Website design for modern B2B manufacturing businesses has evolved, and if your company isn’t evolving with it, well, you’re going to be left behind.
Long gone are the days of simply posting a PDF of your product catalog and directing customers to call your sales team for an order. Those old, clunky, product-heavy sites just won’t cut it anymore. Nowadays, customers are far more digitally savvy and expect a consumer-grade experience. They want to be able to build or place orders at any time of day or night and from any laptop or device, and easily navigate and use your website.
If your manufacturing B2B website is experiencing poor UX, an outdated CMS, long load times, and low conversion rates, it might be time to consider bringing your website design into the new age.
What Makes a Great B2B Website Design?
Your B2B website is an integral part of your customer’s buyer journey, which is why it’s so important to have a strong design. Most of that journey is now spent doing online research instead of calling a sales team to get all the information, according to Forbes. But what are some of the components to a great B2B website?
Having a website with fast performance is key, and this is best determined by watching Core Web Vitals. This is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), or measuring the time it takes for the largest content on the page to load; Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), measuring the visual stability of a page by tracking unexpected layout shifts; and Interaction to Next Paint (INP), or measuring overall responsiveness to things like user clicks and taps. Why is this important? About 70% of consumers said that page speed factors into their decision to make a purchase, according to a survey by Unbounce. What’s more, a majority of those surveyed (32.3%) said they would only wait about four to six seconds for a page to load.
Additionally, clear navigation and site architecture not only play a role in the overall user experience but are crucial in SEO. These aspects lead to better conversion rates, reduced bounce rates, and can help ensure mobile-friendliness, so customers can make purchases from their phone or a desktop. They also help increase crawlability, which will get your B2B website ranked higher on various search engines. This, in turn, will lead to more organic traffic to your site.
Along those lines, having a responsive design allows for a good user experience across devices, especially for industrial buyers who rely on detailed information and efficient interactions.
Speaking of detailed information, a great B2B website includes scannable, persuasive copywriting and visuals. It helps in attracting, engaging, and converting business buyers. High-quality content can help build authority, as well as reduce friction and support business growth. For a more in-depth look at producing content for your website, we have seven essential tips for writing high-quality content.
Design That Drives Business Outcomes
Having a well-designed website goes far beyond simply looking nice. It creates a good user experience, which in turn can improve lead generation and conversion rates. Think about it this way: a good website makes it easier for customers to find the information they need, understand your products and offerings, and take the desired actions (like buying your products!). This can be anything from an easy-to-use search bar to creating a strong content hierarchy. High-quality images and videos can help make your website memorable and engaging, as well as capture the attention of potential customers.
Visual consistency plays a huge role in driving outcomes. When it comes to the B2B industry, building trust and credibility is critical. Going beyond aesthetics, a strong design with visual consistency conveys professionalism, reliability, and expertise through a cohesive visual experience. When your B2B brand presents a uniform look across the website and marketing materials, this shows stability and makes a strong first impression. This can then streamline the buyer’s journey and help your customers build confidence in their purchasing decisions.
Integrating forms, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and email capture seamlessly into the design of a B2B manufacturing website can lead to several positive outcomes. It can improve lead quality and conversion rates, enhance sales efficiency and productivity, and provide better customer insights and data-driven decision making. Forms integrated with your CRM allow you to capture specific information about website visitors so you can identify higher-quality leads. It also eliminates the need for manual data entry, which reduces errors and frees up your sales team to focus more on selling. Integrating forms and email capture with the CRM also helps to build richer customer profiles with diverse data points such as preferences, behaviors, and interaction history. This can help you improve forecasting and strategic planning.
Special Considerations for Manufacturers
Now, web design for a B2B manufacturer is going to be slightly different from your average business website. There are a few areas to consider that are very specific to your needs.
- Product catalogs and spec sheets
Detailed information is key when it comes to products and offerings, which is why the design for a B2B manufacturer website needs to incorporate a user-centric approach, local categorization, interactive tools, and more. You need to keep the information centralized and structured, using things like a PIM (Product Information Management) System, standardized formats, structured data models, and version control. You may also want to include resources like blog posts or articles to establish expertise or case studies to show how your company solved customer problems.
- Multilingual or regional content needs
Catering to multiple languages and regions is necessary for expanding reach, building trust, and driving conversions. You’ll definitely need to do your research to determine which languages you should include and whether you translate the full site or only parts of it. It’s also recommended to have a dedicated team to manage the localization process. Consider how you’ll incorporate other languages into the design so the site remains user-friendly.
- Internal stakeholder workflows
Different internal stakeholders, such as sales, marketing, customer service, and product development, have distinct needs and processes that the website should support. A well-designed B2B website can automate a number of tasks, which can streamline processes for these teams and reduce the manual effort and potential bottlenecks. It’s equally important to have a smooth flow of data from the website to internal systems such as CRM and ERP.
The 3E Framework for B2B Website Design
How do we approach website design for B2B companies with our 3E Framework (Audience Experience, Creator Experience, and Developer Experience)?
First, we consider the Audience Experience and focus on navigation, content clarity, and accessibility. This includes implementing a responsive design that easily spans devices and screens, making for a good user experience across the board.
Next, looking at your site from the Creator Experience standpoint, we focus on making sure that the site is easy to update and has flexible CMS (Content Management System) components. This allows for the creation, customization, and reuse of modular content elements to build your content. Components could be anything from simple text blocks and images to complex interactive elements.
Last, when it comes to the Developer Experience, we focus on maintainability, scalability, and integrations. A good website should be easily updated, debugged, and improved over time, which can ensure longevity. It should be able to handle increasing traffic, data, and user demands. It’s just as important to make sure that the website connects seamlessly with external systems, applications, or services to exchange data and for workflow automation.
Case Study: From Outdated to Optimized
A manufacturer of industrial rolls wanted a new website to drive organic traffic, show their full product line, and provide a great user experience. The redesign process utilized websites and search data to build a website that would do just that, as well as generate qualified leads and support their ongoing paid search initiatives. A major priority of the project was to ensure that the website had content to support the right kind of visitors.
Results came in rather quickly once the new design was launched. Within the first three months, the manufacturer saw an over 317% increase in total online leads, an over 1,033% increase in online leads from organic traffic, and a 500% increase in form submissions from mobile devices.
Ready to Look into a New Design for Your B2B Website?
Contact us to schedule a free consultation on a new design for your manufacturing website today.
