September 8, 2022
How to Convince Your CEO to Update Your B2B Website
2 min readMaybe you’re the director of marketing and sometimes (all the time) it feels like pulling teeth getting leadership to buy into your marketing strategy. I’ve never pulled anyone’s teeth, so I’m not sure how challenging that is. But I have tried to get a 3-year-old to stop asking for snacks, and that’s freakin’ impossible. So maybe it feels like that. Maybe you’re a CMO that feels like your hands are tied, making it really challenging to show impactful results. I can confirm that things are easier with hands untied. For all the things.
I can’t help you get sign-off on all of your (probably) great B2B marketing ideas, but I can help get buy-in with your B2B website design, especially if it’s been a few years since it’s been updated
There’s a lovely book by Malcolm Gladwell, called Blink, and it has nothing to do with websites. I’m going to spoil the book for you, so keep reading and then you won’t actually need to read it, unless you’re just really into hammering a nail into oblivion. But it IS a great concept and I want to share it with you.
Our brains are SO brainy we can make snap judgements at lightning speed and our unconscious does most of the heavy lifting. We don’t even have to try. Your eyes see something for the first time and a million little receptors are doing brain-things before you even have a chance to blin– snap your fingers. And in the moment you’re already making decisions (usually pretty good ones, too).
So – when a potential customer lands on your website, the moment the page loads (ours load really fast. So fast.) they have already made an unconscious decision about whether or not your company is a good fit. That blink-of-an-eye moment defines your website’s success in converting that customer into a lead, user, or raving fan.
Every detail matters because the unconscious is picking up on everything and making decisions before you even realize one needs to be made. And guess what? We use badass web design and story-driven copy to win the two-second battle against the unconscious. It’s less about “being trendy” and more about using proven strategies to align your target audience and their expectations of the value you can bring them. Our web design process creates clarity from page-load to lead captured.
One of our clients sells a widget for the construction industry, providing a software suite to use that product and essentially run the widget businesses. When they came to us they looked like a “construction” company. The widget was just like their competitors’. We helped transform their B2B brand and web presence into a SaaS company that also sells a widget for the construction industry. Their software is the golden checkmark that potential leads need to see — it reaffirms they aren’t just investing in a widget, but are partnering with a software company that would help grow their business.
So tell your boss that we have two seconds to get it right. Investing in those two seconds means better recruiting, higher conversion rates, increased B2B brand loyalty, and most importantly, less “selling” because your lead’s unconscious has already said, “hell yes.”
Also remember that B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring. Ask me to prove it: gavin@driftingcreatives.com