#creativeanddesign

Successful marketers frequently spend time analyzing their customer's needs and desire to target them more effectively. For instance, you spend time digging into demographic and regional information to see what these consumers are looking for in a product or service. Are they focused primarily on price or quality? Are they seeking an innovative technology or an established, easy to use product? By asking yourselves these questions as marketers, you can tap into what the consumers look for and how you can appeal to them. However, business to business marketing (B2B) differs significantly from business to consumer marketing (B2C). Business to business conversions are largely focused on creating a relationship with the buyer, rather than making an immediate sale. Relationship building through providing industry content, branding and contact with a representative is significant for buyers of B2B goods. The emphasis on relationship building lengthens the sales cycle. Due to the larger purchase price of B2B goods, there is often a buying center. A buying center is a group of employees or members of any type of organization responsible for finalizing major purchase decisions. This is comparable to making large purchases as a family. If the washing machine breaks, typically one partner does not go out and purchase a washing machine. The partners go shopping together, speak to representatives and discuss what they want out of this purchase. Similar to the purchase of the washing machine, the different stakeholders have different roles in the buying process and look for different attributes. In B2B the roles in the buying center include the user, influencer, buyer, decider and gatekeeper. To lead these buying centers to convert, you must ask yourselves similar questions that B2C marketers ask. When you understand what these different roles look for, you can focus on optimizing your web design to appeal to various members of the buying group. Here are six web design tips to improve your B2B conversions.

1. Know Who You’re Talking to

Determining which member of the buying group your website talks to is essential in effectively driving conversions. For instance, the user is the person that in the end, will utilize the product or service. If you sold commercial blood pressure monitors, your user would be the nurses using these systems day to day. The influencer may be the doctor with experience using the machine, but will not be the end-user on most occasions. Gatekeepers are responsible for the flow of information. They communicate with the other members of the buying group but can often frame the situation how they would like by withholding information. The buyer is the person signing the check. This may be the hospital's purchaser or operations team member. The decider is the person ultimately deciding which blood pressure monitor to purchase. In some instances, this may be the user, or it could be the buyer. These participants of the buying group all have different interests. If the user accesses your website, they will look for technical information like product pages. They will want to know many details about the product including its capabilities, accuracy, certifications and anything that ensures its quality as a product. Often the gatekeeper or the user is the person viewing your website content. Gatekeepers look for the critical information they can pass on to the user to see if your product contends. Gatekeepers will appreciate concise, bullets of information about the product features. In this hospital, these gatekeepers would likely be on an operations team and not have the technical experience to understand the many technical elements of the product. These blurbs of information shared with the user will potentially attract their attention and lead them to your site. These individuals should be targeted through detailed product pages, so they can get a better sense of the specifics of the product they would use. Recommended: 5 Step Process to Creating a Detailed Buyer Persona

2. Embed Video Content for Product and About Us Pages

B2C websites don't always require detailed information to sell products, but B2B sites often provide a greater wealth of content for various buying personas. Visual content like videos help provide buyers with perspective on expertise and knowledge while delivering visually appealing design to the webpage. For buyers who may not use the product, this content helps break up the monotony of detailed product specifics and allows them to visualize the product. A study estimated that 70% of B2B buyers want to watch a video during the purchase process. Users also appreciate video content because it allows them to see the product or service in action within an environment the potential user could relate. Some companies report an increase of as much as 144% in sales and conversions by embedding product videos. The importance of video carries over to "about us" company pages. As B2B sales cycles tend to be lengthy and built on standing relationships, website users often look to know more about the company they would work alongside. Unlike a B2C purchase, the relationship could potentially last indefinitely through consistent re-buys. The length of the relationship increases the stakes and causes users to want to learn more about the company's goals and vision. Embedded video content featuring different company leaders speaking about the history of the company and their strategic vision helps buyers develop a trusting relationship with the organization. Recommended: Is It a Good Idea to Equip Product Pages with Video Content?

