Archives for 2007

Sarah Worsham / Sep 19, 2007

RSS for B2B Websites

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a feed which sends content from the website out to a feed reader. RSS provides an easy way to check hundreds of sites for updates in one place. Google and Bloglines both offer a web-based reader, and there are several software based readers including NewsGator.

More importantly, what good are RSS feeds to a B2B Website? Having RSS feeds for the content on your website allows your readers to subscribe to the feed and be alerted through their feed reader when you update content on your site. You can set the feed up to send out the entirety of your content or just snippets to entice visitors to read the rest on your site. Most mainstream sites send out their entire content, relying on visitors to come to their sites based upon their good information and functionality. RSS feeds also allow search engines and other web crawlers another way to access and index the content on your site which can increase your search engine optimization (SEO).

Many mainstream content management systems and blogging software already have RSS feed functionality, including the ability to customize how the feed looks and what content it sends out. There are also plugins, scripts and software available to create feeds from your web content. The more adventurous can also attempt to code their own feeds.

RSS feeds can also be used to take content from other sites and display them on your own (please make sure you are aware of any copyright restrictions). This requires software to turn the feed into code (HTML) which is displayable as part of your webpage. Many content websites already have this built in to widgets, badges and plugins they offer on their site (ex. Flickr, Twitter). For these sites, it is as simple as copying the code they give you into your own website code.

Once you have RSS feeds setup on your website, you can use RSS tracking sites, such as FeedBurner (just acquired by Google) to track how many people are subscribed to your feed, reading your feed content, and coming to your website from the feed. Without this type of specialized tracking, you can get ballpark statistics from looking at the visitors on your site. Many of the feed crawlers will announce themselves as such in their browser information (usually in the visitor information of analytics software). Google Analytics displays how many readers are subscribed and using the Google Reader. You will also be able to see visitors who come from web-based feed readers in the referral section of your analytics program.

RSS feeds for B2B websites allow your visitors to be constantly updated when you post new content on your website. SEO is improved by giving search engines and web crawlers a way to be updated when content is updated on your site. And you can improve the content on your own site by looking for badges, widgets and plugins that allow content from other sites to be displayed on your site (through RSS feeds).

Technorati Tags: RSS, web analytics, SEO, B2B, internet consulting, B2B internet consulting

Sarah Worsham / Sep 17, 2007

Good vs. Bad B2B Websites

I just got back from a B2B trade show in Las Vegas, representing the publishing company where I work, to sell our online products to our B2B customers. As part of my research of each customer, I visited their website to see what their Internet presence looked like. I looked at about a dozen websites, which ran the gambit from pretty good to not very good at all (ok I’m being a little nice – some were pretty bad).

What was the difference between the good sites and the bad sites? Whether they are customer-centric or company-centric. Customer-centric sites recognize that B2B customers come to a website to do research for a buying decision or to find service or support for products they’ve already purchased. These sites provide white papers, in-depth product descriptions, training, service and support. Most importantly, it is easy for a customer to find exactly what they are looking for through good web design (usability) and search functionality.

As shown in our previously discussed research from American Business Media and the Washington Post, and confirmed in research from the Nielson Norman Group, B2B Decision Makers use the web to conduct research for buying decisions. According to the Nielson Norman Group research, B2B websites measured a mere 58% success rate, compared to the 66% for mainstream websites (this is success of the website visitors being able to accomplish their goals in visiting).

How do you become a customer-centric website or improve your customer experience?

Finding What They Need
Think about what your customers may be looking for when they come to your website. Taking a look at your analytics to see what keywords are used to enter the site from search engines and what paths visitors take through your website can give you valuable insight on what information you need to provide or make easier to find. If you have an internal search function, take a look at what visitors are searching for through it as well. Visitors often turn to a search when they cannot find what they’re looking for on the homepage or menus.

Organization
Organize the information on your website in a logical, easy-to-find manner. Place top level menu links on every single page of your website. These top level links should be descriptive and easy to understand (ex. Home, Products, Services, Help). Your homepage can contain a lot of information, but make sure there is enough white space for eyes to easily scan through it for important points. Product or Service pages should include everything needed to make a purchase decision, including a ballpark price and detailed specifications.

Purchasing
Once a visitor has made a decision to purchase (or to get the final information before purchase), it should be easy for them to find your contact information. Placing information on every Product and Service page (or even on every page of the website) and having a Contact page puts the information right in front of their fingers. Provide both a phone number and an email address since some customers are very busy and email is easier for them. If you do have products with fixed prices, consider an eCommerce solution with a shopping cart to allow your customers to make a purchase as easily as possible.

Support and Loyalty
Make your website a place your existing customers can use by providing information and training about your products, including white papers, spec sheets, webinars, podcasts and training videos. Adding community to your website through forums, comments and blogs can help you connect with your customers and provide valuable feedback through direct communication. Embrace any customers who post about problems by addressing their concerns in a fair manner. Use their insight to improve your product and your customers will feel more loyalty to your brand.

Good B2B websites focus on customer-centric designs to fulfill the needs of their customers who in turn will be more satisfied and loyal.

Need Help with Your B2B Website? Get started with a free website analysis or contact us for a quote.

Technorati Tags: design, web design, content, B2B, internet consulting, B2B internet consulting

Sarah Worsham / Sep 14, 2007

Video for B2B Websites

Video can have powerful impact for your business. You are probably aware of video on major consumer websites such as the New York Times, MSN, CNN or video sharing sites such as YouTube. Video that provides information to your customers helps establish credibility in for your knowledge and expertise.

Content
Information that is valuable to your customers, such as how-to, training, or news updates will be best received. Videos are more likely to be watched if they are short: 2-3 minutes at the most. If you have more information, split it up into separate videos. Quality of the video does not have to be perfect. Thanks to sites like YouTube, Internet viewers accept lower-quality pictures. Investing in a good mic and making sure the lighting is adequate are worthwhile.

Technical
Videos can be in many formats, including Windows Streaming Media (WMV), Quicktime (QT), avi, mpg, mpeg, and Flash Streaming (FLV). I prefer Flash because most people have the plugin already installed and it has good compression (quicker to download). For Windows, there are several relatively inexpensive video software packages to try: Adobe Premiere Elements, ROXIO Easy Media Creator and Ulead Video Studio. All new Macs come with iMovie. Hosting a popular video can eat up your alloted bandwidth so you may want to consider having video hosted elsewhere, such as YouTube, which has disadvantages as a consumer-oriented site, or Cache-fly.

Promotional
If you’ve spent the time and effort to produce a video (even if its only one), you’ll get the more response if you promote it in ways other than just posting it on your website. Consider an email or an eblast to your customers letting them know about it (check with anti-spam regulations). Ads linking to the video on your search engine marketing programs and B2B publications can also help with visibility. If you post the video on YouTube, it will be included in their searches (which are mostly consumer based).

Measurement
How do you tell if your video has been successful? Your analytics program should be able to tell you how many people have viewed the video (at least to start it). Tracking whether they have watched it all the way through is more difficult and requires more advanced (and expensive) software. Keep in mind that if you pre-download the video to allow for faster viewing, that may count a view for every load – not necessarily when people are clicking on it.

Once you’ve created a few, using video to increase your credibility and image can be very rewarding (and hopefully fun).

Technorati Tags: video, content, B2B, internet consulting, B2B internet consulting

« Previous Page