What Every B2B Professional Service Needs on their Website
At this point in our journey, we’ve worked with several B2B professional services from a wide range of industries and fields. We’ve built brands for clients in the design, architecture, and legal industries (among others), and an essential aspect of each of those projects is building an attractive and effective website.
Here’s what we’ve learned from building those sites:
While their industries may seem different in many ways, the standard elements of their websites are actually very similar. We’ve used our extensive experience to narrow down a list of the most important elements any B2B service should include on their website. Of course, there are always opportunities to add extra features, bells, and whistles that make a site unique, but this list is a great starting point for any professional services business.
1. Portfolio Section
Show the World Wide Web What You’ve Got
Here’s the thing: A B2B service can talk a client’s ear off, insisting on how great their service is, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the work. And it should speak for itself.
Many B2B services wisely elect to organize this portfolio as a catalogue that can be viewed both as an entire collection and individually based on the visitor’s preferences and commands. Allowing users to filter the results in the catalogue by project type or other specifications will allow a business to more efficiently connect with ideal clients in their industry.
Showing work usually comes in the form of a case study that outlines the challenge, the work produced to meet the challenge, and the short and long term results of the project.
2. Team Page
Highlight the Real Personalities on Your Team
At the end of the day, people want to work with people they like.
A page that showcases the talented members on the team can do a lot to build a visitor’s confidence in a brand, especially if each individual is introduced with a professional portrait and a well-written bio. Together, these two pieces of content can convey an individual’s unique personality, quirks and all. Giving a visitor the sense that they’ve actually met the team member in question will never be a bad business move.
Of course, the content and tone used on these team pages will vary from brand to brand. In any case, remember that people are so much more than their resume. Letting the real personalities on a team shine will let visitors to the website know that the company genuinely values its people for who they really are. This gives prospective clients the confidence that they will also be valued.
3. Process
Open Up and Bare it All for Your Clients
Often times, B2B professional services are commodities, and in order to differentiate itself from the competition, the brand should always provide a step-by-step breakdown of the their processes. This page should also highlight the brand’s guiding philosophies that inform their unique approach.
This section of the site is the perfect place to broadcast the brand’s statement of higher purpose, mission statement, and even the core values that express the brand’s ethos.
Potential clients will appreciate the brand’s transparency into their process, but they’ll appreciate the brands forthcoming and honest portrayal of their beliefs, goals, and aspirations even more.
4. Blog
Keep ’Em Coming Back
While the majority of a website remains somewhat static, including a blog on the brand’s website provides an opportunity to post regular updates that keep the site feeling fresh, relevant, and interesting. Consistently producing new content for visitors to enjoy is what keeps them coming back for more week after week and day after day.
This is the perfect place for the brand to share industry news and insights, showcase awards, and provide answers to questions that are frequently asked by their clients.
When updated regularly with quality content, a blog can also boost the site’s SEO, which increases its ranking in Google’s search results. That benefit alone should be ample motivation for a brand to include a blog section on their site.
5. Contact Page
Never Miss a Connection or an Opportunity
Everyone knows that including a contact page on a brand’s website is an absolute necessity. But we’ve found that a standard page that simply lists company phone numbers and email addresses is simply not effective.
Losing a potential lead is not just a missed connection; it is missed opportunity that a competitor will now be taking advantage of.
Including a more advanced contact form where visitors can request a quote, make an appointment, or pose questions of the team is much more likely to connect a brand with potential clients.
6. Careers Page
Is Your Next Hire Already on Your Site?
Including a page where interested candidates can apply directly from the site is just a smart thing to do. Think about it: job boards like Monster, Indeed, and LinkedIn are great resources, but they are also incredibly flooded.
Speaking from our own experience, we’ve found that some of our best hires have been directed to us not from a posting we put on a job board, but rather from our own site. Those candidates had a genuine interest in our agency because they had seen our work and learned about our team before they even filled out an application.
7. Our Story
Nobody Can Tell Your Brand’s Story Better
People love stories, and if a brand tells visitors to their site one that is engaging, those visitors will gain a new sense of respect for the brand.
We’ve found that sharing how the company got its start, and what’s allowed it to succeed, are surefire ways to gain reader interest. But, in the end, a brand has ultimate freedom in deciding what to include on this page. After all, it is their story, and nobody else can tell it better.
So, to sum this all up…
Every B2B professional service is unique, but at their core, they all exist to help other businesses. We’ve found that including these essential sections on the company sites we create is the best way to attract, and connect with, the ideal clients in any industry.
We hope that this article has been helpful as your B2B service begins mapping out its site. If you have any questions, or just wanna tell us your brand’s story before you publish it online, we’re all ears!
Get in touch with us at hello@herman-scheer.com