The Eight Characteristics of the Best B2B Websites

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1 RainCastle White Paper The Eight Characteristics of the Best B2B Websites From Messaging to Measurement By Paul Regensburg President and Creative Director

2 Differentiated Brand Strategy 3 Customer-Focused Content 4 Audience-Defined Navigation 5 Inspired Design 6 Easy-to-Use Content Management 7 Inbound Marketing 8 Offers-Orientation 9 Search and Measurement 10 RainCastle Communications, Inc. 288 Walnut Street Newton, MA T F W raincastle.com

3 The Eight Characteristics of the Best B2B Websites From Messaging to Measurement analyze create develop market In 2011, anyone can create a website. Surprisingly few can deliver an effective B2B website that truly contributes to their sales and marketing efforts. Below is a checklist of the eight characteristics that when employed with care and skill, result in best-in-class B2B websites that stand apart from the rest. DIFFERENTIATED BRAND STRATEGY Make Your Website a Destination Worth Searching For The availability of web analytics has given business owners real insight and power to shape, adjust and reshape their websites in direct response to the user s needs. Because of the availability of tools to measure website user behavior, most of the focus these days is on website ROI, with less attention given to brand positioning and messaging. This is short-term thinking. If one is going to spend time and money making a site searchable and sticky, they should give equal consideration to providing a clear, compelling and differentiated customer value proposition. Taking a little extra time to consult with customers for their perceptions on your value, and compare your messaging to that of your competition, results in a smoother, faster website process that is more targeted to the needs of visitors and generally yields a more compelling user experience. 3

4 RainCastle White Paper CUSTOMER-FOCUSED CONTENT Strong Brand Messaging Yields Differentiated Content Customer-focused content is a direct result of two things, strong brand messaging and a focus on your customers rather than yourself. If you study your competitors and establish your own differentiated messaging points, then the content creation process will flow much more easily. Customerfocused content is key word rich, contains relevant internal and external links, case studies, and most importantly addresses the value you bring to your customers. Content can include text, images, video, audio and non-gratuitous Flash. Customer-focused content also has significant impact on shortening the web development process. If content reflects the voice of the customer, assuming you know your audience, crafting it will be a smooth, intuitive experience. Without that foundation, the experience of developing website content often becomes a challenging and time-consuming endeavor. Businesses in many industries and particularly in the technology space, still view their websites as a place to talk about themselves and why their products are great. In 2011 and beyond, what users expect from a website is to understand what your company can do for them. When creating web content, think you, not me. Website for a law firm, speaks in the voice of the customer. 4

5 AUDIENCE-DEFINED NAVIGATION Your Audience Defines Your Website s Navigation A website succeeds when it makes your brand strategy relevant to specific audiences so visitors enjoy a more personal experience. Directly addressing the needs of your audience is arguably the most important aspect of creating a successful web experience. analyze create develop market Navigation supports vertical market strategy. Navigation by Role directly addresses the needs of different audiences. 5

6 RainCastle White Paper Navigation by means of identifying the audience s business pain. There are many ways to make a website s navigation intuitive to its audience. If your business sells to specific vertical markets, then the homepage experience should make those vertical markets immediately visible. For those selling to various audiences, segregating content by role would be an intuitive solution. If most of your business is related to solving specific business problems, creating a business pain-based navigation will enable your audience to self-identify when they scan your homepage. In some cases you may wish to present several navigational options together on the homepage. The only caution here is to make sure having too many options does not confuse the user. INSPIRED DESIGN Design for People; Keep it Simple While marketing is increasingly database-driven and analytics-based, we are often judged on the emotional appeal of the sites we create. The tendency for most businesses, and especially those in technology fields, is to try to include as much content words, images, icons, Flash animation, video, links, buttons and arrows, on the homepage. Everyone by now recognizes that you have a matter of seconds to capture the interest of a site visitor, before they leave, out of boredom or frustration. Bounce Rates an indication of how many visitors leave your website from a given page in your web analytics package can tell you if your 6

