The aesthetics, great! The content, great! Spelling and punctuation, great! Is the site usable though? Usability plays a vital role in web marketing and is often overlooked in B2B as it is only seen as important for B2C. Here at Autumn Consulting, not only do we understand the importance of usability for your site, but we also know how to incorporate it into your site as well.
Here are a few key factors we consider in usability when creating your site:
1. Navigation is critical:
There is nothing worse than getting to a website and not knowing how to navigate the site in order to find what you need. Information that you know is important for someone visiting the site should never be hard to find. Using clickable pictures or having drop-down menus are great ways to create a much easier time navigating your website. Also having the content well organized is critical as well. For example, having all the contact information either available on the home page or all the contact information located on a “contact” page and not hidden somewhere on other pages. Going to a website and having to go through an endless number of clicks and/or pages for information is very frustrating. Therefore, providing basic information on quick links (easily locatable on each page) or clickable elements will go a long way in usability.
- Keep in mind the end-user:
Many sites in the B2B market today are not designed for everyone and the message is very often centered towards the company’s product or service, but not geared towards the buyer’s need or want. Much more often than not in the B2B industry, buyers are quite familiar with the language or “lingo” with in that industry, so it is not the wording of the site but the structure of the content. Many times websites will focus on what the business itself thinks of their products or service versus addressing how exactly what they offer can assist or fix the end-user’s wants and/or needs. When a visitor can easily see how what you offer can assist them it can go a long way in navigation as well.
3. Don’t make it difficult to find important information:
Too often companies get caught up in having users navigate though many pages to get to important information. When a visitor can not find information they need quickly or in instances having the purchasing part too complicated, these could be huge red flags and very often can turn an interested client or customer uninterested very quickly. You want your site to be as to the point as a business card but on a bigger scale, you don’t the end-user looking too long for important information.
Through Autumn Consulting’s collaborative style, we help our B2B clients increase their qualified prospects by zeroing in on the “right” marketing messages. These marketing messages directly support the sales force and increases their effectiveness. Let’s get started on a conversation for your business. Call Nathan Misirian at (262) 323-1776 or email him directly at nathan@autumnconsult.com.
