B2B Websites Are in the eCommerce Business, Too
Posted by: Chip in Business, Conversion Funnel, Website Conversion TipsCompanies who sell services, or even high-end products, must realize that they have a shopping cart, too. It’s a little different than, say Amazon, but it’s still a shopping cart. What is this thing you say?
It’s your lead generation form.
Let me guess - you just put your email address up on your site and are hoping that someone is going to click on it and - boom - there’s your lead. Not so fast my friend! It just doesn’t work that way. It goes back to my theory about the “Field of Dreams Syndrome” - just because it’s there, doesn’t mean they’re going to show up.
I received a great case study in my inbox this morning about this: Lead Generation: Is Your Sign-Up Process Costing You Leads and Conversions, or Maximizing Them? While this article doesn’t get into great detail about the specifics of B2B lead generation, it does do a great job of profiling subscriptions and how to improve effectiveness.
I’ve been preaching this concept for a long time and have helped many companies through this process. The case study above does a great job of walking you through this concept and why you have to pay attention to this even if you don’t have a traditional shopping cart.
Every website operator has to know and understand their success metrics (I’ll cover that topic in one of my next posts). But, how your site visitors funnel down to your contact form is integral to a successful B2B website.
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Chip,
I couldn’t agree more.
I have often heard B2B business leaders tell me “Oh, that doesn’t apply we are B2B”. I don’t get that logic.
Improving the conversion and funnel path is relevant to anyone with a website.
Every site has a ultimate goal of conversion. Yes, that does vary for various organizations. It could be a shopping cart. It could be a contact form. Whatever “it” is, it can be measured.
Analytics are so crucial to every company. Without some measuring tool, then why bother with a site. It seems to be such a secondary effort for many B2B companies. It definitely should not be.
Oh, and nice Lee Corso reference.
Thanks,
-John W Ellis
http://www.JohnWEllis.com
I couldn’t help myself. I love the guy, but hope he doesn’t pick my Tigers … like he did today. Oh well - it’s one of those years.
It is a mystery to me why so many B2B businesses that sell products do not sell directly on their sites or have shopping carts. This makes managing their pay per click and other traffic sources far more challenging as they usually have no process for tracking through to conversion. As with other actions I recommend, I usually get more reasons why they can not implement shopping carts and tracking than I get enthusiasm over the benefits of doing so.