only play an essential role in a partnership but also UX design. UX design is like a piece of music: there are many tones of different quality, and only when each tone is given its meaning by the conductor in the orchestra does the melody that the composer intended for the piece sound.
Each design element needs its own weighting – in size, shape, and color. The design is not complete until each individual element has been given its weight and place. A corresponding design reinforces the intended brand message.
The Jägermeister B2B shop, for example, features emotional imagery and design language with its “Cool, Cooler, SuperCool” campaign.
The brand language and messages are “loud” and high-quality at the same time, suitable for the demanding and dynamic target group. The campaign claim is to be read in conspicuous, large type. The product is presented in a central and visually surprising way again and again. The design language, completely in the corporate design, runs through to the last touchpoint – right down to the shopping cart. The checkout button in corporate orange is clearly visible and tempts you to click.
However, a design can also appear serious and “understated” to the user, for example at the investment company Elvaston. With restrained navigation and the selected font in gray, a serious and elegant character should be conveyed. The page does not approach the visitor directly, but rather in “quiet” tones.
Build up trust to get leads with your B2B site
Trust is the basis of a partnership – with your customers, partners, or employees. Therefore, create trust through your website.
In addition to a smooth user journey, two other aspects should be mentioned that strengthen the trust between the user and provider:
1. Keep it up to date. The respective website should always give the impression that the content is up-to-date and that the site is well maintained. “With the same intention, we also take care of you, dear user,” he should think. Outdated information and data or subscribed newsletters that never arrive are more likely to cause the visit to be terminated.
2. Furthermore, honest and transparent communication, for example about real inventories, inspires trust. An artificial shortage or even a lack of transparency about the actual inventory on the website can lead to customers abandoning their visits to the website.
Meet expectations
Habits in partnerships are sometimes exhilarating, but they can also require patience. As a website operator, this means recognizing user habits and meeting expectations. Use functions that are well received by users.
The search function in particular is very popular in the B2B sector. According to ibi-research, a sophisticated search function is one of the most important shop functionalities for B2B buyers at 74 percent. Buyers have little time for their research, so a sophisticated and well-functioning search comes in handy. An inspiring search can be implemented using AI-supported software.
A successful example is the search at bechtle.com. The search result window becomes a search experience.
The individual result is presented here with a picture and price. At the same time, the overview of results invites you to browse, as other products and articles with brief information are also suggested in a categorized manner.
Another area that visitors habitually visit is the footer. This learned pattern should be operated and used! For example, valuable additional information could be placed in the footer next to the structure of the website and encourage people to linger.
Get leads with B2B site: from flirting to relationship
An inspiring user experience on a B2B site is always the result of an individual process. A website should create trust and arouse enthusiasm – and thereby increase the (also monetary effect) conversion of the online presence. The user experience of your B2B website can be a differentiating feature for the entire company.