3. Showcase Online Reviews

Many buyers rely heavily on online reviews, recommendations and social media content to make their decision. Influencers are a member of the buying group. These influencers can be personal contacts to the buyer and user, or they could be in the form of online reviews and feedback. The user-generated content on third-party review sites or social media is incredibly influential in the decision-making process. By strategically selecting a few honest reviews across various pages on the website, potential buyers can see what others say about your product. In tailoring which reviews are on different pages, we can curate perfectly targeted pages for various members of the buying group. For instance, “about us” pages that the buyer or gatekeeper would visit will feature reviews about the trustworthiness of the company and the valuable relationship formed. On the contrary, detailed product pages will feature reviews about the technical value and success of the product in action.

4. Include Trust Symbols

Your brand has worked hard to earn the emblems of review sites like Yelp or industry certifications — display them proudly! These badges attest to your brand's commitment to quality and industry-leading expertise and potential buyers will see value in this. Joe’s Garage, a coffee company in Seattle, displays their certifications proudly in the footer of their webpages. This ensures that regardless of where the user goes on the site, they can see the company’s accomplishments. Members of the buying group will take notice of the certifications valuable to them by recognizing the symbol. Even if some of the certifications won't directly lead them to convert, they can see that your company works diligently to stand out in the industry.

5. Curate High-Quality Gated Content

Much like SEO best practice in producing high-quality industry content, creating top-of-funnel content for industry searchers will prove your brand’s credibility. Being viewed as a thought leader in B2B markets further establish meaningful relationships with potential buyers. Providing users with access to this content after filling out a contact form can help your marketing team better target these individuals from lead nurturing details about their organization. Some examples of top-of-the-funnel gated content include: - eBooks - How-To Videos - Webinars - Datasheets - Industry Insights - Downloadable Guides Recommended: 11 Evergreen Content Marketing Trends to Use Year-Round

6. Provide Different Methods of Contact

With many different members of the buying group in B2B purchases, each stakeholder holds their preferred methods of contacting a potential supplier. Providing site users with numerous options for contacting your company will ensure that the method of communication doesn't hinder their willingness to connect with your business. A B2B buyer is 57% of the way through a purchase decision before they engage a salesperson, which means that B2B businesses sit on a pile of leads that they have not yet contacted! By giving users the opportunity to engage with your team through contact forms, email and live chat, you will begin the conversion process with leads that may not have picked up the phone and contacted you quite yet. By communicating earlier in the buying process you can write the story. Open lines of communication prevent losing a conversion because the potential buyer didn't have the right information about product offerings.

Effectively Target Your Buying Group

Successful marketers frequently spend time analyzing their customer's needs and desire to target them more effectively. For instance, you spend time digging into demographic and regional information to see what these consumers are looking for in a product or service. Are they focused primarily on price or quality? Are they seeking an innovative technology or an established, easy to use product? By asking yourselves these questions as marketers, you can tap into what the consumers look for and how you can appeal to them. However, business to business marketing (B2B) differs significantly from business to consumer marketing (B2C). Business to business conversions are largely focused on creating a relationship with the buyer, rather than making an immediate sale. Relationship building through providing industry content, branding and contact with a representative is significant for buyers of B2B goods. The emphasis on relationship building lengthens the sales cycle. Due to the larger purchase price of B2B goods, there is often a buying center. A buying center is a group of employees or members of any type of organization responsible for finalizing major purchase decisions. This is comparable to making large purchases as a family. If the washing machine breaks, typically one partner does not go out and purchase a washing machine. The partners go shopping together, speak to representatives and discuss what they want out of this purchase. Similar to the purchase of the washing machine, the different stakeholders have different roles in the buying process and look for different attributes. In B2B the roles in the buying center include the user, influencer, buyer, decider and gatekeeper. To lead these buying centers to convert, you must ask yourselves similar questions that B2C marketers ask. When you understand what these different roles look for, you can focus on optimizing your web design to appeal to various members of the buying group. Here are six web design tips to improve your B2B conversions.

