B2B Web Strategy Blog – eMagine

Is Your Site in the 40% that Discourage Prospective Customers?

December 13th, 2006 Posted by: Bill Gadless

You’ll find a great summary of a recent Nielsen Norman Group report in a post titled BTB Web Sites Not User-Friendly over at dmNews.

The San Francisco-based research firm’s first B2B Website Usability study found that business-to-business Web sites offer a weaker user experience than B2C sites, with the result that users of B2B sites are able to accomplish what they set out to do only 58% of the time! Since the study included 170 B2B Web sites and employed focus groups, field studies and direct user observation/feedback, it’s pretty hard to dispute its validity.

The top design factors that caused users either to leave a site or form a bad impression?

• Incomplete product descriptions, creating skepticism
• Overwhelming and convoluted content, creating confusion
• Convoluted or mysterious navigational structure, creating impatience
• Pushing users for contact data while offering only superficial info or concealing critical info, creating annoyance and distrust

One critical piece of information that’s often missing is pricing, which users listed as the type of information that mattered most; because without a basic idea of what a product or service will cost, users simply can’t complete their initial research on a company.

Another common B2B tactic is requiring users to complete lead-generation forms. Nielsen recommends placing much more information in front of the barrier, making it available to users during their initial research …something we also suggested you consider in our recent “To Register or Not” posting. This helps your company establish credibility before attempting to extract users’ contact information.

By taking the visitor’s viewpoint and emphasizing usability, your B2B site can help users accomplish advanced tasks and research your specialized products or services. The payoff comes because these are frequently not one-shot buyers, but potential customers seeking a long-term vendor relationship.

Entry Filed under: Converting,Engaging Visitors