7 homepage is working or not. With the increasing focus on providing so much searchable content, it is important to remember that human beings are using the web, and can only handle so much data. A good website design clearly has a first read, an area that is clearly most important and where you want visitors to start looking. A good design then seamlessly guides the visitor down a clear path by inspired use of color, imagery, content, interactivity and font choice. How many sites have you been to in which you have no idea where to go because everything is screaming for attention? Less is more and simple is better, go the cliché s. They are cliché s for good reason! Never underestimate the emotional power of design to motivate behavior and attitude. Design sells. Just ask Apple. EASY-TO-USE CONTENT MANAGEMENT Content Management Gives You Control, But Be Careful to Choose the Right One Your website is a living, breathing collection of content that needs to constantly change, if you want your search rankings to remain high. A website maintains relevancy and utility by means of keeping its content fresh and relevant. In order to accomplish this, those managing the website need the capability to easily update content when they choose. Building a website on a content-managed platform enables the non-programmer to maintain their website and make changes or add content as needed. Taking it a step further, a content-managed site also affords the ability to personalize the website experience by offering specific content to specific audiences, thus making the site more relevant and a stronger customer retention tool. analyze create develop market Content Management Systems can be broken into three types: Proprietary, Commercial and Open Source. Many website development firms have their own custom designed content management systems, which is part of their full-service package. These vary in quality and once you use the firm to build the website, you are committed to working with that firm for the life of the site, whether or not the content management system can scale or you are satisfied with the vendor. Commercial content management systems come in all shapes and sizes and there are enough good ones that you can find the right solution for your needs. Open Source systems are a rapidly growing option in which your web developer can create a solution custom to your needs based on available code found over the internet. The benefits are customizability and cost and the risks are that more custom work is required, there is less support available and bugs and security patches must be dealt with, which can take time and patience. 7

8 RainCastle White Paper INBOUND MARKETING The Website is the Center of Your Marketing Ecosystem Mass marketing has given way to mass personalization. Rather than depending on traditional advertising and print media in the often-vain hope that people see your message, the concept of Inbound Marketing has taken root. Inbound Marketing encompasses the strategies and tactics of enabling your website to be found by clients and prospects interested in and relevant to your field. The website is the centerpiece of your Inbound Marketing effort, which is an integrated marketing ecosystem that may include SEO, social media, marketing, webinars, events, PR and more. Companies successfully implementing Inbound Marketing practices are using these tools and tactics to drive traffic to their websites and specifically to landing pages that relate to an offer on which they can register to fulfill that offer. This enables companies to build a better database of leads and prospects and a better understanding of the kinds of content they seek. PR Events WEBSITE Direct Mail Webinars / Seminars Blogs Advertising Online / Offline SEO / PPC The website is the hub of your integrated marketing effort. 8

9 OFFERS-ORIENTATION An Effective Website Encourages a Dialogue with Visitors When creating content for your website, it is always advantageous to consider what you can provide that will be of value to your audience and encourage them to contact you to learn more. Customer-focused websites encourage engagement and make it easy to contact you by means of ubiquitous, but not obtrusive offers that include phone numbers, contacts and forms. analyze create develop market Example of website offer. 9

10 The websites of old, of which a surprising number still exist, were essentially online repositories of product or service information commonly referred to as Brochure-ware. These sites were more concerned with pushing products and services than engaging actively with customers and prospects. Today, effective websites engaging in Inbound Marketing best practices, foster engagement by including their contact information on every page, making offers such as free demos, white papers, webinars, events, social media, videos or relevant links, both internal and external. SEARCH AND MEASUREMENT Measurement is the Key to Personalized Marketing Search has been around for years, but never has it been so integrated into the Inbound Marketing ecosystem. There are many things that improve the searchability of your website, such as liberal use of relevant key words in the copy and page titles, increasing the quality and quantity of content, the number and popularity of external sites linking to yours, and the length of time your website has been in existence. analyze create develop market The real power of search comes from its measurability via basic tools such as Google Analytics and more comprehensive Inbound Marketing packages, such as HubSpot, which can measure who is visiting your website, where they are going, what offers they are responding to, and if they return. The power of this information is that it enables you to add, modify, edit and relocate content in direct response or anticipation of the needs of your audience. This is the essence of personalized marketing and will help you become an invaluable partner to your customers and prospects. To learn more about how RainCastle can help you with your website and inbound marketing needs: Please call us at x225 Visit our website at View our blog at 10

11 RainCastle White Paper RainCastle Communications, Inc., a Boston area internet marketing and web design firm, offers a suite of strategic, creative, technology and marketing services, all targeted toward solving business problems. RainCastle s awardwinning work includes website design and development, internet marketing, brand strategy, naming, corporate identity and collateral systems. Internationally recognized for creative and interactive excellence, RainCastle has been in business since RainCastle Communications, Inc. 288 Walnut Street Newton, MA T F W raincastle.com 11