Not all B2B websites are created equal.

While look and feel is important for all websites, there are strategic  “triggers” that the most highly effective websites incorporate.

When produced effectively, a website will provide the right type of B2B decision maker with the key information they need to understand why you are DIFFERENT from competitors and why they can TRUST your service.

Once they have explored your website, they should be compelled to click that “Book a Discovery Call” or “Book a Demo” button, while already FEELING that your service is more valuable than your main competitors’.

 

 

 

Preparation & Research

The preparation stage of your project is the most important step.

(and the most neglected by inexperienced marketers!)

During your Visionary Strategy Session, we will dive deep into the psychology of your perfect clients, so we can understand the exact messages they need to move forward in your sales process.

Many companies make the mistake of staying too high-level here. That’s a costly mistake, because nearly every prospect will visit your website to compare you to your main competitors. We want them to FEEL that your service is the best fit for them. That requires us to understand their psychology at a deep level.

The way we’ll do this is through questionnaires, interviews, research and industry experience. This will help us create a detailed Client Avatar that documents the demographics of your perfect clients, as well as how they think, how they make decisions, and what they aspire to. 

Then, we’ll aim to mirror their exact thought patterns throughout your website text. The content will be strategically structured to answer deal with their objections BEFORE they even contact your sales team.

The strategy stage of your website project can be intense — but it is worth investing the energy. It ensures you create a website that is highly strategic and drives that long B2B sales cycle forward.

 

 

 

 

Leverage the marketing efforts of successful competitors

One of the most effective ways to build your website strategically is to leverage the efforts of your most successful competitors.

If they have invested significant energy and budget into online marketing, and they are already having success—we can assume that their websites have been continually optimised to perform better.

So, we’ll take inspiration from their website strategy. This allows us to leverage all of the insights that they’ve gained over the years into your project.

That being said, we NEVER copy or do anything unethical. You have your own brand style, and your own unique value. So we’ll only take inspiration from your successful competitors—and then build a site that is unique for your brand.

 

 

B2B-specific Website Thinking

As B2B decision-making becomes more and more digital, your online presence becomes more and more critical to your overall business success. So, the website need to be built based on strong experience understanding the online B2B sales cycle:

  • Driving the B2B sales process forward:
    Use long, educational copy on each page. Create different pages to inspire contacts at different stages of the sales cycle. Integrate your website with the right plugins, as well as your CRM, to make sure the website plays a functional role in your online sales process.
  • Scalable
    As a general rule, we recommend using WordPress (as we do for the Visionary website!), because it has the most widely available plugins to connect to the rest of your tech stack. When you’re scaling, that becomes more and more important over time. Modern nocode tools are amazing – but can cause problems down the line as you try to connect with the various tools required for a growing B2B sales engine.
  • Trust
    In online business, trust is the most valuable factor, because you may not have the luxury of meeting prospects face-to-face or the implied trust that comes from referrals. So you need to incorporate plenty of visible and non-visible “credibility switches”—elements designed to make your website viewers FEEL like you can be trusted.

Building your website is just the first step. The true impact comes from implementing a content and social media strategy – but that all starts from the baseline of a strategically built website.

Make sure you have thought ahead and planned your B2B marketing roadmap so that your website is designed to push your log term strategy forward.

Learn more about how your website is used in a complete B2B marketing funnel here.

 

 

Social Media Tracking and Retargeting

When an interested party touches your website, it’s so important they start to see your content more regularly on their social media newsfeeds too. This is called “retargeting”, and it’s one of the most powerful ways your website can drive real impact on your P&L.

The first step is having the social media tracking codes properly installed on your website.

(you’ll be surprised at how many professional companies forget this step when building a new website)

Without these tracking codes, you’ll miss out on data about who’s visiting your website. So when you do decide to start advertising, you’ll have to start from scratch. That’s an expensive mistake.

Once the tracking codes are configured, you can set up a low-budget remarketing strategy whenever you’re ready.

These ads guide your most engaged audience back to specific content on your website, so they are continually being educated and inspired by your thinking.