1. Know Who You’re Talking to

Determining which member of the buying group your website talks to is essential in effectively driving conversions. For instance, the user is the person that in the end, will utilize the product or service. If you sold commercial blood pressure monitors, your user would be the nurses using these systems day to day. The influencer may be the doctor with experience using the machine, but will not be the end-user on most occasions. Gatekeepers are responsible for the flow of information. They communicate with the other members of the buying group but can often frame the situation how they would like by withholding information. The buyer is the person signing the check. This may be the hospital's purchaser or operations team member. The decider is the person ultimately deciding which blood pressure monitor to purchase. In some instances, this may be the user, or it could be the buyer. These participants of the buying group all have different interests. If the user accesses your website, they will look for technical information like product pages. They will want to know many details about the product including its capabilities, accuracy, certifications and anything that ensures its quality as a product. Often the gatekeeper or the user is the person viewing your website content. Gatekeepers look for the critical information they can pass on to the user to see if your product contends. Gatekeepers will appreciate concise, bullets of information about the product features. In this hospital, these gatekeepers would likely be on an operations team and not have the technical experience to understand the many technical elements of the product. These blurbs of information shared with the user will potentially attract their attention and lead them to your site. These individuals should be targeted through detailed product pages, so they can get a better sense of the specifics of the product they would use. Recommended: 5 Step Process to Creating a Detailed Buyer Persona

2. Embed Video Content for Product and About Us Pages

B2C websites don't always require detailed information to sell products, but B2B sites often provide a greater wealth of content for various buying personas. Visual content like videos help provide buyers with perspective on expertise and knowledge while delivering visually appealing design to the webpage. For buyers who may not use the product, this content helps break up the monotony of detailed product specifics and allows them to visualize the product. A study estimated that 70% of B2B buyers want to watch a video during the purchase process. Users also appreciate video content because it allows them to see the product or service in action within an environment the potential user could relate. Some companies report an increase of as much as 144% in sales and conversions by embedding product videos. The importance of video carries over to "about us" company pages. As B2B sales cycles tend to be lengthy and built on standing relationships, website users often look to know more about the company they would work alongside. Unlike a B2C purchase, the relationship could potentially last indefinitely through consistent re-buys. The length of the relationship increases the stakes and causes users to want to learn more about the company's goals and vision. Embedded video content featuring different company leaders speaking about the history of the company and their strategic vision helps buyers develop a trusting relationship with the organization. Recommended: Is It a Good Idea to Equip Product Pages with Video Content?

3. Showcase Online Reviews

Many buyers rely heavily on online reviews, recommendations and social media content to make their decision. Influencers are a member of the buying group. These influencers can be personal contacts to the buyer and user, or they could be in the form of online reviews and feedback. The user-generated content on third-party review sites or social media is incredibly influential in the decision-making process. By strategically selecting a few honest reviews across various pages on the website, potential buyers can see what others say about your product. In tailoring which reviews are on different pages, we can curate perfectly targeted pages for various members of the buying group. For instance, “about us” pages that the buyer or gatekeeper would visit will feature reviews about the trustworthiness of the company and the valuable relationship formed. On the contrary, detailed product pages will feature reviews about the technical value and success of the product in action.

4. Include Trust Symbols

Your brand has worked hard to earn the emblems of review sites like Yelp or industry certifications — display them proudly! These badges attest to your brand's commitment to quality and industry-leading expertise and potential buyers will see value in this. Joe’s Garage, a coffee company in Seattle, displays their certifications proudly in the footer of their webpages. This ensures that regardless of where the user goes on the site, they can see the company’s accomplishments. Members of the buying group will take notice of the certifications valuable to them by recognizing the symbol. Even if some of the certifications won't directly lead them to convert, they can see that your company works diligently to stand out in the industry.

