A Comprehensive Guide to Designing B2B Websites, Part V

When our team first connects with a client in the business-to-business (B2B) space, we know we’re going to need a different approach than for a consumer focused project. The good news is that designing and building B2B marketing websites has been core to our business since the beginning.

In this five-part series, we review the critical elements to keep in mind to drive your B2B website project to success.

Throughout development, key decisions are made that can impact the effectiveness of a B2B website beyond the usual best-of-breed standards in security and performance.

Technical Architecture

In technical architecture planning, B2B sites should get special consideration in selection of the CMS, as — unlike consumer product-driven sites — they need to support heavy content marketing efforts. Comprehensive integration with marketing and lead-generation systems should be expected.

B2B website architecture considerations should also include:

The build plan should also include features beyond the launch, ongoing optimization of content, and an open discussion on how the project will scale in future phases.

Other key development and build factors for B2B websites include:

The user relationships are harder to build and maintain on B2B websites, so more weight needs to be given to optimizing for responsive web and localization to meet customer needs where they are and on the device of their choosing.

Building a robust B2B website that thrills users and ignites sales is no easy task. But following a few key principles in planning and discovery, content strategy, user-experience design, visual design, development and build, can help keep your project on the right path.