During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, more people are online than ever before. When they go to your website, will it drive them into your marketing funnel and create quality leads?
When the economy was good, you may have been able to get by with an underperforming website. Your sales reps could do a lot of the heavy lifting by building on relationships. Just because your sales team can’t hit the road right now and meet face to face, however, it doesn’t mean your sales have to slow down.
With increased attention on your digital assets, it’s crucial that your website is up to the task. If it’s not, you need to aggressively make changes to upgrade your website. Even after social distancing has ended, the content and strategy changes will continue to help drive on- and offline lead generation.
Connecting With Your Audience and Solving Its Problems
Most B2B websites are still constructed like an old brochure that doesn’t speak to real people. The most effective websites now are less corporate and more human. They seek to create an emotional connection with potential buyers by focusing on clear, distinct ways to solve buyer pain points across the entire website.
Here’s a simple way to know if your website is making that connection. How would your customers and target audience answer the following question?
What about your business keeps you up at night?
If your website doesn’t:
- Immediately acknowledge your audience’s pain points
- Position your company as experts in solving these problems
- Clearly communicate the solutions you have
You’re missing a huge opportunity.
What Makes a Good B2B Lead Generation Website?
We like to think about your website from the inside out. Many web companies are developer-focused. They think about navigation and style as defining the user experience. Those are important elements but only if they reinforce the value you deliver to your customers. Instead, your website needs to be constructed from the customer’s point of view. If you can’t demonstrate how you’ll solve your customers’ problems, they’ll just move on. They’ll only care about your brand story if you have the solution they need.
Is it the layout and design of Amazon that makes it the world’s largest online marketplace? Or is it the products it sells and the ease with which you can buy them?
Here’s what makes a good B2B lead generation website and strategy. Your brand messaging needs to demonstrate:
- An understanding of customer needs and pain points
- The benefits that your solutions provide
- A clearly articulated value proposition
We see too many websites that want to be everything for everybody. The premium content may well be there, but it’s difficult to find, and customers won’t take the time to search. To be an effective lead generator, you need to have the right brand message front and center to support your inbound marketing. If you’re addressing different areas of business, create different landing pages that can address specific needs in the conversion path.
In today’s B2B climate, 57% of buyers are doing more of their research online than ever before. Seventy percent of buyers have already defined their needs before they ever connect with a sales rep and land on your website, according to CSO Insights. If visitors to your website can’t quickly find the solutions you offer to meet their needs, you may miss out on the chance to engage them.
Your brand message should align strategically with your company’s growth objective. If you’re focused on growing key segments, don’t invest a lot of resources building out content for non-growth areas.
An Effective Content Strategy for B2B Lead Generation
A great website built for effective B2B lead generation will work in concert with your marketing strategy to drive visitors into your sales funnel and lead to sales. It’s often a three-step process:
- Attract a prospect to interact with you.
- Nurture prospects and turn them into marketing-qualified leads.
- Turn leads into customers.
One effective strategy can start on the home page or with a highly targeted lead generation offer bringing traffic to a landing page that includes a contact form. In creating your landing page, be sure to include social proof, as well as the positive impact the offer will have on the customer’s business. Track website visitors and potential leads and continue to nurture them with expert advice in email marketing or social media marketing. The next steps include lead nurturing with product updates or special offers that address customers’ pain points and position your brand as the leader to help them succeed. The right website, combined with the right digital marketing strategy, can be an online lead generation machine whether we’re living in a COVID-19 world or not.
Let Us Help Improve Your Online Lead Generation
Your digital presence has never been more important. At the core of every effective digital marketing strategy is a high-performance website that helps communicate the value your team brings to the table, positions you as experts and showcases the solutions to your customers’ pain points.
We’re S.O. Creative. As specialists in brand development and integrated B2B marketing solutions, we focus on value creation by concentrating on customer engagement. We provide Big Ideas that Drive Business.
Ready to turn your website into a lead generation machine?
