Goal-oriented website design will change the way visitors use your site and it will improve your greatest sales tool. While you've likely read about and applied growth-driven web design, goal-oriented design is quite different. Then again, they're also integrated in some ways.
With growth-driven design, you tweak your website over a period of time rather than creating a complete design all at once. Applying goal-oriented design means applying what you know your buyers need. This means supplying everything necessary rather than just thinking about bells and whistles.
For the B2B industry, this is vital because knowing what buyers want means less chance they'll visit a competitor's site. Businesses that buy from B2B companies want positive relationships, which means being assured their problems get understood.
Some of this comes through you providing information they need to make a smarter buying decision. Yet, it's far from the only thing to look into with your goal-oriented design plan.
Look at what else you can include and how you can go about finding what your buyers really want from you.
Showcasing Your Products
One top goal many B2B companies try to employ on their websites is an efficient way to showcase products. By developing customer personas, you can find out what products your buying demographic is most apt to buy. This uses the same principles as B2C customer personas where you find data through what's defined as contextual inquiry.
Through personas, you may discover most of your past buyers preferred seeing your products in a catalog format. When you find out they want to shop for your products in unique ways, you can't rely on template designs. Custom design can only do this for you, and it may involve more than just creating shopping methods through cross-platform devices.
Providing Proof of Product Value
Remember, information is still important to all your buyers. When businesses buy from B2B companies, they frequently research online first before honing in on the right products. That's why another component of goal-oriented design you may want to place on your site is a comparison chart.
By comparing features and benefits on your products with your nearest competitors, you automatically give a logical shopping choice to visitors. They'll also appreciate you for having the foresight in knowing you understood what they wanted before they visited.
Improved E-Commerce
Many B2B buyers want easier ways to buy items on B2B sites, and that should always be an automatic top-tier goal. Part of this can come from creating real-time payment processing via the web. Being able to do this easily on any mobile device is equally imperative since many B2B buyers are already on the go.
Self-service features can become another answered request from the businesses you cater to. Don't hesitate to give some autonomy to your buyers by giving them control over their orders. You can create this through private customer portals on your website where businesses search and buy things based on automated targeting procedures.
Collecting Information From Customers
Goal-oriented design can work in reverse by helping you achieve your own goals. A major part of this is in gathering information from customers in ways that aren't obstructive. The more information you can gain from them through metrics and their buying behaviors, the more you can continue to improve your site.
In this regard, you can see another connecting line with growth-driven web design. Achieving goals frequently means fine-tuning, and you'll inevitably have to do this often with goal-oriented design to keep your loyal customers interested in you for the long-term.