Did you know that 94% of business buyers research online before finalizing a purchase?
Have you ever come across a generic, outdated website and immediately left thinking that their business was not a reliable option for your potential purchase? Many consumers today base purchasing decisions on the impression a business website creates for them. If it is a positive and engaging experience, they are more likely to return to the site.
But beyond just updates to the design and branding, there are other elements that will take your B2B website to the next level. That includes personalization.
According to research from Accenture, 94 percent of business buyers research online first:
- 77 percent use Google search
- 84.3 percent check business websites
- 34 percent visit 3rd party websites
- 41 percent read user reviews
What is B2B Website Personalization?
Website personalization is the process of creating a unique online experience for different types of visitors coming to a business website. A personalized website has been proven to increase sales online by over 19%.
This type of custom online experience helps businesses identify exactly how they can help provide a solution to an individual based on their wants, needs, and desires. An increase in data collection methods allows a business to identify buyer behavior and how to best engage each type of audience through digital media, content, promotional campaigns, or communication strategies.
For a B2B company, website personalization can take the form of segmenting clients by areas such as industry, size, or location, and guiding them to areas of a website that they would be most interested in. By directly addressing an individual’s needs, an organization is more likely to see your business as a potential partner and reliable option for long-term support. In fact, recent studies have shown that B2B companies with effective personalization on their e-commerce sites will outsell by 30 percent competitors without the same level of personalization.
How to Gauge Effectiveness of Website Personalization Methods:
- Segment audiences into groups and focus on a specific group with different levels of personalization methods
- Use trackable methods of personalization — such as landing pages, links, social media strategy, blog posts, etc.
- Measure the effectiveness of personalization methods using online surveys and data collection techniques
How to Effectively Personalize your B2B Website:
- Profile your customers – The first step to developing an effective personalization strategy is to first identify who your core customers are. You can better understand your customers by identifying how they are locating your business, what pages and content they are clicking on, and the amount of time spent on your website.
- Find ways to attract and engage – Once you have identified the different types of visitors on your website, you can then implement personalization techniques that will better focus their attention and keep them engaged on your website. This could be done through creating dynamic content, landing page design, media or video integration, and more.
- Track analytics and adjust accordingly – As you incorporate new personalization techniques, you will want to track analytic data throughout the process. Based on whether engagement has increased or decreased, you can adjust your methods of personalizing your B2B website experience accordingly.
Methods to Personalize Your B2B Website:
Start a Blog
Blogging gives your business a more personal connection with customers and helps them relate to your business through sharing of knowledge, values, recommendations, or feedback about industry topics. It can add a personal touch to your B2B website by breaking up product and sales related content, making your business seem more approachable. It also gives your business the ability to communicate directly with customers through comments and social shares.
Offer a Personalized Buying Experience
Creating a personalized buying experience helps individuals feel valued by a business by directly addressing their wants and needs. Ways to personalize a buying experience include onsite landing pages that address customer needs at specific areas of the website.
Case studies are also a great way to personalize a buying experience for B2B organizations, as they give individuals a real life example of how a product or service could be used and the effect it had on an organization. In the B2B setting, case studies are proven to help convert and accelerate the most leads over other forms of online content.
Incorporate Custom Imagery
Stock photography can have a generic look and feel and doesn’t create much of a lasting impression on new visitors. By incorporating images that directly relate to your business (such as staff photos, onsite location images, or real time product images) you can add more of a personal touch to your B2B website.
Custom images give visitors a sense of your organizational values, level of expertise, and the depth of products or services you offer.
Personalize Calls to Action
Personalizing calls to action based on audience segments and stages of the buying journey will help your business engage different types of visitors, as well as increase conversion rates. By tailoring your messaging, location, and methods of delivering a call to action, you are able to move an individual further through the buying process.
Calls to action can be incorporated throughout web pages as buttons, or integrated as part of a landing page design. Landing pages are an effective method for lead generation, and are currently used by 68 percent of B2B businesses.
Optimize for Search Engine Results
By personalizing your onsite messaging based on search engine results, you can encourage new visitors to further explore your website. Most visitors perform 8-12 online searches before interacting with a B2B website, so it is important that your business makes a good initial onsite impression so they will return to your page.
Create a Compelling B2B Landing Page
Another method of personalization through search engine use would be to develop a landing page that potential customers are directed to based on how they found your business. A landing page ensures that the right messaging is targeted toward specific individuals, in hopes that they will perform some sort of action or further explore your website.
For example, a B2B website that caters to medical professionals could develop a landing page that explains the medical industry benefits of their product, and ask for their email address with the goal of encouraging further communication. This type of personalization strategy can help visitors find the appropriate area of a website, as well as serve as an effective lead generation strategy for businesses.
By personalizing your B2B website based on different attributes of your audience, your business can effectively increase website engagement, conversion rates, and product purchases. Your business website is best personalized through landing page design, calls to action, custom imagery, and dynamic content such as a blog. By tracking the methods used to personalize your website, you will be able to better gauge their effectiveness and adjust your messaging as needed.
Alliance Interactive is a full service agency providing custom B2B Website Design. Have a project you’d like us to review? Work With Us.