B2B Website Design Agency Selection

If you are searching for B2B website designers to build a new site or redesign an existing website for your company, here's what you need to know before making a decision.

What Are B2B Website Design Best Practices?

B2B website design is different from building a B2C website. While there is plenty of overlap between the two there are some distinctions which we'll cover first.

Sales Cycle - While many consumer purchases are made very quickly, when a business makes a purchase things tend to be much more complex. Often multiple proposals are involved from different companies that are being evaluated. Within the purchasing company multiple people or even multiple departments often get involved in the purchase process. Where consumers will often make buying decisions quickly, in the B2B world long sales cycles that can take weeks, months or even years are the norm.

Lead capture and lead generation should be part of your website as a sales tool as well, so that  additional B2B marketing directly to the prospect during the long sales cycle is a good plan.

Sales Volume and Frequency - A business selling to other businesses typically makes sales less frequently, but often in higher volumes than a B2C seller. As an example a wholesale grocer sells truckloads of product to a small number of customers, where your local grocery store sells the consumer a box at a time, but too many, many consumers. Therefore, while a typical consumer site may not be as concerned when consumers fail to convert, a B2B website will have far fewer potential buyers and needs to make sure lead generation is happening at a high a rate as possible. Comprehensive buying guides and product specification sheets are the type of B2B content you'll want to have, and perhaps put it behind a lead capture form so you can continue to market to the potential customer. 

Since B2B site visitors are not necessarily the decision-makers (think assistants or lower level staff assigned to find suitable vendors), having downloadable and printable content that can easily be shared is a wise move on a B2B website.

Social Proof - On a B2C site you'll often see testimonials or reviews from "Suzy Q Homemaker" gushing about the product or service. On a B2B site, reviews will often be replaced with case studies of how XYZ company used the product or service successfully. Generally you'll find fewer case studies than reviews on the B2C site but they'll typically be much longer and have a lot more detail.

Social Media - While B2C websites will almost always have a heavy social media presence you'll find that B2B websites typically use Social Media a lot less. The corporate buyer is probably frowned upon searching Facebook for solutions where they are easily distracted by the latest cat videos.

On a B2B website design, you'll likely see LinkedIn as the preferred social media platform.

 

What should a B2B website have on it?

1st, answer the question every website visitor asks... "Am I in the right place?"

Immediately upon landing on the company website, both visually and in the website copy, you'll need to reinforce that "yes, this page has a solution to my problem". Let's face it, for a B2B site your site visitor is trying to solve a problem. Potential customers are looking for either a product or service to buy that will solve their problem and it needs to be clear that you have the solution. Through a picture (remember this needs to be a nearly immediate answer, not time for a video) you should visually represent your solution. And the headline on the page should reinforce that this page has answers. You've got just seconds to confirm for the site visitor "you've come to the right place".
 

Next,   "Can I trust this company?"

Again, you have mere seconds for the site visitor to decide if you are trustworthy. Surprisingly, the design of the site pays a huge roll in this decision. While having a secure site that uses an SSL Certificate to encrypt data while in transit is important. It's the intangible things like... does this site look professional? Is it up to date or does it look like it was something put together by the CEO's kid. A custom web design vs a cookie cutter template goes along ways towards looking professional and it actually drives sales. You will be judged in seconds by these very subjective ratings.

Is their brand messaging on point? Is it obvious how to reach customer service? Do they have a support portal for tracking change requests.
 

Are there others like me that have made this same decision?

Having clear cut case studies of how you've helped others lends credibility and trust. If the case study features a well known brand or someone your site visitor is familiar with all the better. The old "You can't go wrong recommending IBM" is still at play. You will be judged by the company you keep and the client's you have.

 

How To Select A B2B Website Design Agency?

First do they have experience in B2B Website Development?
Not all web design companies are top-notch at B2B web design. At BANG! we have over 26 years of experience in B2B website design.


Does the company have SEO Content Writers on staff with the right skills for B2B content marketing?
At BANG! we do. Two writers in-house and a wide variety of writers we work with on a contract basis as the need arises.
 

Do the web design agencies you are considering understand your target audience across the different industries you serve?
At BANG! we've worked with a wide variety of clients across many industries and all across the country. With decades of experience, chances are we are familiar with the unique marketing challenges your industry presents.
 

Does the B2B website agency your are considering understand how search engines work and have a set of SEO tools available to them to generate large quantities of organic search traffic to your website?
We excel at getting our clients ranked at the top of the search engines. Our SEO experience actually pre-dates Google when we worked with our clients to get ranked on Yahoo as it was the #1 search engine at the time. That was decades ago and our skill set has only grown since then.
 

Can you afford them?
As an example BOP Design charges $175 an hour with a typical project cost range of $25,000 to $50,000. LForm Design charges $185 an hour (source DesignRush). Is that within your budget? I realize both of these firms are located in large metropolitan areas, but located in Phoenix, AZ, so are we, and our rates aren't that high. In comparison, our hourly rate is $125 an hour and our B2B web design projects start at just $2,500 and that includes a custom website.

 

Why choose BANG! as your B2B marketing agency and web design firm?

If you are looking for a development company with web design experts you are in the right place. We've been helping companies just like yours since 1996. With B2B Web Development as a core strength and two on staff content writers with SEO experience we can provide the best B2B Website Design that your marketing team is looking for. You can review our design work on our website portfolio.

Your B2B site will look great, load quickly, function flawlessly, and rank well in Google's search results. We'll use our Search Engine Optimization skills to drive search traffic to you and setup you up for success with lead generation.
 
 

Frequently Asked Questions about B2B Website Design and actionable tips

Is it worth investing in custom graphic design for B2B product pages?
If your budget allows the answer is yes. The savvy buyers in today's marketplace can spot stock photos quickly. Effective B2B web design and having original product photos is a plus. It adds trust and makes you look professional. If you have a niche product you'll almost always need to have custom product photography produced.


Are comparison grids important features on a B2B website?
Absolutely! If you offer multiple products or services, providing an easy way to compare them to each other is essential if you don't want to confuse your prospective customer. A great example is our SEO Packages comparison.


What are some good ways to promote a B2B website?
We believe strongly the best way to market a company that has a product or service people are searching for is to rank you well on Google. Showing up at the top of the search results does wonders for lead generation.


Who should create the content for B2B content marketing the company or the digital agency?
We believe strongly that it should be a collaborative effort. We encourage our clients to develop an outline of what they want to say. Then we put our SEO content writers to work developing copy that tells your story, AND ranks well. Quality content is a necessity for B2B client acquisition.


Will the agency design and create your site and then train your team to make necessary updates?
At BANG! absolutely. We've developed an extremely easy to use CMS (Content Management System) that allows our clients to manage their own website if they choose to. We also have staff available to manage it for them if they would prefer to let us do it.


WordPress web design or something else?
For the security of your website, something else for sure. At BANG! we have our own platform and we haven't had a single security issue in decades. In contrast, good luck keeping a WordPress site secure as they have had a terrible record on security vulnerabilities. And their plug-in approach only makes it worse. Read more about WordPress's lack of security.