Branding and Marketing for Professional Services Firms

5-point B2B Website Design Checklist

for Greater Visibility Elizabeth Harr

Why is it so important to get B2B website design right?

80.8%of professional services buyers check out your website — before

they do anything else.

Source:  Referral  Marketing  for  Professional  Services  Firms  Research  Report  

Your website not only can be —it should be — your highest performing business

development asset.

5Mistakes in B2B Website Design

1

2

3

4

Muddled Messaging and Cliche Imagery

“Un”Responsive Design

Salesy Content Only

Outdated / Weak or No SEO

Lack of Engagement Tools5

What is a high-performance website?

Anatomy of a website that performs - and makes you more visible

Clear messaging and professional imagery — powerful signals to your

audience on what matters to

#RethinkingReferrals

Source:  Referral  Marketing  for  Professional  Services  Firms  Research  Report  

43.6%rule out referrals because they couldn’t understand how the firm could help

them.

Your website should convey your overall brand positioning.

3 Simple Questions

What do you do?

3 Simple Questions

What do you do?

3 Simple Questions

Who do you do it for?

What do you do?

3 Simple Questions

Who do you do it for?

Why should clients choose

Imagery sends a message about the quality of your brand.

Death by cliche.

Professional imagery can still be playful, unexpected …

… backs your brand, and signals to your audience what you’re really all

The Importance ofResponsive Design

graph growth of mobile searches

Mobile-friendliness is now a search ranking signal.

Google’s Mobile Search Update

Responsive design for a mobile and tech-savvy marketplace.

If your website is not responsive, you’re leaving a lot of potential business on the table.

Educational Content

Content that is useful to your clients and showcases your expertise.

What is educational content?

Educational Content is Not…

Brochures TestimonialsCase Studies

Syndicated Content

Faux White Papers

Marketing Copy

There are two types of content.

Content Type #1: Stock Content

Purpose

Focus

Access

SEO

Examples

Issue level

Requires

registration

Premium quality to demonstrate expertise

Optimize titles and landing pages only

Guides, ebooks, research reports

Examples of Stock Content

Your stock content needs a home…

Resources Page or Library

…and a front door.

Landing Page

Landing Page

Draw traffic

Topic

Open access

Optimize titles and contentBlog posts, articles, videos, social media

Content Type #2: Flow

Purpose

Focus

Access

SEO

Examples

Topic level

Open access

Draws traffic

Optimize titles and content

Blog posts, videos, articles, social media

Examples of Flow Content

Some of your flow content goes out into to the world.

The rest stays at home and lives in your blog.

Building a Better Blog

Longer, substantive posts

(1,000+words)

Demonstrates your expertise

Optimized for search engines

Includes social sharing buttons

Contains offers for deeper

engagement

Includes cross-links

Stream of fresh content

Blog No-No’s

Your News and Events

Who Joined Your Firm

Your Community

Service

Miscellaneous Announcemen

ts

Educational content has wide scale applicability and builds visibility because people love to digest it & pass it around.

Promotional content has specific applicability — and people don’t necessarily love to digest it nor does it get passed around. If it’s all you

Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

SEO is a technique designed to make your content easily accessible to the right

audiences.

What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

How to Think Like a Search Engine

• Relevance (keywords)

• Website authority (links)

• User experience (responsive)

• Technology (optimizing)

Do keyword research to understand what terms people are searching for and your capability for ranking for those keywords.

Find a balance of

Volume

Difficulty

Relevance

Choosing the Right Keywords

Assess Relevance through Simple, Free Research Methods

Google Auto-Populate

Google Related Searches

Google Trends will put that relevance into better perspective

Using Google’s Keyword Planner in conjunction with a tool like Moz will help you

compare volume with difficulty.

MozKeyword

Aim for keywords with difficulty lower or just above your website

authority

Broad Specific

Audience will be larger, but less qualified

Audience will be smaller, but more

All Keywords are not Equal

Implement the the keywords in titles, title tags, meta descriptions and within your

content.

Titles

Title Tags

Meta Description

Within Content

Engagement Tools:Include Offers

and Calls-to-Action

Stage 1Attract Prospects

Stage 2Build Engagement

Stage 3Turn Opportunities into Clients

Offers to expose visitors to other

content

Offers to move prospects

through the

Conclusion — Your Visibility Checklist

Clear Messaging and Professional Imagery

Responsive Design

Educational Content

SEO Strategy

Offer Strategy