6 Ways To Increase Your B2B Website Conversion Rates

If you want to estimate your website’s return on investment (ROI), website conversion rates are the industry standard for measuring financial success. What is your business-to-business (B2B) website’s conversion rate? Is it a good conversion rate? Is it better than the average conversion rate? If not, what can you do to improve it? We’ll discuss industry standards, best practices for B2B conversion rates, and how to ensure your website is set up for maximum ROI.

Whether your digital marketing efforts are composed in-house or by a reputable B2B marketing agency, conversion rate optimization is the key to a successful website.

What is the Lead Conversion Rate for a Website?

By definition, conversion rate (CR) equals the percentage of conversions acquired out of the total traffic generated by your website within a given period. By dividing the number of qualified leads by the total number of website visits, you can find the average conversion rate your website attracts for every 100 visits. This conversion rate percentage offers a concrete, numerical value that represents the success your B2B website has seen in generating revenue.

(qualified leads / total website visits) x 100  = conversion rate percentage

Defining a Good Conversion Rate and Exploring Averages

The definition of a good conversion rate can vary across industries. For example, while business-to-consumer (B2C) websites might expect a conversion rate of around 2%, B2B websites usually average about three conversions per 100 website visitors or 3%.

The average conversion rate varies for B2B websites based on the specific industry, target audience, and other factors. According to industry reports, the estimated average conversion rate for B2B websites falls between 2.23% and 4.31%. Some niche industries may see an average conversion rate of around 1%, while others may experience over 5%. 

These average conversion rates should serve as broad benchmarks, and you should aim for the ideal conversion rate for your specific industry. Factors such as the complexity of your products or services, the length of your sales cycle, and your industry’s competitiveness will ultimately shape what constitutes a successful conversion rate. 

However, rather than fixating on industry averages, focus on establishing clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on your business objectives. Regularly monitoring and analyzing your website’s performance against these KPIs will allow you to adjust your strategies to better align with your unique circumstances and goals.  

Remember: conversion rates are not a static metric. They evolve with your business and industry. Understanding how general industry benchmarks align with your objectives allows you to strategically navigate and continuously optimize your website for success.

Improving B2B Conversion Rates: Tips from a UX Perspective

Regardless of how your website was built, something can always be done to improve its conversion rate. Below are some of the most effective best practices from our Senior UX/UI Designer, Hayley, to consider when optimizing your B2B website.

1. Understand Your Audience

First and foremost, the best way to generate conversions is by understanding your audience. How can you expect to sell any products or services if you aren’t sure who you’re selling them to? Conduct thorough research into your audience to unravel their needs, pain points, and goals. Additionally, dive deeper by using analytics, surveys, and interviews to decode your clientele’s decision-making processes. These actions will help cultivate insights that create a strong foundation for an effective strategy. 

Each element of your website should be viewed as a strategic move toward higher conversion rates. You can craft comprehensive buyer personas to help design and content decisions using this information. These personas represent your ideal customers, bringing their demographics, challenges, and aspirations to life. Personas will tailor your UX design precisely to your audience and their behaviors, from personalized landing pages to intuitive user journeys that reflect the decision-making process. 

As your business grows and evolves, so will your audience, so it’s essential to reevaluate their needs continuously through analytics and research. Ensuring this remains a perpetual cycle of improvement, you drive conversions and forge lasting partnerships founded on trust and relevance. 

2. Elevating B2B Conversions Through Testing

Testing is a dynamic force that propels your strategy to new heights. Continuous testing guides you in refining crucial website elements, from the clarity of your call-to-action (CTA) buttons to the harmony of colors and effectiveness of layouts. 

Continuously conduct testing to dissect the nuances that are influencing user behavior. Experiment with different variations of CTA buttons, exploring the content and the placement to determine what resonates most with your audience. The colors you choose could also send subtle signals, and A/B testing can unveil which palette elicits the desired response. Testing will help you uncover the optimal arrangement of your website’s layout hierarchy and flow to impact user navigation significantly. 

Data analysis during the testing phase ensures you make decisions based on reliable analytics tracking systems, like Google Analytics or Matomo, rather than intuition. Set goals aligned with your company’s KPIs to reflect revenue-impacting conversions, such as prioritizing tracking purchases over clicks on your phone number. Every goal should undergo meticulous testing to guarantee data accuracy to better inform decision-making and achieve improved conversions.

You should perform testing regularly to continue refining your website to accommodate changing user behaviors. Continual website refinement will help drive conversions and enhance the overall user experience.