 

 

 

Explainer Animations or Live-Action Videos

One of the most critical and differentiating elements of your website will be strategic Explainer Animations or Live-Action Videos. 

This is especially vital for B2B Tech websites, where you’ll often have technical services you need to explain to non-technical decision-makers.

Take inspiration from the Visionary Live-Action Videos that we created for Residential Property Group, which is featured on their Home and Service pages:

 

Your video will be strategically crafted to captivate your viewers as they arrive on your website. Once they have watched the video, they are in the perfect mindset to review the rest of the website.

Incorporating a video into your website gives you a clear advantage over other, similar competitors:

 

 

For more insights into how video content simplifies and boosts complex services, check out our B2B Video Production services here.

 

 

 

Why Us” page

A significant portion of your “high-value” website visitors will visit your website to determine whether to choose your company over key competitors—or to gather information as part of a tender process.

In most industries, competition is fierce, so making a well-crafted “Why Us? page is one of the most powerful additions to your site.

It’s crucial that this page doesn’t feature the same generic claims used by every other company, such as “we build great relationships” or “we provide better value for money.”

Your competitors likely say the exact same things, regardless of what they can actually deliver.

Instead, we’ll strategise your unbeatable differentiators and present them clearly. Once a visitor has been across your “Why Us?” page, it will be very difficult for them to choose a competitor.

For inspiration, take a look at the “Why RPG?” page that we created for our client, Residential Property Group.

 

 

How It Works” page

The “How It Works page is essential, yet often surprisingly neglected during website development.

It gives a simple, step-by-step explanation of how your app or service works, showing off the features and making it FEEL real for the audience. Once they’re across the “How It Works” page, the service changes from “theoretical” to “real” in the visitor’s mind.

In competitive B2B markets, the sale often goes to the company who can clarify the process or methodology best for the audience.

 

 

Attention Grabbing Headlines and Sub-Headlines

Headline writing is a science in itself.

Your website’s headline, and sub-headline, are one of the most critical “triggers” on your website.

Here are some general guidelines a good copywriter will employ when crafting headlines:

  • The headline’s main function is to get the viewers interested enough to keep viewing your page or, ideally, to watch your explainer video for more information.
  • It should address the viewers directly and mention the main benefit they will receive while working with you  (don’t focus on the features of your services). The most effective word in sales is “YOU”. Excellent headlines are focused on the viewers.
  • The best headlines are very specific and highly relevant to your target market.
  • Where applicable, being specific or using statistics in headlines is effective as it quickly demonstrates proof and enhances certainty.
  • Continually test different headlines until you find the most effective one. Sometimes, a single word change can create a noticeable impact on your website’s success. Headline testing can be done through split tests, or using paid advertising mediums like Meta.

Here’s a good example from our project with mpoints:

 

 

 

Features And Benefits Checklist Or Long Copy

Writing persuasively about the benefits of your services is called “copywriting”. 

If headline writing is a science, copywriting is truly an art form—blending creativity, science and strategy to captivate your audience and inspire desired actions.

At Visionary, our copywriters will write up the benefits and details of your services, ensuring every word is crafted in alignment with the strategic plan.

Take a look at an example from our project with Sydney-based print agency, Z-CARD:

Here are some quick techniques we’ll use to dramatically improve the copywriting on your website:

  • Research and preparation are the most crucial first steps. We’ll understand your perfect clients’ psychology in DETAIL so that we can craft a website that speaks to them at a deep level.
  • Don’t over-emphasise the features of your service—instead, focus on the website viewers’ problems and how you solve them. Always remember, your viewers are only thinking about themselves!
  • Articulate the visitors’ situations (the ones that your service solves) better than they can themselves to build your authority.
  • Don’t be humble. Have an EXCELLENT service, and ensure you are always over-delivering and delighting your clients. Then you can ethically be descriptive and extremely persuasive in all your copywriting, advertising and sales processes.
  • DON’T be poetic or complex: Copywriting needs to be clear and easily readable. We’ll stay away from fancy wording and poetic devices. At the end of the day, your website visitors will be in business mode and looking for clear answers to their questions.
  • As a general rule, intelligent decision-makers are most impact by longer copy. They may not read it all, or they may skim. But when they are making 5 – 7 figure business decisions, they’ll want to have access to all the details.

