5 Things Your Website Should Include To Increase B2B Sales

As the market becomes more and more saturated, B2B selling is getting more challenging. In the digital age, a buyer’s first point of contact with a company will likely be their website. Make an impression (and a sale) with these 5 tips.

1. Clear, Simple Message

What does your company do?

You would be amazed at how many homepages don’t answer that question quickly and concisely. And how frustrating is it to go to a website and have no clue what they do? Far too many organizations get caught up in the design of the website, trying to create some intrigue and interest, that they forget to answer the one question visitors have when they get to the website.

When a potential buyer visits your website, you have 7 seconds to convince them to stay. That’s it. 7 seconds. If a reader can’t figure out who you are in seven seconds, they will move on to another company. Whether it’s through a great photo, headline, call to actions, or all three, your message needs to clearly stand out.

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2. Emotion

Google, Motista, and CEB’s Marketing Leadership Council surveyed over 3,000 purchasers in the B2B market and found something surprising – B2B purchasers make decisions based on emotions far more than B2C purchasers.

Why? The answer is quite simple if you think about it. If a B2C purchase fails, best case, the customer can return it, and worse case, they have a little explaining to do to their spouse; the stakes are relatively low. B2B purchases, however, can involve a much bigger amount of risk. Not only does the purchaser have a lot on the line personally (their reputation, credibility, or even their job), but the responsibility of a poor decision can lead to decreased business performances or even job losses for their company.

B2B selling leans on the side of clean, sterile, and logical, exactly the opposite of what the buyer needs and the research confirms. The emotional influence allows your organization to include more than just the features of your product or service. It speaks to what your buyer is afraid of, which leads into our next point.

3. Survival Instinct

Understand your customer and you will understand their survival instinct. Fear is one of man’s greatest motivators. It’s not enough just to acknowledge their pain point, make them feel it. Better yet, show them what happens if they choose to do nothing.

Next, turn those fears into confidence. Alleviate the fear of your buyers by tapping into the emotional connection you’ve established in step two. Remember that their risk is great, so lead them towards overcoming it. Content set out to “debunk the myths” and restore the calm waters is key in helping buyers conquer their fears.

4. Storytelling

The survey found another interesting thing: 86% of buyers did not see the difference between suppliers, and if they did, did not value the difference enough to pay for it. What does this mean for businesses?

The easy (and wrong) answer to solve this: lower your prices.

The right answer to combat this issue is to create excitement and anticipation both with professional and personal rewards through emotion. B2B buyers are almost 50% more likely to make a purchase when they see personal value in it and are 8x more likely to pay a premium for the services.

If there is anything many B2B websites seem to have in common, it’s a safe layout with safe content. Basic information about their product or services and who they are. In the corporate world, organizations are hesitant to break the professional mold and venture outside the box. It’s time to challenge that.

Give potential leads the chance to emotionally connect with your brand through storytelling. It’s no secret that humans love stories; it’s why Hollywood is a multi-billion dollar industry and movie stars are some of the highest paid people on the planet. Our brains find familiarity in the natural arc of the story, a beginning, middle, and end, and stories engage the emotional and creative side of our brain. It humanizes a business. If you are able to inject some personality and emotion into your brand story, you’ll have a much higher chance of standing out from your competitors.

5. Personal Value

In B2B marketing, we tend to focus more on the professional value our product or service has to offer, but personal value is just as important in the B2B buying journey. Simply put, the personal value is the professional, social, and emotional benefits a buyer experiences in addition to the actual product. Behind every business we are trying to sell to is a person, and people are driven by the statement “what’s in it for me?”.

b2b buyers purchase

Not only do 71% of B2B make a purchase when they see personal value in the sale, but positive emotion increases a customer’s loyalty, and loyal customers become brand ambassadors.

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