3. Content Strategy: Develop Clear, Immersive Content

Attention spans continue to get shorter as users look for the quickest answers and solutions. Digital content acts as the bridge that connects businesses with their audience. Creating clear, immersive content is vital to capturing the reader’s attention and making that connection. This is especially true when it comes to crafting product copy that sells. A well-crafted content strategy will pave the way for heightened engagement and conversion rates. 

Valuable, informative content should take precedence over promotional material. Develop content such as insightful blog posts, comprehensive whitepapers, and user-friendly guides to help readers get to know your company as a thought leader and resource, building trust to promote conversions. In B2B, decisions hinge on trust and credibility, so being perceived as a knowledgeable resource is essential.

Just as important as the content itself is the presentation of the content. Strategically formatting all of your content will ensure readability and scannability for the reader, meaning they’re more apt to consume it. 

• Break down the information using clear headings that allow readers to quickly grasp the point of each section
• Utilize bullet points to distill key points  
• Craft concise paragraphs to further facilitate easy consumption
• Write in a consistent brand tone and voice across all platforms to build further trust in your business

These practices will cater to various reading preferences and align with the fast-paced nature of B2B decision-making. By keeping users engaged and interested in what you have to say, your prospects will travel deeper down the marketing funnel and increase your B2B website conversion rate.

4. Trust Signals: Building Confidence in Your B2B Presence

Trust is what fuels successful B2B partnerships. Establishing trust signals on your website cultivates credibility and fosters confidence among potential clients, encouraging conversions. Trust signals can be displayed in a few different ways on your website: 

• Client Testimonials: These real-world endorsements offer a glimpse into the positive experiences of previous or current clients. 
• Case Studies: Showcase your solutions’ tangible impact, offering evidence of your company’s ability to deliver results.
• Certifications and Security Badges: While simple, these items serve as visual affirmations of your commitment to quality, data protection, and more. 
• Partnerships or Notable Clients: Potential clients seeing established names or recognizing reputable partnerships add a layer of assurance and contribute to your company’s perception as a reliable, trustworthy B2B partner.

These trust-building elements should be strategically implemented to instill confidence in your business, differentiate you in the competitive B2B landscape, and pave the way for trust-led conversions.

5. Intuitive Navigation: Guiding Visitors to Conversions

Successful B2B conversions begin with the user’s journey through your website, and an intuitive, user-friendly navigation system will facilitate this journey. Your website’s navigation menu should be simplified with clear labels and logical categorization. Each menu item should offer a brief preview of its content to clearly guide visitors. When thinking of how to word the navigation or button text, avoid jargon or overly complex language – the goal is to make it an effortless experience, not a challenge to translate your intentions. 

Website visitors also need to be able to quickly find what they’re looking for. Streamline the path they will take from the information or services to minimize the need for excessive clicks just to reach the conversion point. Consider your user’s perspective and organize the navigation to align with their expectations. This user-centric approach will enhance overall experience, reduce bounce rates, and boost your overall conversion rates.

6. Deliver Fast-Loading, Responsive Web Design

In B2B interactions, time is of the essence, and the speed and responsiveness of your website are vital to user experience and conversion rates. Avoid inflated bounce rates and abandoned carts by prioritizing a fast, helpful, and responsive user experience. 

Prioritizing a fast, helpful user experience is a strategic move to retain and engage your audience. Core web vitals, including the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and First Input Delay (FID), all help measure your website’s speed and time until prospective clients can interact with your website. These metrics include how long it takes your website to load, the stability of the layout during loading, and the responsiveness to user interactions. 

The faster and easier it is for your audience to interact with your brand, the more likely they are to convert. B2B decision-makers are often navigating through many websites, and a sluggish, unresponsive experience is an almost guaranteed way to lose their attention. Creating a fast, seamless journey will enhance user satisfaction and instill confidence in your brand’s professionalism and efficiency, making them more likely to convert.

Elevate the Success of Your B2B Website with Timmermann Group

Strategic optimization is key when it comes to the success of B2B websites and improving conversion rates. From understanding your audience to crafting compelling narratives, testing, implementing intuitive navigation, and building trust, each plays a vital role. At Timmermann Group, we are ready to bring these elements together to help transform your B2B website into a conversion powerhouse. 

Let’s collaborate to refine your strategy, conduct insightful testing, and weave design elements throughout to capture your audience. Ready to turn clicks into conversions? Contact us today!