Writing a Strategic Plan for your B2B Industrial Website

Being a B2B industrial company, you have a ton of competition. There are so many other similar companies, some bigger and some smaller, that offer the same products and goods. This is why you need to do everything that's in your power to get the attention of the customers, gain their trust, and over time-their loyalty. And one of the basic steps in standing out from your competitors and getting them to pay attention is a well-designed website.

Having a strong and convincing website is an investment you'll never regret. But, you have to make sure it's written and created strategically, with clear expectations and goals set in advance. To help you do that, we've created a guide for writing a strategic plan for your B2B industrial website.

Here are the steps you should follow in coming up with a winning website.

Set goals & expectations

The first thing you need to do is ask yourself- What do I want to achieve with this website? Most B2B companies will have similar goals or expectations:

• Reach out to new companies and businesses
• Show strong company branding & personality
• Increase sales
• Boost online sales

You can and should have more than one goal, but it's always a good idea to set the main one first. Then, think of other minor goals and put them together in your expectations folder.

Rethink target customers

Next, you want to be certain that the website you'll build will speak to your target audience and get them to pay attention to your business. So, rethink your target customers and try to define the companies that would be the perfect fit as the "ideal customer".

You need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What type of businesses do I want to work with?
• Are they big or small?
• Are they looking for smaller prices/high-quality goods/great customer service/or something else?
• What is their budget?
• What is their customer lifetime value?

The more details you add, the better image of the ideal target customer you'll have. Then, you can try and look at your future website with their eyes. This will help you prioritize the information you'll share and find the perfect formula for presenting it.

Draft a sitemap

Now that you know what you want to achieve and have considered your target audience, it's time to think about the sitemap. Simply put, a sitemap is a basic draft of the website that includes:

• Specific webpages it'll consist of
• Overview of the content shared on it
• Basic web design ideas for each one

As an industrial company, you'll want to include the following segments on your website:

Home

Here, you'll introduce the customers to your mission, vision, and unique selling proposition. You can throw in images, videos, and other visually appealing elements to get them interested.

About

The companies you work with will want to know more about you. Answer their question and tell them what kind of a company you are, how long have you been around, your capabilities, code of conduct, ad more.

Industries

This is a super important element of a B2B industrial website since your customers instantly want to know whether you operate in their specific industry or not.

Products

You also need a page that specifies what type of products are you offering, what's their potential, how they can be used, and how your customers are using them. Add details, images, examples, and make it easy for the customer to understand your offer.

Technology

Are you using any specific or extraordinary technology to provide the products you're offering? Tell the customers about it. They'll want to know more about the processes behind your products and how things are done with you.

News

Why not share the latest industry news or internal news from your company? In this segment, you could write about new technologies, product launches, customer success stories, events, and more.

Contact Us

Finally, your website needs to make it super easy for the companies to reach out, send a message, call, or contact you in any other way. Make sure the Contact Us page has all the necessary information.

Be SEO-friendly

As we've already mentioned, your competitors aren't playing games. They're aiming for the same customers and trying to win them over. But, if your website is SEO-friendly, you have better chances of ranking higher on Google and beating your competitors.

So, make sure your website is SEO-friendly by:

• Learning about the basic SEO concepts
• Planning your website content around keywords
• Hiring a copywriter to handle the website content

If you decide the write the content on your own, I hate writing shares information about the best writing advisors that can polish your content, edit it, or even rewrite it. This should also be a part of your strategic plan since your website content needs to be perfectly polished and accurate.

Web design & branding

Before you hire a web designer to design your new website, you need to form a general idea of what you want it to look like. In this process, don't forget about the brand colours and other branding specifics that you need to include.

A good web design will help you:

• Drive customer decisions
• Strengthen your brand
• Make the website easy to navigate
• Improve usability

Aim for a simple design with strong visuals and colours. That will help you reach your goals.

Spy on your competitors

If you want to stand out, you need to know what the others are doing. Take a look at the websites of your main competitors and see what they're up to. If you find a pattern, try to avoid it and stand out with your uniqueness. But, if you see some important elements you forgot to implement in your initial idea, make sure to include them in your website strategic plan.

Final thoughts

A website is an important business presentation that you have to nail. If you want other companies to take you seriously, you need to make a great first impression through your website. Hopefully, the steps we've covered above will guide you through the process of writing a strategic plan for your B2B industrial website. Start working on it today!

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