Why Every B2B Website Needs Personalization

It doesn’t take all the bells and whistles, grant money, or new technology to make a difference in B2B marketing. Shift your perspective from the business side of things for a minute and consider the untapped power of personalized content marketing. Because the truth is, you don’t have to put your budget on the line for new digital marketing tools when you can make powerful on-page changes with personalized content marketing.

We know how important data can be for understanding the average customer’s perspective. From click-through rates to demographics and purchase history, organizations have a plethora of use cases to leverage as personalization fodder. But, when you have a diverse customer base, it’s hard to choose the right journey that best fits your targeted group. This is where data-driven personalization comes in. 

Benefits of website personalization

Personalization can boost engagement, increase conversions, and enhance user experience. It completely changes the way visitors interact with your website. With a bit of programming and an in-depth understanding of your customer data, you can funnel customers on unique paths that lead them to personalized pages based on their wants and needs. These customer journeys should be directly powered by your customer data stored in your content management system (CMS), and/or in a customer data platform (CDP). 

Personalization leads to:

• Customer satisfaction

• Lead conversions

• Better user experience

• Customer retention

• Boosted SEO 

Every interaction counts

Consider your different customer segments, broken up into personas, every step of the way. Think of their reactions to each webpage according to their behaviors, demographics, geographic location, and more. This can help you create a more personalized experience for each group of customers, building a stronger relationship. Regularly reviewing and updating your personas can help keep your website relevant as your target audience evolves. 

B2B website personalization

So, where does B2B come in? B2B can benefit greatly from personalization, igniting marketing tactics and tailoring websites to a business's central customer segments and personas. When you can target a prospective client’s needs and present them first with webpages that offer the solutions they’re looking for, it’s one less step they have to take toward conversion - and sometimes one less step makes all the difference.

One could argue that personalization for B2B is even more important than personalization for retail or other business types; business owners and managers looking to satisfy their B2B efforts move with a sense of C-level urgency rather than the everyday consumer. Presenting the site visitor exactly what they need to see pares down the research and decision-making they need to do. 

Steps to website personalization:

• Set goals 

• Identify customer segments

• Choose personalization type

• Create personalized content

• Adapt based on results

Examples of website personalization in B2B

1. Capturing different decision-makers

As a B2B company, you’re serving multiple industries and different decision-makers along the way. With personalization, you can target these decision-makers according to their position and responsibilities in their business. Show them content they will be invested in and can relate to with their work.

2. Size-dependent personalization

If your organization serves various company sizes, you’ll want to funnel different-sized companies into the right sales channels for them and give them budget-relative options. You can show small businesses the lower-scale solutions you offer and present enterprise companies with an industry-specific solution, and maybe even an expert to talk to. This can all be done by modifying call-to-action buttons to send them to a booking calendar, a sales representative, contact pages, etc.

3. Greeting old customers vs. new visitors

It only makes sense to consider the customer relationship with the content you present them. For returning customers, you can welcome them back with referral campaigns or recent accomplishments. For new website visitors, you can establish a customer-business relationship by showing them exactly who you are, what you can offer them as a B2B company, and of course your lead generation form.

4. Industry specifics

Modifying your top-of-the-fold content can quickly offer more relevant content to the right visitor and helps circumvent a high bounce rate. Keep all your components dynamic and interchangeable; logos, generic text, call-to-action buttons, and imagery should look different based on the industry of the site visitor. This is key for B2B website personalization especially if your organization targets a wide spectrum of industries.

Final thoughts

Website personalization is going to take your B2B efforts to the next level, and it's more accessible now than ever. In the grand scheme of things, personalization is a subtle change with dynamic results. Creating a personalized B2B website is just as important as implementing a personalized marketing strategy. The key outcome of personalization for B2B websites is giving your leads a shortcut to you as the solution; make it easy for them to see what they need from you to make the ultimate decision.