Steve Ohanians, CEO, WebEnertia
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Your website is often your first impression. In the business world, it sets the stage for how you will interact with your buyers, what they expect from you and whether or not they’ll convert from interested prospects to paying customers. Unlike their brand-to-consumer counterparts, B2B companies have a unique set of challenges on their hands when it comes to crafting websites that convert.
My user experience team at WebEnertia decided to study these challenges and what makes an effective website. We ranked the homepages of 34 B2B technology firms in the Fortune 500 based on how effective and able to convert visitors we think they are. The purpose of our report isn’t to rank websites in a mean-spirited way but to evaluate design trends and missing pieces, and create actionable recommendations for B2B brands looking to revamp their websites.
We ranked each company’s homepage based on six criteria: functionality, navigation, content, brand, design and interactivity. We also factored into our evaluation how engaging we think the websites are overall.
Our team found key trends in homepage design among B2B brands that we think can help other companies in their web development strategy.
Focus on functionality and create a consistent narrative.
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Functionality in web design largely concerns how usable a website is for the intended customers and whether or not it functions to communicate the brand’s key message. Most of the websites we studied did not provide an adequate narrative that moved the visitor from the initial point of contact to the end goal of purchasing.
Prioritize building a cohesive narrative that shows the visitor what your brand has to offer in terms of solutions or insights. Companies that craft meaningful narratives will ultimately succeed in building a trusting relationship with their potential customers. Salesforce’s thoughtful homepage narrative is evident in the way the company quickly identifies the pain points that prospective clients may encounter, and then offers its product as a clear solution. It also conveys a sense of trustworthiness with the thought leadership articles shared on the homepage.
Use your navigation structure to segment your website visitors.
While our team favorably reviewed many companies’ navigation designs, we also highlighted an opportunity for growth: B2B sites must make far more intentional efforts to funnel the audience to the next step in the buying cycle. In your navigational elements, explore more engagement and lead-generation triggers. DXC Technology demonstrates a modern, intuitive navigation bar that offers additional content and a broader narrative. For example, the “services” tab within the navigation outlines the entire sales cycle for prospective clients.
Make your homepage content scannable and tell a clear story.
A homepage’s effectiveness is largely dependent on its ability to pull the customer in, communicate the main message and propel the customer to the intended action. You cannot achieve this without adequate content that clearly communicates the brand message. We ranked Insight’s homepage in the top five for its clear and well-written content. One of the key elements of the company’s success is the fact that the content is easy to scan, with clear headers and concise descriptions.
We found that many companies’ websites lack story-driven content that helps users understand their overall goals or offerings. To build an effective homepage, we recommend that B2B brands provide the necessary context about the company before directing visitors to another page on the website. This ensures that the messaging is clear and effective, but it doesn’t require lengthy paragraphs of text.
Communicate your brand message before the first click.
The homepage of your website is the optimal place for key branding because as visitors land on the page, they will encounter your core messaging first and foremost. The most obvious place for brand messaging placement on a homepage is in a hero banner or somewhere near the top of the page. If you’re revamping your website, be sure to include compelling brand messaging — a mission statement or manifesto — as part of your website design so that customers can understand who you are and why they should work with you. We ranked NetApp’s homepage the highest overall and specifically in branding because it offers an authentic experience. Visitors to the site can easily identify the company’s core objectives, and thanks to its illustrations, NetApp’s homepage clearly expresses the brand’s unique personality.
Use color variety, white space and a simple layout to balance the design.
Effective design is not just a matter of preference. It can be broken down into a science-based strategy. Design is visual, so take a look at the B2B brand homepages that we ranked the highest in our study: NetApp’s, Salesforce’s and Intuit’s. Use a variety of colors and balance your content and design elements with the necessary white space and padding to create a cohesive experience. Homepages should have a straightforward layout because newer, unconventional layouts can take away from the website’s usability — which ultimately reduces a visitor’s interaction with the site.
Prioritize interactivity to keep visitors’ attention.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s homepage features interactive components to enhance engagement and storytelling. These interactive elements, even the small ones, make it possible to share more content from the homepage without cluttering the design. Header images, bullet points and tabs are animated to provide an elevated interactive experience. But we found that the majority of the websites we studied lacked interactive elements, and this can reduce the time visitors spend exploring the sites simply because they do not know where to click. Effective homepage design needs a balance of interactive elements, clickable content and engaging moving pieces to pull the reader in.
Your company’s website could be your first impression. Whether you’re in for a full website overhaul or simply planning for the future, consider these six elements: functionality, navigation, brand, content, design and interactivity.
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Author: Steve Ohanians, Forbes Councils Member
