How to Take a Strategic Approach to Industrial Website Design

Not feeling your website? Use these tips to build a strong foundation for the next go-around.
Industrial_Website_Design

How do you get your industrial website design right and turn your website into a strategic asset?

Being a B2B industrial company, you have a ton of competition. There are so many other similar companies, some bigger and some smaller, that offer the same type of products and goods. In short, you need to do everything that’s in your power to get the attention of the customers, gain their trust, and over time-their loyalty. One of the basic steps in standing out from your competitors and getting them to pay attention is a well-designed website.

Having a strong and compelling website is an investment you’ll never regret. But, you have to make sure it’s written and created strategically, with clear goals set in advance. To help you do that, we’ve created a guide for writing a strategic plan for your industrial website.

Here are the steps you should follow to come up with a winning industrial website design, which all of the best industrial websites follow.

Set Goals & Expectations

The first thing you need to do when engaging in successful industrial website design is ask yourself: What do I want to achieve with this website? Most B2B companies will have similar goals or expectations, which could include:

  • Reach out to new companies and businesses
  • Show strong company branding and personality
  • Increase sales
  • Boost online sales

You can and should have more than one goal for your industrial website, but it’s always a good idea to set the main one first. Then, think of other minor goals and put them all together to formulate your final set of expectations.

Identify Target Customers

Next, you want to be certain that your industrial website design will speak to your target audience and get them to pay attention to your business. So, consider your target customers and try to define the companies that would be the perfect fit as the ”ideal customer.”

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What types of businesses do I want to work with?
  • Are they big or small?
  • What are they looking? Low-price, high-quality goods, great customer service, or something else?
  • What is their budget?
  • What is their customer lifetime value?

The more details you add, the better image you’ll be able to develop of your ideal target customer. Then, you can try and look at your future website through their eyes. This will help you prioritize the information you’ll share, as well as find the perfect formula for presenting it — critical components of successful industrial website design.

Draft a Sitemap

Now that you know what you want to achieve and have considered your target audiences, it’s time to think about the sitemap. Simply put, a sitemap is a basic draft of a website that includes:

  • Specific webpages it’ll consist of
  • Overview of the content shared on it
  • Basic web design ideas for each one

As an industrial company, you’ll want to include the following sections on your website, at the very least:

Home

Here, you’ll introduce the customers to your mission, vision, and unique selling proposition. You can throw in images, videos, and other visually appealing elements to get — and keep — them interested.

About

The companies you work with will want to know more about you. Answer their questions and tell them what kind of a company you are, how long you have been around, your capabilities, code of conduct, and more.

Industries

This is a super important element of any industrial website design since your customers instantly want to know whether you operate in their specific industry or not.

Products/Services

You also need pages that specify what type of products and/or services you offer, their potential benefits, how they can be used, and how your customers are using them. Add details, images, examples, and make it easy for the customer to understand your offerings.

Processes

Are you using any specific or extraordinary technologies to provide the products you’re offering? Tell the customers about it. They’ll want to know more about the processes behind your products and how you do things.

News

Why not share the latest industry news or internal news from your company? In this segment, you could write about new technologies, product launches, customer success stories, events, and more.

Contact

Finally, your website needs to make it super easy for the companies to reach out, send a message, call, or contact you via their preferred methods of communication, which should also be yours. Make sure your Contact page provides all the relevant options.

Be SEO-Friendly

As we’ve already mentioned, your competitors aren’t playing games. They’re aiming to acquire the same customers and trying to win them over.

If your website is SEO friendly, you’ll have better chances of ranking higher on Google for relevant searches and edging out the competition to generate B2B leads.

Make sure your industrial website design factors in SEO by:

  • Learning about the basic SEO concepts
  • Planning your website content around keywords
  • Hiring an experienced content creator to handle the website content

If you decide the write the content on your own, AwesomeWriter shares information about the best writing advisors who can polish your content, edit it, or even rewrite it. Whatever your approach, your website content should be perfectly polished and accurate.

Industrial Website Design & Branding

Before you hire a web designer to design your new industrial website, you need to form a general idea of what you want it to look like. In this process, don’t forget about the brand colors and other branding specifics that you need to include.

A good B2B web design will help you:

  • Drive customer decisions
  • Strengthen your brand
  • Make the website easy to navigate
  • Improve usability

Aim for a simple industrial website design with strong visuals and colors. That will help you reach your goals.

Spy on Your Competitors

If you want to stand out, you need to know what the others are doing. Take a look at the websites of your main competitors and see what they’re up to by using online tools to conduct a competitive analysis.

If you find a pattern, try to avoid it and stand out by doing something different.

But, if you see some important elements you forgot to include in your initial idea, make sure to factor them into your website strategic plan.

Final Thoughts for Successful Industrial Website Design

A website is an important business presentation that you have to nail. If you want other companies to take you seriously, you need to make a great first impression through your industrial website.

Hopefully, the steps we’ve covered above will guide you through the process of taking a strategic approach to industrial website design. But if you still need more tips for how to create a winning web presence, check out some of the other articles in the Web Strategy section of Industrial Marketer.



Share


About the Author



Not so fast!
Don’t miss our latest B2B marketing insights. Sign up to receive Industrial Marketer in your inbox.