Here's a question: What's the best way for a B2B technology company to make a great first impression on its prospects? You might say product features, but a prospect probably won't try your product during their first interaction. Ask a hardcore marketer, and they'll say something like "proposing a value-aligned problem-solving proposition" or some such gibberish.
The answer is simple: Your website is the key to making a great first impression. Unfortunately, most B2B companies underestimate the importance of having a well-designed website with copy that draws prospects deeper into their funnel.
Great B2B website copy has certain characteristics that are easy to replicate. Let's look at 3 of these qualities and see how you can replicate them easily on your website.
Speaks Business and Tech
B2B tech products tend to be technically heavy, and the people who use them typically like diving under the hood to figure out their technical underpinnings. While getting technical is great, you should avoid stuffing your website with too much jargon.
To figure out why this is, it's instructive to examine the average B2B customer's buying journey. A B2B company chooses a vendor once an initiative has begun from the highest levels. The first prospect that visits your website isn't the technical lead. It's often the C-suite executive who may or may not speak technical jargon.
Even if they are technically-minded, these executives don't have the time to figure out deeply technical copy. Good B2B copy delivers a strong business value proposition that a senior executive can understand. Your website's language and your prospect's business goals must resemble one another.
For example, look at Asana's homepage. Notice any bottom-line-oriented copy? Everything on this page speaks about business benefits. "Teams know what to do", "how to get it done", "speed up employee onboarding", etc. There's no talk of what's under the hood up front.
While products such as the ones Asana builds don't need deep technical dives, there's no denying the need to entice higher-level executives with business-oriented language. Reserve the technical specs and jargon for gated content that will help you figure out prospect intent.
Creates a Path
Imagine someone walking up to you and asking you for directions to the nearest Walmart. In response, not only do you give them directions, but you also tell them which mode of transportation works best, what to watch out for along the way, which gas stations are reliable, and to be safe, a brief history of the town.
B2B website copy often assumes this nature. In the name of being helpful, companies throw everything they can think of at their customer and expect positive reactions. Your website copy has to be helpful and educational. However, you need to deliver helpful content when your prospects need it.
There's nothing more annoying than receiving unsolicited advice. Even if you know your prospect's problems better than they do, it's wise to give them time to figure out solutions themselves. B2B buyers are increasingly choosing self-service these days. As a result, your website copy and design has to create a path. Call it a path of greater understanding (or path of illumination if you're into the whole new-age spirituality thing.)
So what should this path look like? For starters, you need to understand that your website exists to primarily entice top-of-the-funnel prospects. It's not the place to get inappropriately technical. That sort of content is best delivered in a gated form.
For example, a blog post draws in the top-of-the-funnel C-suite executive, while the gated whitepaper attached to the post entices the technical lead working under the executive.
Give your prospects the chance to explore deeper solutions but never shove it down their throats. You shouldn't infantilize your content, but don't assume that going technical and putting all your cards on the table is a good strategy. You'll come across as incoherent because you'll be trying to appeal to everyone at once.
So tailor your copy appropriately and change it to reflect your prospect's position in your funnel. Stick to the point and speak business value at the top of your funnel. Get technical, and feel free to explore related topics when you're deep.
Your content and copy need to be more conversational and in-depth the deeper they are in your funnel. Think of it as meeting someone for the first time. You're not going to talk to them like you would to someone you've known for a while. Tailor your copy accordingly.
Demystifies
Tech and fintech companies suffer from the black box syndrome. Their products are excellent, but they're tough to understand. Frustratingly, the more revolutionary the product is, the tougher it is to get prospects to understand why they ought to use them.
To achieve your marketing goals, you need to ally your website copy with well-thought-out page structures. For example, most B2B companies create lengthy product pages, throw a few graphics on there with arrows describing customer journeys and processes, and leave it at that.
These kinds of product pages do nothing to demystify what your company does or what your product aims to achieve. A good way to figure out if this is the case with your website is to ask a prospect to describe what you do. If their answer is any variation of "something to do with <<insert business or process function>>", your copy is missing the mark entirely.
Here's a simple copy structure that will simplify your product for your prospects. Instead of writing a War and Peace like product page, iterate between the following elements:
Mention your product
Introduce a problem
Describe how your product solves it
Provide proof through testimonials or links to gated content
That's all there is to it. Iterate between these 4 sections until you describe your product completely. Gated content that you can use as proof includes case studies, in-depth customer testimonials, and even whitepapers.
Go deeper with every iteration. The great thing about this structure is that it simplifies scroll depth metrics and heatmap tracking. If a prospect has scrolled deep into your page, you know for sure they're interested in learning more about your product.
If you didn't have a structure to your copy, you wouldn't know whether the prospect was looking for information that was deep in the page, and merely scrolled past stuff they didn't want or whether they were genuinely interested.
Simple, Yet Powerful
Implementing 3 tips is all it takes to upgrade your website's copy instantly. There might be deeper issues with your copy, but as long as you take care of these basics, you'll entice your prospects further into your funnel.
Learn more about the nuances of copy by subscribing to my newsletter, or get in touch with me if you think you need help creating great content for your business!