What are Your B2B Website’s Goals? – B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #270

November 23, 2009 by
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Filed under B2B Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Sales and Marketing Tips

A lot of people build a website as if it was just an online brochure.  While that may work for some, for most b2b marketers that just is not enough.  The question you should ask yourself is, “what are my website’s goals?”  Here are a few possibilities and what needs to be included on your website as a result:

Educate my buyers about my products and my industry.

  • Your resources section should be overflowing with content varying from whitepapers and eBooks to podcasts of interviews with industry experts.
  • Every product page should have links to relevant corresponding resources.
  • There is no faster way to create loads of content than to have a regularly updated blog.

Get prospects to contact us.

  • Include a link to your contact us page on every page of your website (Don’t get creative here, follow standard format for the location of the contact us link.  This is typically in the upper right corner.)
  • Consider a 1-800 number – again this could be at the top of every page

Generate New Leads

  • To capture new leads on your website, you have to offer compelling content.  There is a lot of debate around whether or not to put whitepaper, eBooks, etc. behind forms.  This is again a time to ask yourself is the goal to capture contact info or to spread your content (forms will deter some from downloading)
  • Another option to forms is to use a service that identifies unknown web visitors.  This will only tell you the company visiting but it is better than nothing.

To interact with current customers

I know of a marketer that has no control of their website.  It is solely used for current customers and is not a marketing tool.  If this is a problem you are dealing with as a marketer, suggest creating a customer portal.  Then the public pages of your website can be used for marketing.

  • Keep in mind that your current customers should still be marketed to.  They are ripe for upsell and crosssell opportunities.
  • You can offer them early access to a new whitepaper or eBook.

Whatever the goal, keep a focus.  You can’t do it all, but you can take elements from each to enrich your site.