 

 

 

Navigation & Menu Design

When your website visitors get to your Home page, they’ll be looking for specific pieces of information. Or, we may want to strategically direct them to specific content, so that we can take them on a logical journey towards becoming a lead for your sales team.

The design of your website navigation, will be a key part of improving your viewers’ experience.

As a general rule, we aim for no more than 3 clicks for visitors to get to the content they want to see.

Also, we want to ensure that when they get to the information they are looking for, we are also showing them other pieces of strategic content, such as testimonials, call-to-actions or deeper content.

This can be done effectively by understanding your perfect clients’ psychology in the Client Avatar.

 

 

 

Testimonials & Case Studies

Testimonials are mandatory.

In the digital era, many companies are claiming greatness—so you need to be able to prove it to your website viewers. Be in the habit of getting testimonials from all of your clients—add it to your delivery process. 

Then, show off these testimonials at all stages through your sales and marketing processes.

Testimonials should be clearly visible, and plentiful, on your website. At Visionary, we also include them in our portfolio, social media and all stages of our sales and marketing processes.

As an example – in Visionary’s sales process, we aim to show our audience 50+ testimonials before they sign a deal with us.

If you’re interested in what a quality testimonial looks like, read through some of ours here:

 

 

 

Trust Elements

We are conditioned to NOT have initial trust when meeting a company online (or in person!). To enhance the trustworthiness of your service, here are a couple of things you can show on your website:

  • The logos of reputable brands you have worked with or are partnered with.
  • 1300 or 1800 number: prove that you are a real, professional company.
  • Your portfolio or case studies: show off your work and the results you’ve achieved.
  • Thought leadership content: project yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
  • Multiple social media channels: demonstrate your commitment to sharing valuable content and showcase your network of followers.

If you take a look at the Visionary website, you’ll find every one of these elements:

https://visionarydigitalstudios.com/

Here’s a good example from our work with enterprise B2B SaaS company, Causia:

 

 

Powerful Strategic Design

Great website design goes beyond aesthetics.

It’s not just about visuals—it’s about guiding your visitors through an intuitive journey that speaks to their needs and motivates desired actions.

At Visionary, we don’t just create visually appealing websites; we craft experiences that captivate and convert.

Keep in mind that your website is designed to attract your perfect clients—and not necessarily for your tastes. So, while it’s important that you also love your website—our key focus will be on the designs that will inspire your audience.

Take a glimpse of the website we crafted for MH Consulting & Services:

Here are some design techniques that The Visionary Team will use on your website:

  • Strategic photo selection
    We’ll use images of people that your target market can relate to—those who feel “just like them”. Alternatively, we select bright, emotive visuals that capture attention.
    Where it’s necessary, we can arrange cost-effective photography or guide you on how to book it yourself.
  • Negative space
    Often we’ll try to leave as much “empty” space as possible in your pages. The subconscious effect is that the viewers feel as if your service “speaks for itself”.
  • Shadows
    We’ll add shadows behind certain website elements so that they appear to pop out from your pages in 3D.
  • Subtle animations
    We’ll incorporate subtle animations in your website, such as elements sliding in as viewers scroll or gently bouncing when hovered over with the mouse.
  • Fast loading
    One of the key factors for successful websites is a fast loading speed. Even milliseconds make a measurable difference in how viewers perceive your brand. So we’ll optimize your website’s performance, ensuring quick loading time through techniques like image compression, streamlining site codes, and efficient server configurations.

 

 

 

Wrapping it all up

As you can see, A LOT of thinking goes into creating an effective B2B website! If you’re interested to strategise a new B2B website, the Visionary B2B Roadmapping Process is a great place to start.