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Every company wants more sales. However, many B2B companies ignore their biggest selling point: their website. It’s common for B2B companies to believe that face-to-face demos and product testing drive sales, and that a website is just a placeholder.
TrustRadius’ 2021 B2B Buying Disconnect report shows that product demos are the preferred source of information for B2B buyers. The provider’s website and its copy come in second. It’s safe to say that your copy won’t move to the product demo stage if it doesn’t live up to your prospect’s expectations.
Your website consists of a business card, certificate of authority and storefront all in one. If you’ve done well, your copy of your website will be one of the best marketing tools you have. Unfortunately, there are three common mistakes most B2B companies make when copying websites.
Mistake # 1 – does not speak coherently
Inconsistent language is one of the biggest problems plaguing tech-savvy corporate websites. It’s easy to believe that your audience will expect you to speak appropriately since your product is highly technical.
This approach does not provide a good visitor experience. Remember that in B2B you are speaking to more than one audience. You need to speak to the technical product reviewers as well as the C-suite top tier.
For maximum impact, you need to speak in business terms that appeal to the C-suite prospect. They are the ones who decide to pass your lead on to prospects who are interested in technical details.
Even if the C-Suite prospect is technically oriented, he must be told what the bottom line is that your product offers. Instead of focusing on yourself, your copy needs to focus on the final value that you can deliver.
I-focused language is a common mistake on technical websites. A false assumption that every prospect wants to delve deep into the technical details leads to this problem.
When a prospect visits your website for the first time, they’ll rate your credibility. Are you trustworthy Can you keep what you promise? Are you going to make their worst fears come true? Talk to these subjects and demonstrate your worth by copying.
The best way to do this is to get back to your prospect interviews and buyer personalities. Identify your greatest fears and value drivers. Instead of going overboard with technical jargon, incorporate this language into your copy.
That’s not to say you should never get technical. However, you need to distinguish between the copy of your website and the gated content. If both content groups speak the same words, there is no incentive for your prospect to dig deeper into your funnel.
Mistake # 2 – Not measuring effectiveness
The copy of your website is like a selling point. Hence, it makes sense for you to measure the effectiveness of your copy. Unfortunately, it’s common to see blocks of copies on a webpage with no measurement tool nearby.
The copy of your website must be geared towards conversion. Conversion in this context means that you move your prospect deeper into your funnel. For example, a top-of-the-funnel prospectus takes an action that moves them deeper, while a deep-in-the-funnel prospectus takes an action that qualifies them as SQL.
Before building your website, think about a conversion path that you want potential customers to follow. Does your About Us page talk about what your product is? Or are you waffling about how you spent sleepless nights in a garage building your first MVP?
Your prospects love to hear a great story, but they also want to know how you can help them. Every page on your website should provide an obvious way for your prospect to connect with you.
Registration forms for closed content should be available without being awkward. You want to add value first, rather than appearing as a company collecting contact information in exchange for a blog post.
Use analytics to measure the effectiveness of your CTAs and split test your copy. Once you’ve communicated your value proposition, get your prospects to take action.
Do not be shy! Your prospects want you to guide them to solutions to their problems.
Error # 3 – Publishing an Untested Copy
This mistake is far more common than many would like to admit. Because of the importance attached to personal sales demos and product testing, many companies publish a rudimentary copy of their website that is completely untested.
This error occurs frequently on product pages. There are many ways in which you can choose the structure of your product page. For example, should it be short or long? How technical should you get? Should you put technical content on sub-pages or on the primary page?
None of these questions can be answered accurately without measuring the effectiveness of your choice. It’s easy to believe that you know your prospects inside out, but you never really know what’s working.
After all, you may have asked the wrong questions during your persona interviews, or you are offering your prospect a solution based on incorrect data assumptions.
Split tests are the only way to validate all of these assumptions. This is especially true for headlines and CTAs. An easy way to test your headlines for effectiveness is to test them through the subject lines of your email campaign.
The campaigns that get bigger click through rates have subject lines that you can likely use in the copy of your website. Another creative way to test headlines is to serve Google ads and measure click-throughs. This method may not work for every company, but it is worth trying.
The golden rule of copying is to test, test more, take a break, and test again. Testing never ends. Consumer preferences change, and your copy must change with them.
Are you ignoring your greatest asset?
These three mistakes are common mistakes, but there are many more that B2B companies routinely make. Examples of this include adopting advanced numerical skills, incorrectly coupling graphic design with copies, and copying copies from larger companies.
Avoid these three basic mistakes, however, and you have an asset that is better than most B2B websites.
Author: Vivek Shankar
Vivek Shankar is a B2B FinTech and Technology Content Writer. When he’s not helping his customers achieve their content marketing goals, he can find out about a new technology. Take a look at www.vivekshankar.net and say hello! … Show complete profile >