B2B

By Adrienne Erin

People buying things from business-to-business sites are looking for three main things.

First, they want to find what they need quickly. They don’t have time to hunt all around a site for information. Second, they want to gain useful information. They don’t want to feel like they wasted time looking around your site. And third, they want to know how you can help them. They don’t want to come away from the site confused about what your products are.

Here are five cues you can take from successful B2B sites that will help you give your prospective clients all those things they want and more.

1. Use Gated Content to Gain New Leads

Parents often use the lure of dessert to get kids to eat their vegetables. You can do something similar with gated content. Ask people to give you their contact information, which generates new leads, in return for something valuable, such as an ebook or podcast. For instance, marketing agency WebpageFX gives away free marketing guides in return for email addresses.

2. Create a Clear Sales Funnel with Calls to Action

A sales funnel should be aimed at making a purchase and spitting the user out on the right page every time they click. You want to make sure potential clients have ample opportunity to bite. MailChimp does a great job with this. The company offers lots of options depending on your size and desires, and it takes you through several steps to find the specific plan that would be right for your business.

3. Give Multiple Ways for Potential Customers to Contact You

It is not enough to have a “contact us” button that links to your snail mail address. You want to be extremely easy to get in touch with. That means plastering your phone number, email address and live chat options on every page. You don’t have to be obnoxious about it, but make sure they are visible and obvious. Or employ a bright pink “Let’s Talk” button at the top of each page like ABD business and financial services does. There’s no missing that invitation to connect.

4. Use Videos of Your Product in Action

Inform and persuade potential customers by showing how well your products work. There is nothing more convincing than a testimonial, and one offered via video is all the more effective because it’s visual. That means no guessing how something works. All Paws Pet Wash offers a link to YouTube on its page with videos of its products in action.

5. Offer Information Quickly and Clearly

Leave hunting and pecking for chickens. Potential clients should not have to poke around your website for hours to find the information they are looking for. Make sure the pages that get the most hits are easy to find. Take a page from Square, which offers products for business on the go. Its site includes not just a menu at the top of the page but an expanded menu at the bottom, where users can find information houses in less obvious places then the top menu.

Adrienne Erin is a social media marketing writer who loves picking apart campaigns to see what makes them tick. To see more of her work, visit Design Roast or follow @adrienneerin on Twitter.