Apr

10 Internet Marketing Secrets For B2B Web Sites

By Sid

In the next couple of days I’ll post a complete review of a local Portland company, Action Employment Service, a small employment agency in Portland Oregon.

I chose them simply because they were at the top of the list alphabetically in the 2008 Fastest Growing Private companies in Oregon. They were the 8th fastest growing private company in the state of Oregon, according to the Portland Business Journal book of lists.

What follows are the primary “learning points” from the review I did of their web site.

The purpose of this and subsequent web site reviews you’ll see is to translate the massive success of internet marketers to the world of the B2B company. If 20-something college drop-outs are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year selling stuff online, then there’s maybe, just maybe, B2B companies can learn a thing or two from them.

Here are 10 Internet Marketing Secrets Applied to B2B Web Sites.

1. Think of your home page as a “Landing Page.”

Internet marketer don’t build home pages anymore. They build “Landing Pages.” The web site visitor typically arrives (lands) on the home page. It’s the make or break page in which you have roughly 30 seconds to draw the visitor in or chase him away.

Action Employment Services “Welcomes” you to their web site:

The truth is that the web site visitor doesn’t want to be welcomed. They want you to solve their problem. In this case, the employer wants to have someone else sift through the thousands of job applicants and find the best people. Action Employment has the distinct advantage of being local, small, and “personal.” They should use this advantage wisely.

[See the expanded review for suggested changes to the home page copy]

A landing page is like the cover of a magazine. All headlines are meant to sell the magazine. A web site’s purpose is to create customers and subsequently sales. Action Employment can do both by enticing visitors with a clear solution to their most pressing problems (find the best people or find the best company to work for).

They might, for example, use the extra space in the left column to point to helpful articles on their web site (similar to the sidebar on a magazine cover). More importantly, they need a clear call to action that starts the conversation…

2. Where is the Call To Action?

B2B web sites seem to miss the concept of the call to action. Internet marketers understand that they need to tell the visitor exactly what to do: “Click this link now to get started”. Action Employment can do the same thing quite easily — two highly visible links would do the trick: “Employers Start Here” and “Job Seekers Start Here“.

The call to action can be that simple, or it can be more of a lead generation system. Internet marketers also know that building a quality leads list is critical to their long-term and short term success. By collecting contact information for people who are serious about learning more, you can begin to add value to their experience by providing helpful tips over a series of days, weeks, or even months.

For example, it wouldn’t be that expensive for Action Employment to provide a monthly hard-copy “Employers Update” via snail mail. In this print newsletter, they could provide some statistics as well as tips and advice on hiring the right people. This added value gets employers interested and keeps them on board.

Similarly, they can provide email tips and suggestions for job seekers. Internet marketers understand that relationships are built over time by continuously adding value.

This brings me to number 3 – The Missed Opportunity.

3. The Missed Opportunity of B2B web sites.

What continues to sell online faster than just about anything else?

No, it’s not Obama merchandise. It’s information. People want to know how to improve their lives, fix things that are broken, solve problems, and have their urgent questions answered.

As a B2B or B2C company, you have within your office a wealth of knowledge about your industry. The tendency of companies is to hold all knowledge and experience close to the chest. I think this is a grave mistake today and it’s a huge missed opportunity.

Action Employment could convert their experience and expertise into a series of information products – videos, teleconferences, webinars, and “how to” kits. These products can be given away as ethical bribes to put companies and job seekers on “continuity” lists to stay in touch. They can also be sold for a profit.

People – companies and individuals will pay for your expertise. They don’t expect you to give away the store. What most internet marketers do today is to give away their best two or three “secrets” as a way to demonstrate what they can do to solve people’s problems. These freebies lead into new business (“sign up with us today and receive ‘XXX’ free”), or additional revenue (“or pay only $yyy for instant access”).

4. How to get “Style Points” on your B2B web site

Things like color, font size, and choice of images really do matter. Action Employment uses too many colors, which makes the page distracting visually. They headline is the same font size as the body, so it doesn’t pop out. The headline color and link colors are also bland – they don’t stand out and say “click me!”

I’m not sure why, but B2B web sites have two critical things wrong with their web pages. First, they are still under the misguided assumption that everything has to “fit” onto one visual page. NO. You want the most important copy (the headline, call to action) to fit “above the fold,” which is the part the user sees when they land on the page. Visitors WILL scroll if what you say is worth reading.

Secondly, they almost always use a small font size (10 pixels). On today’s high resolution monitors, this font size is almost too small to read comfortably. You want your site to be EASY to read. Use plenty of white space and a large enough font so that the visitor can scan or read at will.

5. Testimonials Suck.

The best internet marketers allow their clients and customers to “tell their stories.” Does anyone actually read testimonials? Action Employment even broadcasts that this is a “Testimonial.” It’s like saying “Hey! Here’s some blatant self promotion.”

