B2B Industrial Website Design Optimization Guide
How to Maximize Your Industrial Website
There are different ways to go about digital marketing for manufacturers. Many companies, both B2C and B2B, use social media platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn to promote their products and services. Whatever platform or strategy you use for digital industrial marketing, they all lead back to the same thing – the company website.
The website is the most important foundational piece of marketing. If you are in the process of creating a new one or updating an existing industrial website, take a look at these important guidelines in industrial website design.
1) Being Mobile-friendly is a Given, but Desktop is Still Key for B2B
If you’re looking at general website visits from a consumer, mobile and tablet visits are leading the way. However, for manufacturing web design, keep in mind that about 65% to 80% of all visits still come from desktops. This applies to industries such as software, manufacturing, or tech. These types of clients still use their desktops to visit potential supplier websites. They aren’t using their phones or tablets to browse casually. They are most likely sitting at their desk and working on their laptops when they visit your website. Make sure that your industrial website design is optimized for viewing on a desktop.
2) An Industrial Website Should be Full-Width
This goes back to the overall website design. First, make sure that your website takes up the whole screen and is full-width. Websites no longer are just in the middle of the screen. This doesn’t mean you should stuff the home page with images and content. For manufacturing web design, the site can have white space around the edges and room for the images and copy to breathe. However, it still has to be full-width to be effective.
3) Every Page is a Landing Page
People used to consider the homepage of a website as the main landing page. However, a landing page can be any page on the website. This depends on your manufacturing SEO, keywords that you bid for, and industrial marketing techniques that you use. The homepage might get about 50% of visits, but internal pages get the other half.
You, or your manufacturing marketing agency, must make sure that the entire website is clean and easy to use. From the homepage, the product pages, to the contact form – everything must be well-designed and with a clear call to action. A potential client’s first impression will come from the landing page and will determine if they continue to browse the website or not.
4) Do Not Overstuff the Menu Structure
When considering your industrial website design, another thing to keep in mind is to avoid overstuffing the menu structure. A website that has too many dropdown menus and too many internal pages is hard to navigate. You want to allow the website visitor to go to where they want easily. If there are too many steps, it becomes frustrating and the visitor might decide to leave the website completely. Make sure that the website has just enough steps that you can control where the user goes and at the same time, the user feels that he has the freedom to browse the site as he likes.
Want to get the most out of your industrial marketing strategy? Consult the experts here at MFG Tribe. We are a specialized industrial marketing agency that understands the ins and outs of your product and what you do!
4) Make Sure Your Industrial Website Design Includes Content and a Call to Action
Whether it’s a blog, news, or resources section, your website needs to have a regularly updated content page. This brings in new traffic to the site and it also gives you more content to distribute whether through social or email newsletters. Then this content can drive traffic back to the website. Content should be a mix of written content, like blog posts and articles, and video content. Having both kinds of content is more engaging. If you don’t have the time or the resources to do it on your own, work with a manufacturing marketing agency to help you create content.
Remember that your content should have a call-to-action (CTA) to sign up for your email newsletters. You can send out newsletters weekly, monthly, or quarterly. In each newsletter, there should are two CTAs. For example, put a mid-level CTA in the middle to visit your homepage. At the bottom of the content, put another CTA to schedule a call or visit your contact us page.
It’s important to note in industrial website design that your contact us page should have a form that is easy to fill out and direct to the point. The form should tell you who they are and who they work for. A very important part is a simple check box or section asking how they found out about you. It might be a trade show, referral, or ad. This is crucial in determining what marketing strategy is working for you. Make sure that the forms you collect are tied directly to a CRM to make it easier for you to track potential leads.
4) Check your Speed and Google Analytics Regularly
One more tip that applies to digital marketing for manufacturers is that an industrial website should be up to speed, literally. The website should not take longer than 8 or 9 seconds to load. To help your site load faster, it needs to use a cache or content delivery system (CDS). This will make it load up to 4 to 5 seconds faster, which is worth the investment.
Your website should have Google Analytics correctly installed. This is imperative in finding out how your website is doing. Some companies meet monthly just go over their Google Analytics data. It can tell you which page is the most effective landing page, where are visitors coming from, and what are they doing. The information that Google Analytics brings is essential to finding out what marketing initiatives are working and what isn’t.
When planning or upgrading your industrial website, keep these tips in mind to maximize your industrial marketing results.
Industrial marketing strategies don’t develop overnight. And the best ones require years of experience and tactful planning. There is no such thing as instant gratification here. If you feel stuck, consider reaching out to a manufacturing marketing agency with expertise in your industry. If you want the best in the business, give MFG Tribe a call. Visit our website to learn more now!
