Mannix Marketing SEO Newsletter

Building Successful Online Business to Business Relationships
by Jennifer VanScoy

Creating a business to business relationship via your website can be a daunting task. Knowing the needs of your target audience is the first step in forming a successful online relationship.

An online Business–to–Business Relationship (B2B) is a bit different from a Business-to-Consumer Relationship. A B2B Relationship needs to solve a problem for a group versus an individual. These needs are usually measured by ROI or other financial demands. Because of this, the B2B client requires additional information before making a purchase. Thus, impulse purchases are rare.

The main page of your website should clearly state the need faced by your target audience, which will be fulfilled by your product or service. Show the benefits immediately, to grab the attention of your visitor. Conveying this information is key to converting visitors to buyers, especially with B2B Relationships. Validation is necessary for these consumers as they are not just answering a problem for themselves: they are solving an issue for a larger end-user. Simply describing your company’s accolades will not justify the need for your product or service.

Think of your website as a sorting mechanism. Give the visitor a simple path to the pages in the website that discusses, in detail, the solution to their need. There should be more than one way to get to these pages. Simple navigation should be included on both the top and bottom of every page, as well as links within the text of the page where contextually appropriate. This allows many options for the visitor to get to the page they need. These inside pages provide an abundance of information that explains the benefits of the product or service. Keep this information thorough, yet focused on answering the problem faced by the visitor. A site map, organized by the needs of the target audience, is another useful way to guide the visitor to their destination. It prevents them from hunting through information in the website that does not aid in solving their problem. Once the visitor has navigated to these informational pages, they will be given an option to take action. This action could be to buy a product or service, join a newsletter, request additional information, etc. By supplying information and benefits about your product or service in this manner, the B2B customer will feel much more confident in taking action.