Landing Pages are your business's best asset for conversion and lead generation. In general, a landing page must plainly state the problem it is solving, have a clear CTA, and gather personal data in exchange for an offer. However, a B2B landing page has to be business-oriented and therefore it differs from consumer-oriented landing pages in several ways.
Discover the universal best practices that you should keep in mind for all of your landing pages, and then learn insights that are specific for B2B landing pages. Read below!
Why is conversion so important for a B2B landing page?
As a general rule, the buying process for the B2B sector differs from the consumer buying process in several ways: for B2B, the buying cycle is longer, there is a chain of various decision-makers, and they need specifically-tailored options for comparing products/services before purchase. Thus, getting that first conversion on your B2B landing page is important because it is just the first step of the cycle, with email nurturing and Account-Based Marketing to follow it.
Despite this need for tailored information, 44% of B2B businesses direct their users to the homepage instead of the landing page, according to MECLABS Institute. This is shocking, considering the conversion rate of landing pages is much higher, how ever it''s a common mistake among businesses, so don't worry if you're in this 44%. We do recommend that you change your Marketing strategy as soon as possible by creating B2B landings.
Continue reading to learn the 10 fundamental aspects to take into account when creating and optimizing B2B landing pages.
To start, what are the universal best practices for landing pages?
At a basic level, there are several key components that every and all landing pages should include in order to be effective and achieve their objectives:
- Tailor your pagesto your Buyer Personas and their stage in the Buyer's Journey.
- Remove navigation and minimize links.
- Design a simple layout that flows. There should be no unnecessary obstacles, images, or text. Remember, don't try to do too much or you'll confuse your visitors.
- Convey the offer right away. Include a clear offer, strong heading and subheading, and a Call-to-Action that's above the fold.
- Build trust and confidencewith testimonials, reviews from third-parties, client logos, portfolio examples, etc.
- Test, test, test! A/B testing and qualitative data (like heatmaps) help you gather insights and tweak your landings to improve conversions.
If you want to see more excellent examples of these practices in use, discover these 5 landing pages.
What are the best practices for B2B landing pages to improve conversion and lead generation?
B2B landing pages are the ultimate lead generation tool! When creating a B2B landing page, keep in mind that while B2C Marketing relies heavily on emotional impulses, B2B Marketing is more logical, as it's geared towards people who must spend a lot of time investigating their buying choices. In addition, in the B2B process may have several decision makers (Account Based Marketing can come in handy here). Thus, you need to tailor your B2B pages in different ways.
As always, your landing page is the tool you will use to spur conversions and generate leads. But make sure that you're adding value before asking them for any data - otherwise it will be pretty tough to convince visitors to take the next step!
Read below for the top insights for B2B-oriented landing pages:
1. Go overboard on landing pages
It's to create too many landing pages than too few. You should create a B2B landing page for every ad campaign, every different message, and every buyer or decision-maker.
Did you know that only 48% of marketers create a landing page for each campaign? When a user clicks on an ad, email, or whatever promotional method you're using, their goal is to find exactly what they're looking for. Although the product or service we're offermay be the same, we must create specific content depending on the market we're targeting, the technical knowledge of the buyer, their culture, and language, among others. Smart Content is an easy way to utilize a common template that is personalized for different audiences.
2. Get visual
Visuals matter in B2B. Your header or hero section needs to stand out, with images optimized for device-type and speed. Remember that the first glance of your landing page can make or break whether or not a user continues browsing, so making this part simple but attractive is essential. To help in this aspect, use directional cues like arrows and eye lines to send users to the right area. For example, they are more likely to continues scrolling if your design naturally leads the eye downwards towards the form section.
3. Incorporate Video Marketing
Speaking of visuals...video. Videos, animations, and gifs can help explain complex processes or convey long messages in a more visual manner. As Video Marketing tends to be more attractive and engaging than text, videos are great for highlighting the benefits of your product or service more clearly so that you can resolve the doubts of your visitors more quickly.
