Member Article

Website remains focus for most B2B firms

Digital Marketing & Design

Today digital marketing is a many-splendored thing, with myriad forms of social media and other avenues competing for online marketers’ time, and a slice of their marketing budgets. But it seems that despite how far the web has come since pre-Google/Facebook/Twitter days, that old faithful stalwart – the company website – remains top of many firms’ priorities.

A recent survey revealed that 70% of B2B businesses will increase spending on website development in 2013 – considerably more than increases for other digital marketing channels. The survey by BtoB magazine, part of its report, ‘Outlook 2013: Marketing Priorities and plans’, collated responses from 366 B2B marketers.

The next biggest focus for a 2013 increase in digital marketing spending was email marketing (62%), followed by social media (56%), online video (56%), search (52.5%) and mobile (35.5%).

Websites were also stated as the ‘leading content marketing channel used’ by 93% of respondents, as of the end of 2012.

Spending money on your website – a shrewd investment

What the survey confirms is what many digital marketers have long known – that the website is still king as far as online presence goes. While it’s important to explore other avenues and to dabble in the waters of social media, it’s equally important that these forays and experimentations don’t detract from the focus on your website. After all, if people want real information about your company and its offerings, your website is the first place they’ll go, and the target zone that all other digital marketing channels aim to draw web users towards.

So if you’re investing extra money in developing your website this year what specific areas should you invest in?

Overall design

If your website isn’t currently delivering a flawless user experience that enables visitors to effortlessly glide from page to page as needed then there’s room for investment in web design.

Cross-platform usability

Increasingly people are browsing and buying online using tablet PCs, smart phones and other mobile devices. Since these all have different sizes and types of screens, you may need to invest in a strategy such as responsive design to ensure your site displays as intended on all devices.

Web content

Without quality textual content that engages with your potential customers, your website is virtually useless. What’s more, regularly updating your web content is one of the central tenets of search engine optimisation.

Investing in a web design agency to breathe new life into your website could be a project that delivers a real return on investment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jon Celeste .