There is simply no sense in building a business-to-business (B2B) website only to leave it to stagnate over time. B2B websites are specifically tailored to appeal to other people in business and act as a personal market place for them to network, find suppliers and distributors, and increase not only the number of transactions you make but also to increase the amount of each transactions. The bottom line is that businesses will generally make high dollar purchases but, to attract this business, you must promote your website as professionally as possible.
How to get started
The first step is to create a personal website. You can pay for hosting and a Web development team that includes Web design, search engine optimization, social networking, and article/content creation and have the entire job done for you. The problem with this is twofold. In the first place, hosting and Web design is quite expensive and, second, hiring an outside company will move some of the control of the website and its direction to others. Another alternative is to create a website yourself by using one of the free Web hosts. There are a few free Web hosting sites that offer very easy-to-use development tools. This technique will save a great deal of money on both hosting and development fees.
Unless you are a professional writer, however, you should use professionals for all of the content you need and the articles that should be posted on the various articles directories. The quality of this material will be what drives new clients to your website and keep them there. This means that the writing needs to be very high quality. The quality of this writing will reflect directly on the professionalism of you business. There are a number of job agencies online, and finding professionals is very easy. Avoid the writers who will work for very little. These writers do not usually have the skills or knowledge of English to give the best quality work. In this case, the old axiom, “You get what you pay for,” is very true.
Tricks of the Trade
The first step is to create a gripping home/splash page. You will want to use riveting headlines that appeal to your customer’s business sense. After the headline, you will need to make sure of two very important things. If you are scheduling events or virtual meetings, make sure that all of the relevant information about scheduling, including addresses, whether virtual or physical, telephone numbers, and any other information you visitor will need, is there.
Second, make sure to sell what is happening instead of what you are selling. The whole point is to generate interest in the event, and at the event you will concentrate on promoting the business. You presentation should concentrate how attending this event will benefit them.
Traps of the Trade
There are a number of things you can do to look more professional and there are a number of things you can do that will get you into a mess. If you do not know who your target audience is and what it is they need, you will not be able to provide the content that will keep them interested. Never assume that because someone is in the same general business as you are that they have all of the answers. Your content must do more than provide information, it must explain it. If your content is just a recitation of facts with no explanation, your potential customers will become disinterested fairly quickly and move on to other websites. Make sure that all of your content is grammatically perfect with no spelling mistakes. Sloppy writing is one of the fastest ways to give customers the impression that your business is sloppy.
Close the Deal
The entire purpose of building B2B website is drive more business to your website and expanding your efforts from consumer markets to business markets. The only way to do this is to treat professionals as professionals and build your web pages accordingly. Presentation is everything and, without good presentation, you will only alienate potential customers or even business partners. Successfully promoting B2B websites requires a total change in the way you do business. The business community should be treated just like a large niche with several sub niches. When you start promoting your website, by addressing it as a niche of professionals in your field, you will be able to close the deal much easier simply because you will be using all your efforts to target their specific needs and concerns.