5. Curate High-Quality Gated Content

Much like SEO best practice in producing high-quality industry content, creating top-of-funnel content for industry searchers will prove your brand’s credibility. Being viewed as a thought leader in B2B markets further establish meaningful relationships with potential buyers. Providing users with access to this content after filling out a contact form can help your marketing team better target these individuals from lead nurturing details about their organization. Some examples of top-of-the-funnel gated content include: - eBooks - How-To Videos - Webinars - Datasheets - Industry Insights - Downloadable Guides Recommended: 11 Evergreen Content Marketing Trends to Use Year-Round

6. Provide Different Methods of Contact

With many different members of the buying group in B2B purchases, each stakeholder holds their preferred methods of contacting a potential supplier. Providing site users with numerous options for contacting your company will ensure that the method of communication doesn't hinder their willingness to connect with your business. A B2B buyer is 57% of the way through a purchase decision before they engage a salesperson, which means that B2B businesses sit on a pile of leads that they have not yet contacted! By giving users the opportunity to engage with your team through contact forms, email and live chat, you will begin the conversion process with leads that may not have picked up the phone and contacted you quite yet. By communicating earlier in the buying process you can write the story. Open lines of communication prevent losing a conversion because the potential buyer didn't have the right information about product offerings.

Effectively Target Your Buying Group

You grew up seeing web design industry evolve as a million-dollar industry. You see the era of the static web pages give way to fully dynamic web pages. Then there are new web design trends that completely transformed the internet. This fascinates you so much that you decided to make a career in web design. You enroll in the best degree program to acquire the knowledge and gain hands on experience by doing multiple web design projects. Unfortunately, universities and colleges don’t teach you everything. There are certain things that you learn by experience and no one tell you about them. In this article, we will tell you about seven of these things that no one told you about web design industry.

1. No Rewards for Experimentation

Billy Fagan, a professional web designer and developer loves to tinker with the code before jumping into the web design and development industry. In his early days, he used to experiment a lot. Unfortunately, he did not realize that you cannot put any cool new thing you learned into your web design projects straight away. Reflecting back on his experience, he said, “You are not doing this as a hobby anymore; it’s a professional situation. This means the client is paying for your time.” He points out, “The client almost never has the budget for you to test out your new shiny thing on their project and why should they? You just need to try the shiny stuff on your personal projects.” In short, if you are expecting appreciation and reward for trying new things then, you will be disappointed.

2. Keep Moving

The pace at which web design industry is evolving is mind boggling so much so that if you stay still you will soon become a part of history. Sally Lait a digital transformation consultant tells her story about when she started working as a junior developer. Sally admits that she was shocked by the rate of change in the industry when she stepped into it. She adds, “Embracing changes in technology, user expectations and societal shifts – even my own interests – over time was something that I initially struggled with rather than welcomed,” According to her, “Change often feels scary and tiring but it’s also really exciting to naturally keep evolving on your own personal journey and keep finding new things that you enjoy.”

3. Don’t Tell Everything to Clients

You might be excited to tell your clients what you are working on and keep them well informed about the progress. Sometimes, it is better to stay tight lipped than revealing everything to clients. In some cases, when you reveal everything to clients, it could prove to be an unpleasant surprise for clients and might land you in hot waters. Instead of revealing everything at once, you should use clear communication throughout the design process. James Stiff, a freelance designer said, “Manage expectations and keep stakeholders actively engaged in the design process. When presenting designs, remind stakeholders of the problem that they aim to solve.”

4. Aesthetics Is Not Everything

If you have ever studied web design, you might be a bit surprised to see most of the classes are related to aesthetics. This makes you believe that web design is all about aesthetics and nothing else. With this mindset, you tend to ignore usability which hampers the overall user experience of the websites you create. Web design agency knows that very well which is why they focus on both aesthetics and user experience to create winning web designs. Catt Small faced similar issues when she was studying and starting her career in web design. She said, “By thinking about the people who will use the experience, understanding them deeply and considering their stories, I have become a much better designer. My favorite thing to do is create scenarios that help me understand when people would use my designs. This not only helps me identify potential pain points but also helps me communicate better with collaborators.”

