Learn techniques for supporting business customers through complex buying processes. Ensure your business-to-business website stands out among the competitors. Know what customers need when trying to complete tasks such as comparing products, building a shortlist, and signing up for information.

Featuring complex products and services, catering to a diverse audience, and accommodating long buying cycles does not mean your website must be difficult to use.

This 254-page report presents 141 design guidelines based on our usability research. Discussions and 160 screenshot illustrations supplement our findings.

Benefits

• Checklist of 141 guidelines to convert more business leads into customers
• Get in the heads of business customers: Understand what motivates them to do business on websites
• Understand how people’s experiences on general websites affect their expectations on B2B websites

Topics covered

• Designing for diverse audiences
  • Personas: Putting faces to your business customers, special sectors
  • Company size: Considerations for small, medium, and large companies
• Success and satisfaction ratings
  • Relationship between success and satisfaction
  • Customer priorities and information rankings
  • Company reputation and its effect on ratings and behavior
• Usability design guidelines
  • First impressions: Making it easy for prospects to find you and stay
  • Credibility and trust: Corporate information, tone, and writing style
  • Products: Product selection, product pages, and product information
  • Navigation: Category names, navigational structure, and search
  • Images, multimedia, and demonstration videos
  • Contact: phone, chat, forms, and information on contact page
  • Registration and online account management
  • Proof of business benefits: Case studies, white papers, and technical documents 
  • Strong call to action
  • Shopping cart and checkout
  • Supporting and maintaining customers
  • Partner-specific custom websites
  • The online impact of offline marketing dollars

Download report excerpt (2MB PDF)

What's New in the 2nd Edition?

The second edition contains new and updated screenshot examples.

Research Method

The information in this report is based on our user studies, including:

• 55 usability testing sessions (one-on-one)
• 12 focus group sessions
• 7 site visits

In total, 79 people tested 179 B2B websites. We conducted our research in two countries: the United States and the United Kingdom.