2016-W03-V1

WHITEPAPER

10 TIPS to improve your website

In today’s “new world”, Marketing is the new sales. Today, we all live in a disruptive world. Are you aware of all the relevant changes in the (international) markets for business solutions? And the impact this all has on your business, your proposition, your processes and your competencies? Many Microsoft Dynamics partners are working on ideas how to best setup a successful recurring app business in this fast evolving context. On the vendor side we see an extremely tough competition, new cloud-based competitors and rapid changing business models. But there are also many changes on the buyer side! Your prospects prefer to stay anonymous during a big and still growing part of their customer journey. This has a huge impact on both your marketing and sales processes! Your name will not be on the longlist anymore without an impressive and easy to find website. And you definitely have to adjust your sales processes in order to stay competitive! On top of this changing buyer’s behavior we also see that modern prospects have developed different preferences. So in order to stay successful, you need to be able to deliver your low(er) risk solutions faster, cheaper and subscription based. At QBS group we’re happy to share some simple, yet effective tips to improve the effectiveness of your website. And most of these tip can be implemented per today.

1. Switch from functions and features towards benefits Many partners really love the functions and features of their solutions. By result, these functions and features are over-represented on their websites. In their proposals. In their sales pitches. And in their demo’s. Unfortunately, this type of content doesn’t drive buying behavior. And on top of that, most executives are not interested in functions and features at all! So your challenge is to translate these function and features towards business benefits. What does it bring the potential new customer? What do your existing customer say the experience as benefits?

2. Make your site easy to access and attractive to consume and return. What makes an ordinary website a great website? Of course your website should be easy to find. And that all starts with your uptime. Secondly, it helps if the navigation on the website is easy. Am I aware of where I am all the time? Is the structure clear? How can I return to the homepage? Thirdly, it’s of course about the content on your website. Is the content interesting for yourself? Or is it interesting for your target group? Do you update your content frequently so that there are reasons to return? Think about blogs – a great tool to show your expertise and attract visitors to your website.

3. Limit the size of the text by at least 30%! On the average, B2B buyers spent some 2 minutes and 30 seconds during a website visit. But have you ever wondered how much time it would take to read all the text that you have on your website today? That could be very long hours! Or even days! Your website should not become the new Wikipedia site, right? Think about the content of your website like a mini-skirt. You need to show enough to attract

the right attendees. But not everything! Otherwise there is no reason for visitors to connect with you. 

4. Add relevant visuals like pictures and videos to touch on emotions! Humans are emotional beings. And about 70 percent of the world’s population is visually oriented. This all means that emotions, pictures and videos have a positive impact on the engagement that you need to have with the anonymous visitors of your website. So replace big parts of your current text tsunami (see point 3) by relevant pictures and videos.

5. Always talk customer language! Our industry is famous for speaking tech talk. Lots of websites use the many three letter words that are familiar to our industry. Unfortunately, your prospects don’t understand that language. And that becomes a real problem when not just IT and Finance people are in the selection committee, but also Line of Business roles like Operations, Sales, Marketing and the business owner. In general, these roles are allergic for tech-talk! So change the text on your website, your partner pitch and your proposal from IT language into the language that your target group is using.

6. Every web page must contain a Call to Action. The content in your website is typically meant to create enthusiasm. Enthusiasm to do something. But what should your visitor do when there’s nothing to act on? That’s why each single page on your website needs a Call to Action. This could of course be a link to another page. But also an invite to download an e-book. Or a checklist. To read a blog. To watch a video. To ask for a trial. To register for a webinar. Or simply to ask for a sales person to contact them.

7. Explain Certified for Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD), President Club and partner status Many partners talk and think inside-out. And they often assume (too) much. Do you really believe that people outside of the Microsoft Dynamics channel know what the President Club is? At best they might believe that you’re in the same group as Barak Obama…. Not to mention Inner Circle or your Gold partner status. So either explain what that all means to them or just take it out. It might be more effective to use the logo of the branch association of the vertical market you’re after, if you’re a member of that organization.

8. What does that all mean for your prospects? For most things you communicate it’s not so much about what it is, but much more what it means for your potential customers. So you need to translate everything you claim, say, write and even think into benefits for your existing and new customers. Ask yourself constantly the ‘So what?’ question. For sure that will help you remind the need to translate.

9. Put your customers and vertical market in the center of your website. Your website is NOT about you and your software solution! First of all, talking about yourself is not really effective. Secondly, it’s also far from respectful. Ideally you write your website for the companies and people in your target market. So you should of course put them in the center! What is the first tab on your website? That should not be ‘About us’ or ‘The company’, but your target market. The most important trends. And the business pains they have. It’s probably best to put ‘About us’ to the right side of your homepage!

10. Think about creative ways to educate your prospects in the phases of selecting, contracting, implementing and using. Most SMB professionals on the buyer side are only one or maximum two times in their lives responsible for selecting and implementing an ERP system. So they are not experienced at all. They are not aware of the ins and outs of a project. They don’t know the pitfalls. And most often have no idea what success should look like. Here’s your opportunity to win their hearts: start educating them! Teach them about the do’s and the don’ts. Via blogs, webinars or even paid training sessions. If you really help them to become successful in their selection phase, you’ll have a big change that they - in return - will reward you with a project!

Take the next step QBS group has selected the best, dedicated and most experienced partner to help you to upgrade your website and help you to improve your marketing performance in general. Start now send an email to [email protected].

Contact Quattro Business Solutions B.V. Leusderend 20 | 3832 RC Leusden | The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Phone: +31 88 76 60 500