Your website sucks! How do I know this? Because most websites suck and why should yours be any different. I’m sorry if that is a hard pill to swallow, but it’s true. Don’t be too hard on yourself though, it’s not your fault. Far too many websites get designed by committees and if you had your own way things would have been different, right?
They are just not built for b2b lead generation.
A lot of the time when a website gets built, the user, the customer and the client get forgotten about. Although the website belongs to you, it is not yours. Let me explain. I strongly believe a website should be designed by the user. They are the ones that use it, not you. They are the people that will tell you what works and what doesn’t. They will also tell you what content works for them.
This of course doesn’t mean that you don’t need a web designer because a website still needs to evoke trust and professionalism and for me that is where your designer comes in. The rest is down to content and the user experience.
Let’s talk about some of the ways you’re making it hard for your prospect to buy from you and how to fix them.
It’s not clear what you do
When someone arrives on your website they should instantly know what your company does and why they should choose you. The problem people make here is that they try to jam everything they do onto their homepage and say too much, which ends up having the opposite effect. By saying too much you end up saying nothing at all.
Your website homepage should have one short sentence that explains what you do and how you make your customers lives easier.
Take a look below at the three examples of popular marketing automation software and see how their homepage compares.
Eloqua: This is a poor homepage experience. It is far too busy and failed to tell exactly what it is they do. It talks a lot about marketing but not what exactly it does.
HubSpot: Hubspot has an excellent homepage, it is really simple and gets straight to the point. However the main message that catches your eye “create marketing that people love” is a wonderful statement but it fails to tell you exactly what Hubspot do. The text just beneath it is a really great statement and really should be the one it leads with.
If you don’t understand what some of it means, your eye may wander to other parts of the page in search for answers and may miss the great follow up statement.
Marketo: For me this homepage wins hands down. First of all it tells you what it is ‘marketing software’ and then it follows it up with the benefits of using it.
- Easy- it is easy to use.
- Powerful- it gets the job done.
- Complete- you don’t need to use any other software.
Marketo seems to have done a good job and listened to the 3 main issues its potential customers have had when choosing marketing software: it’s hard to use, not very powerful and you still have to use other software. Straight away it answers these three pain points.
Going straight for the sale
95% of your visitors are not ready to buy, so don’t go for the sale straight away. If you take another look at all three of the examples above you will see none of them go for the sale. Hubspot wants you to watch a video, request a demo or view all features. Marketo want you to download some guides on why marketing automation is a good idea and Eloqua does something similar.
Make it easy for your prospects to finds out more about you. Talk about case studies, testimonials history of your company and let them meet your team. In all my years of experience, when looking at heatmaps one of the most common destinations on your website is your ‘about us’ page. So make sure it is special. Better still make your homepage an extension of your ‘about us’ page and let your prospects see the people behind the logo.
People buy from people
Finally make sure your company’s personality shines through because people buy from people not companies. Have pictures of real people from your company, not boring old stock images that people have seen hundreds of times before. Take a look at some of my favourite below to get some ideas.
Infusionsoft
Moz.com
Now it’s your turn
What are the biggest b2b lead generation challenges you face when designing your website? We would love to know in the comments below.