5. You Cannot Know It All

Marco Poletto, a front-end software engineer, “It is all too easy to fall into the trap of wanting to learn it all: all the frameworks, all the languages, everything. After years in the field and a touch of ‘JavaScript fatigue’, I wish I’d known how to evaluate my options briefly, without wasting time on the array of choices in front of me and then invest my time on that and only that.” If you are finding it difficult to focus on one thing, Poletto has a simple tip. Follow what you like, and it will make it easier to master the art of web design.

6. Design and Development Is A Part of Process

Most people think that web design and development is all about design and development. Maria Perna, co-editor of SitePoint. said, “I didn’t realize how much I would need business skills and how much easier my professional life would be if I felt at ease building personal connections,” she says. “I took for granted that long-term professional development and continuing to be my usual geeky self would be enough. I had to understand the importance of building up bridges with other devs, both to stay on top of what happens in the industry and to learn about work opportunities. Not to mention getting to grips with marketing and business concepts.”

7. Charging Lower Can Ruin Your Business

You grew up seeing web design industry evolve as a million-dollar industry. You see the era of the static web pages give way to fully dynamic web pages. Then there are new web design trends that completely transformed the internet. This fascinates you so much that you decided to make a career in web design. You enroll in the best degree program to acquire the knowledge and gain hands on experience by doing multiple web design projects. Unfortunately, universities and colleges don’t teach you everything. There are certain things that you learn by experience and no one tell you about them. In this article, we will tell you about seven of these things that no one told you about web design industry.

1. No Rewards for Experimentation

Billy Fagan, a professional web designer and developer loves to tinker with the code before jumping into the web design and development industry. In his early days, he used to experiment a lot. Unfortunately, he did not realize that you cannot put any cool new thing you learned into your web design projects straight away. Reflecting back on his experience, he said, “You are not doing this as a hobby anymore; it’s a professional situation. This means the client is paying for your time.” He points out, “The client almost never has the budget for you to test out your new shiny thing on their project and why should they? You just need to try the shiny stuff on your personal projects.” In short, if you are expecting appreciation and reward for trying new things then, you will be disappointed.

2. Keep Moving

The pace at which web design industry is evolving is mind boggling so much so that if you stay still you will soon become a part of history. Sally Lait a digital transformation consultant tells her story about when she started working as a junior developer. Sally admits that she was shocked by the rate of change in the industry when she stepped into it. She adds, “Embracing changes in technology, user expectations and societal shifts – even my own interests – over time was something that I initially struggled with rather than welcomed,” According to her, “Change often feels scary and tiring but it’s also really exciting to naturally keep evolving on your own personal journey and keep finding new things that you enjoy.”

3. Don’t Tell Everything to Clients

You might be excited to tell your clients what you are working on and keep them well informed about the progress. Sometimes, it is better to stay tight lipped than revealing everything to clients. In some cases, when you reveal everything to clients, it could prove to be an unpleasant surprise for clients and might land you in hot waters. Instead of revealing everything at once, you should use clear communication throughout the design process. James Stiff, a freelance designer said, “Manage expectations and keep stakeholders actively engaged in the design process. When presenting designs, remind stakeholders of the problem that they aim to solve.”

4. Aesthetics Is Not Everything

If you have ever studied web design, you might be a bit surprised to see most of the classes are related to aesthetics. This makes you believe that web design is all about aesthetics and nothing else. With this mindset, you tend to ignore usability which hampers the overall user experience of the websites you create. Web design agency knows that very well which is why they focus on both aesthetics and user experience to create winning web designs. Catt Small faced similar issues when she was studying and starting her career in web design. She said, “By thinking about the people who will use the experience, understanding them deeply and considering their stories, I have become a much better designer. My favorite thing to do is create scenarios that help me understand when people would use my designs. This not only helps me identify potential pain points but also helps me communicate better with collaborators.”