Instead, tell stories. What huge problem was solved? How did an out-of-job person almost lose his home until Action Employment found him the perfect job? How much time and money did Acme Widgets save by using Action Employment to do all their employee recruiting?

We can turn to the magazines you see at the checkout stand as examples of what works. The next time you’re ready to post “testimonials” on your web site, just go to the grocery store and scan the magazines on the rack. What headlines pop out at you? What stories are so compelling that you just HAVE to pick up the magazine and see what happened?

This is exactly the reaction you’re looking for. You want your web site visitor to be engaged by the stories he or she reads. You want the visitor to imagine being in the shoes of Acme Widgets or poor Harry who found his way out of homelessness to a happy life.

6. Every page is a sales page.

Notice what the best magazines do with their articles. It’s the same thing internet marketers do with the separate pages on their blogs or web sites. They assume that this is the first page you see in the magazine or web site.

The page contains a compelling headline and lead (the subhead). Then, you’re drawn into the copy by the opening paragraph. It tells a story, shows you how to solve a problem, or gives you exactly what you need to answer an urgent question.

This is one reason why the best internet marketers will spend HOURS composing and testing the headline, lead, and opening paragraph. They know that if they can get you interested quickly, you’ll keep reading or scanning. And when that happens, they know that you are inches to buying what they’re offering.

Action Employment didn’t seem to spend ANY time on their headlines or lead paragraphs. In some cases (the “About” page below), they simply copied the SAME text from the home page. That’s like saying, “we’re lazy people and don’t care much for being creative.” I don’t think that this is the message they want to convey.

7. Google won’t find your PDF files

I’m not sure if it is pure laziness or a lack of understanding about how search engines work, but you see a lot of PDF on B2B web sites. Most of their best information is contained in PDF files that have to be downloaded to be viewed.

There are two problems with this. First, the search engines can’t read your PDF file, so you miss the golden opportunity of having that same information indexed by the search engines. If it is indexed, it can be “found” by your prospects… and this makes YOU more visible.

The second problem with PDF files is that people are much less likely to “download a PDF” then they are to read a web page. It’s simply a matter of time and energy. Human nature dictates that we will do that which appears to take less effort. A web page is a “click away.” A PDF requires a wait for a download.

When I clicked on the links to the Q&A documents, I had to wait for 1.4MB PDF files to download. I was surprised to see something with one or two paragraphs of text. My feeling was one of disappointment. If I were a prospect, I would be underwhelmed.

8. Share your expertise openly.

I’ve already mentioned the wealth of information and knowledge that dwells within the walls of companies like Action Employment. By sharing their expertise openly, two things happen:

First, every tip, idea, suggestion, or word of wisdom can be a separate page on the web site. If these pages are optimized for the search engines (see the next tip), then you widen and broaden your reach considerably. A prospect may find your tip, like what you have to say, and then click on other links on the web site to learn more. If you’ve got a good lead capture mechanism, then you can start a new relationship with someone who was “just looking for ideas.”

Secondly, when you share your expertise openly, you build trust. The web visitor trust YOU to help them solve their problem. In my experience, you do NOT have to be the least expensive option if you are better at building trust.

9. SEO (search engine optimization) Matters.

Action Employment Service is a lot like many B2B sites I’ve seen. They create the web site, focusing first on design and second on the copy. Their third step (if they do it at all) is to think about search engine optimization.

I’ve received calls from companies with completely non-optimized sites asking if I can optimize their site for the search engines. This is a lot like trying to remodel a kitchen without replacing any of the cabinets. It can be done, but it’s a lot harder than designing with SEO in mind up front.

However, there are a number of fairly simple things companies like Action Employment can do to improve their search engine ranking. (See the detailed analysis of Action Employment for specific suggestions).

They can make better use of HTML tags like the Title, header and image alt tags. They can use their primary keyword phrases in the URL. And they can make the copy more relevant to the primary keyword by including more industry-related phrases and words.

These are simple steps that won’t take a lot of time and don’t require a redesign of the site. Their next step, of course, would be to use some of the same traffic-driving strategies of the internet marketers, such as syndication, article marketing, PPC, and link building strategies.

10. Expand your vision.

This is the ideal time for companies like Action Employment Service to be thinking ahead to an expanded vision of what they can do online.

Imagine that they convert this to a blog, start adding video training for both employers and employees, and capture leads by offering even more value.

Then, they use their expertise to line up more employers and job seekers, give them even more free information, and create information products that both groups want. They become the de-facto local experts, build a loyal following NATIONALLY, and make money even during a down economy by selling their knowledge and experience.
During an UP economy, they’d be positioned as the “go to” agency because they have fully demonstrated their expertise and built relationships with their target market.