With more and more of our day-to-day brand interactions shifting online, customers have come to expect simple, intuitive user experiences at every touchpoint. And that holds true across B2B and B2C brands, regardless of how complex your products and services might be. The truth is that digital may be the first – or only – way your customers interact with your brand in 2021.

Let’s face it: customers expect modern, personalized digital experiences. And delivering subpar experiences will cost you. In fact, 88% of B2B buyers stated they would turn to a competitor if their current supplier’s digital channel couldn’t keep up with their needs. It’s never been more important to move quickly to deliver well-designed B2B sites with marketing and commerce in mind.

Traditionally, website design and development might take months, leaving B2B brands lagging behind customer expectations – and losing out on new and recurring businesses. Leveraging tried-and-true web design elements to speed up site launch makes it easier to stay agile and adaptable. That means less time on development, faster site launch, and faster ROI.

What can great website design do for my business?

• Increase conversions on key landing pages
• Decrease bounce rate
• Boost engagement from target accounts
• Drive purchase orders through product suggestions
• Reach new and existing clients more effectively
• Reduce development time and cost
• Drive high quality MQLs through search engine optimization
• Improve site speed
• Deliver consistent branding across sites

Great Design and B2B eCommerce

It’s not enough to launch an online portal for your B2B buyers. Even though B2B buying requirements are more complex than B2C, buyers have come to expect commerce capabilities that mirror consumer experiences. Leveraging cross-browser and device-compatible design elements allows B2B businesses the flexibility to meet their buyers where they are – whether that’s in an office, on the go, or from their desk at home.

In this new era of constant digital commerce, your products and services need to be easy to find and easier to purchase. Great design guides your customers from product research to checkout without roadblocks. Mobile-friendly responsive design, integration with solutions like Salesforce B2B Commerce or Adobe’s Magento Commerce, and simplified purchasing means your customers abandon their carts less often.

Great Design and B2B Marketing

A well-designed, personalized B2B website is a valuable tool for marketers looking to improve lead generation and drive new leads through the funnel. Effective UX/UI design optimizes your site for search engines, increasing your site traffic and driving relevant visits to your target web pages. And with clear, attention-grabbing calls to action, it’s easier for visitors to convert into MQLs.

Brands can also benefit from a site designed with content marketing in mind. Simple, intuitive authoring and management capabilities makes it easier to share the right content at the right point in the funnel. From case studies to blogs to relevant landing pages, prioritizing great design makes marketing strategies more effective – and delivers higher ROI on your digital initiatives.

Great Design and Digital Experiences

The accelerated shift to digital means B2B buyers expect better digital experiences on your site than ever before. The impossible task of modeling online B2B buying after B2C websites is no longer impossible – it’s table stakes. B2B website design needs to be intuitive, simplified, and visually appealing. If you’re able to deliver on these expectations, you’re likely to earn long-term recurring loyalty from your customers.

Unsure where to start when improving your digital experiences? Focus on faster load time and user friendly site navigation. Then, use analytics to identify where your customers are leaving your site or abandoning their carts. To optimize those rough patches, use A/B testing to ensure you’re delivering the best experience every time.

Elements of Great Design

UX Design: User experience (UX) design starts with user-centered thinking. Start with user research to determine the optimal customer journey, then compare your current site to usability best practices to find opportunities for improvement. Finally, save time, money and user frustration by validating your designs before development with user testing. Each of these steps prioritizes listening to customer feedback – and delivering on that feedback in meaningful ways to evolve your digital experiences.

UI Design: User Interface (UI) brings together design elements and brand identity. Establish a styling system that aligns with your brand to ensure integrity and consistency across pages and sites. Consider differences in language, metrics, and data formatting if your brand has a global presence. And prioritize accessibility to give every customer equal access and opportunity to do business with you. Motion and

Animation: Used sparingly, motion and animation can replace content, highlight key points, and guide customers with real-time feedback. Motion and animation should mimic real-work interactions to create intuitive interfaces.

Engineering: Transforming design into code isn’t always easy. Communicate with your development team to ensure your code is written and structured to meet accessibility requirements without sacrificing design. And before launch, reduce suboptimal experiences as customers navigate to your site on different screens with proper testing across devices and browsers.

B2B Website Design Drives Real Results

Stewart Title, an insurance company based in Houston, knew they needed to update their website to keep up with customer expectations. But with only rough brand guidelines and no web-specific branding, they needed help launching a new, intentional user experience. A typical site redesign could have taken up to 5 months. But by leveraging pre-tested, pre-optimized design elements from Avionos Atlas Design Accelerator, Stewart Title was able to launch in 8 weeks. This fast turnaround decreased development time and cost while increasing customer engagement. Check out the Altas Accelerator here.