Business to Business (B2B) websites audiences are much different than Business to Consumer (B2C) websites audiences. But recognizing how they are different is key to understanding how to make your B2B website work for you.
B2B website visitors (or audience) are looking for information, services, or products related to their business or profession. They sometimes are looking for news or latest happenings in their industry and sometimes for specific information related to a product, service, or how-to. Most of the time, they are on the website from their workplace during work hours and they are often business decision makers (BDMs). Depending on the specific industry, the number of people in the overall audience is usually very small compared to the overall Internet audience.
B2C website visitors are usually looking for general news and information on products and services for their personal use. They visit websites for entertainment and socialization. Some of these visits are during off-work hours from home, but some are also during work (at work) while avoiding work (or during breaks). B2C visitors are often browsing from one site to another. When they are searching for something specific they usually start with a large search engine such as Google (#1) or Yahoo! (#2).
Because the audiences are so different in not only their makeup, but also their purposes in visiting, websites in these two markets must be designed differently to meet the specific audience needs. We’ll examine more on how to do this in future articles (it’s an indepth topic!) and how to handle Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Advertising, Analytics, Content, Hosting, eCommerce, and Design (and others) for your B2B website.
- Sources:
- 2006 Harris End User Study (American Business Media)
- 2005 The BtoB Digital Marketing Shift (Forrester Research Inc.)
- 2001 Yankelovich/Harris Study
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