Considering the above, it is not surprising that including videos on landing pages increases the conversion rate 86%.
4. Reconsider the golden rule about CTAs
Always a single CTA? Despite the age-old rule that you should only have a single Call-to-Action, in some cases you may want to try a secondary CTA at the bottom of your page for prospects that aren't ready to convert. This way, you can give them information they're looking for, offer a different type of conversion, and get them into your nurturing cycle or database.
But be careful! Let's not confuse visitors by having a landing page with multiple offers and an overload of CTAs. The only thing that this will achieve is to distract and confuse our leads. According to Truelist, having many different offers can lower your conversion rate by as much as 266%. Therefore, consider your CTAs carefully, make sure your primary CTA is at the forefront, and evaluate whether or not you need a secondary CTA.
5. Highlight the benefits
Do you understand the difference between benefits vs. features?In your Marketing content, you want to convey the benefits of your product or service, not the features. Always speak to the problem you're resolving, not just a list of things your product or service does.
An example of this can be the shown in the landing from Slack below. The title is short and clear, and the text below it explains what this software is, how it's used, and the benefits you'll get from it. Don't you just love Slack?!
6. It's all about the form!
Make the form fields proportional to the offer. You need to ask the right information. Short forms convert better, but if you're offering something very valuable like a free trial, you can ask for more detailed information. Alternatively, a person will be more hesitant to give their phone number, for example, if they're at an earlier stage of the Buyer's Journey. In HubSpot, consider Smart Forms to gather more info on contacts that re-engage.
You should also bear in mind that not all the leads that fill out your form will be ready for sales, and that is why it is essential to classify leads. A Marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead that has been through your Marketing cycle, but will need to go into the sales cycle for more commercial nurturing. Meanwhile, a Sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that's ready to close the sale and must be followed up on as soon as possible by a sales agent.
7. Include testimonials for trust
For 88% of users, finding reviews or testimonials on a landing page is synonymous with trust. As previously mentioned, B2B leads want to be more deeply informed, so adding a quote from a satisfied client may be the push they need to decide to fill out the form. Remember, one of the basic principles of Inbound Marketing is to establish a relationship of trust with your clients, and sharing the experiences of others with them is a test of transparency.
8. A/B testing can lead to better results
A/B testing isn't the most straightforward Marketing action we can take, but it is one we should be experimenting with nonetheless. To do so, we should compare different versions of the landing (changing the design, form, CTA, content, etc.) and comparing the results. This will give us the advantage of testing what our B2B audience likes the most and fine-tuning our conversion strategy. In fact, A/B testing is the most popular form of conversion rate optimization, with 56% of marketers using this method.
9. Don't forget a thank-you page
Everyone like to receive a thank you now and again. Marketers must keep in mind the differences between a thank-message and a thank-you page: if you choose the first option, you will miss out on the opportunity for the user to continue browsing your website. When you create a thank you page, you can include elements that are typical of a landing and thus offer more content. An example could be downloading a guide, redirecting them to your blog, explaining what the next steps in the process will be, etc. It's also a great resource for tracking downloads (especially on Paid Media).
10. Are you following up?
Do remarketing or email nurturing for landing page contacts to guide them down the sales funnel. This will help re-engage users and speed up the sales cycle. 65% of marketing experts do not nurturing their leads and it is a very common mistake to think that once the user has left their data on the form, the work is done. You must keep track of your leads and email nurturing or remarketing is ideal for this. In this way you will be able to offer them other types of content or offers and you will be able to involve users again and accelerate the sales cycle.
Your B2B landing pages are part of an intertwined Inbound Marketing strategy that will allow you to use content and strategy to grow your business. With these B2B-oriented insights, you'll see your number of conversions and leads grow...but remember to keep testing and optimizing! mbudo is always here to help.
Alexandra Martín
Alexandra is a true Marketing enthusiast. Her aspirations inspired her to leave her native home in the Canary Islands and move to Madrid. She enjoys all the great cultural and professional offerings that this city holds. Alexandra also loves the sea, her dogs, and music.