5. You Cannot Know It All

Marco Poletto, a front-end software engineer, “It is all too easy to fall into the trap of wanting to learn it all: all the frameworks, all the languages, everything. After years in the field and a touch of ‘JavaScript fatigue’, I wish I’d known how to evaluate my options briefly, without wasting time on the array of choices in front of me and then invest my time on that and only that.” If you are finding it difficult to focus on one thing, Poletto has a simple tip. Follow what you like, and it will make it easier to master the art of web design.

6. Design and Development Is A Part of Process

Most people think that web design and development is all about design and development. Maria Perna, co-editor of SitePoint. said, “I didn’t realize how much I would need business skills and how much easier my professional life would be if I felt at ease building personal connections,” she says. “I took for granted that long-term professional development and continuing to be my usual geeky self would be enough. I had to understand the importance of building up bridges with other devs, both to stay on top of what happens in the industry and to learn about work opportunities. Not to mention getting to grips with marketing and business concepts.”

7. Charging Lower Can Ruin Your Business

Successful marketers frequently spend time analyzing their customer's needs and desire to target them more effectively. For instance, you spend time digging into demographic and regional information to see what these consumers are looking for in a product or service. Are they focused primarily on price or quality? Are they seeking an innovative technology or an established, easy to use product? By asking yourselves these questions as marketers, you can tap into what the consumers look for and how you can appeal to them. However, business to business marketing (B2B) differs significantly from business to consumer marketing (B2C). Business to business conversions are largely focused on creating a relationship with the buyer, rather than making an immediate sale. Relationship building through providing industry content, branding and contact with a representative is significant for buyers of B2B goods. The emphasis on relationship building lengthens the sales cycle. Due to the larger purchase price of B2B goods, there is often a buying center. A buying center is a group of employees or members of any type of organization responsible for finalizing major purchase decisions. This is comparable to making large purchases as a family. If the washing machine breaks, typically one partner does not go out and purchase a washing machine. The partners go shopping together, speak to representatives and discuss what they want out of this purchase. Similar to the purchase of the washing machine, the different stakeholders have different roles in the buying process and look for different attributes. In B2B the roles in the buying center include the user, influencer, buyer, decider and gatekeeper. To lead these buying centers to convert, you must ask yourselves similar questions that B2C marketers ask. When you understand what these different roles look for, you can focus on optimizing your web design to appeal to various members of the buying group. Here are six web design tips to improve your B2B conversions.

1. Know Who You’re Talking to

Determining which member of the buying group your website talks to is essential in effectively driving conversions. For instance, the user is the person that in the end, will utilize the product or service. If you sold commercial blood pressure monitors, your user would be the nurses using these systems day to day. The influencer may be the doctor with experience using the machine, but will not be the end-user on most occasions. Gatekeepers are responsible for the flow of information. They communicate with the other members of the buying group but can often frame the situation how they would like by withholding information. The buyer is the person signing the check. This may be the hospital's purchaser or operations team member. The decider is the person ultimately deciding which blood pressure monitor to purchase. In some instances, this may be the user, or it could be the buyer. These participants of the buying group all have different interests. If the user accesses your website, they will look for technical information like product pages. They will want to know many details about the product including its capabilities, accuracy, certifications and anything that ensures its quality as a product. Often the gatekeeper or the user is the person viewing your website content. Gatekeepers look for the critical information they can pass on to the user to see if your product contends. Gatekeepers will appreciate concise, bullets of information about the product features. In this hospital, these gatekeepers would likely be on an operations team and not have the technical experience to understand the many technical elements of the product. These blurbs of information shared with the user will potentially attract their attention and lead them to your site. These individuals should be targeted through detailed product pages, so they can get a better sense of the specifics of the product they would use. Recommended: 5 Step Process to Creating a Detailed Buyer Persona

