Technology Marketing by Tatum MarketingJust another WordPress weblog

You may be wondering why I’m on this soapbox about websites. Two reasons, really.

1. Your B2B website is – or should be – your marketing hub. It doesn’t matter if yours is an ecommerce site or not. Prospects are going to visit your website – probably before they have any other interaction with your company.
2. Many – no most – B2B website are BAD. By “bad” I mean they don’t communicate persuasively; they fail on many levels to convert visitors into active prospects; they simply don’t contribute to the sales effort.

It just makes sense to build a better website (or at least be sure you don’t need to) before you spend a lot of money driving prospects there.

But since you probably haven’t devoted your life to becoming a website expert, this can be a daunting project. How do you fix your website without making things worse and wasting a lot of money?

Naturally I’m going to suggest that now would be a good time to call in a marketing expert who knows how to create highly effective websites. (Let’s see. Who could you call? Hmmmm.) But, if you’re not ready or able to go the expert route, here’s my six-step process for building a better website.

1. Read Your Website Needs a Makeover for guidance on understanding your buyers and what they require from your website. Complete the three-step procedure presented there.
2. Gather current web stats: unique visitors, returning visitors, bounce rate, conversion rates. These stats will give you a baseline from which to measure improvement. They may also help you identify areas that need the most help.
3. Ask and answer the questions posted in 12 questions to answer before you talk to a web site designer.
4. Determine the high-level content areas for your website. These will be the elements included in your main navigation.
5. Create a page-by-page wireframe for your site. You can do this fairly easily in PowerPoint. Start by building an “organization chart” with the home page at the top and main content categories underneath the home page. Add sub-pages within each category. Use the rectangular drawing tool to create boxes indicating each element (logo, images, text, navigation, etc.) that will appear on each page.
6. Find a good website designer – preferably one who is familiar with web usability research such as MarketingSherpa’s B to B Home Page Design Study.

If you don’t already have a designer in mind, there are a couple of ways to approach finding one.

You can look around the internet for sites that you like, contact those companies and ask for an introduction to their designer. You can also post your project on a site such as www.elance.com or www.guru.com or even Craig’s List.

If you choose to go this route, keep in mind that just because you like the look of a site, doesn’t mean it performs well. This approach assumes that you or someone on your team has a good knowledge of website usability.

Technorati Tags: usability, web design, conversion rates