2. Embed Video Content for Product and About Us Pages

B2C websites don't always require detailed information to sell products, but B2B sites often provide a greater wealth of content for various buying personas. Visual content like videos help provide buyers with perspective on expertise and knowledge while delivering visually appealing design to the webpage. For buyers who may not use the product, this content helps break up the monotony of detailed product specifics and allows them to visualize the product. A study estimated that 70% of B2B buyers want to watch a video during the purchase process. Users also appreciate video content because it allows them to see the product or service in action within an environment the potential user could relate. Some companies report an increase of as much as 144% in sales and conversions by embedding product videos. The importance of video carries over to "about us" company pages. As B2B sales cycles tend to be lengthy and built on standing relationships, website users often look to know more about the company they would work alongside. Unlike a B2C purchase, the relationship could potentially last indefinitely through consistent re-buys. The length of the relationship increases the stakes and causes users to want to learn more about the company's goals and vision. Embedded video content featuring different company leaders speaking about the history of the company and their strategic vision helps buyers develop a trusting relationship with the organization. Recommended: Is It a Good Idea to Equip Product Pages with Video Content?

3. Showcase Online Reviews

Many buyers rely heavily on online reviews, recommendations and social media content to make their decision. Influencers are a member of the buying group. These influencers can be personal contacts to the buyer and user, or they could be in the form of online reviews and feedback. The user-generated content on third-party review sites or social media is incredibly influential in the decision-making process. By strategically selecting a few honest reviews across various pages on the website, potential buyers can see what others say about your product. In tailoring which reviews are on different pages, we can curate perfectly targeted pages for various members of the buying group. For instance, “about us” pages that the buyer or gatekeeper would visit will feature reviews about the trustworthiness of the company and the valuable relationship formed. On the contrary, detailed product pages will feature reviews about the technical value and success of the product in action.

4. Include Trust Symbols

Your brand has worked hard to earn the emblems of review sites like Yelp or industry certifications — display them proudly! These badges attest to your brand's commitment to quality and industry-leading expertise and potential buyers will see value in this. Joe’s Garage, a coffee company in Seattle, displays their certifications proudly in the footer of their webpages. This ensures that regardless of where the user goes on the site, they can see the company’s accomplishments. Members of the buying group will take notice of the certifications valuable to them by recognizing the symbol. Even if some of the certifications won't directly lead them to convert, they can see that your company works diligently to stand out in the industry.

5. Curate High-Quality Gated Content

Much like SEO best practice in producing high-quality industry content, creating top-of-funnel content for industry searchers will prove your brand’s credibility. Being viewed as a thought leader in B2B markets further establish meaningful relationships with potential buyers. Providing users with access to this content after filling out a contact form can help your marketing team better target these individuals from lead nurturing details about their organization. Some examples of top-of-the-funnel gated content include: - eBooks - How-To Videos - Webinars - Datasheets - Industry Insights - Downloadable Guides Recommended: 11 Evergreen Content Marketing Trends to Use Year-Round

6. Provide Different Methods of Contact

With many different members of the buying group in B2B purchases, each stakeholder holds their preferred methods of contacting a potential supplier. Providing site users with numerous options for contacting your company will ensure that the method of communication doesn't hinder their willingness to connect with your business. A B2B buyer is 57% of the way through a purchase decision before they engage a salesperson, which means that B2B businesses sit on a pile of leads that they have not yet contacted! By giving users the opportunity to engage with your team through contact forms, email and live chat, you will begin the conversion process with leads that may not have picked up the phone and contacted you quite yet. By communicating earlier in the buying process you can write the story. Open lines of communication prevent losing a conversion because the potential buyer didn't have the right information about product offerings.

Effectively Target Your Buying Group