1. The #1 Missed Opportunity
for Corporate Websites
Increase the flow of leads to your sales team, grow Keep in Mind...
your marketing database, and make it easy for users
to connect with you. Be realistic about social
Include social, but be realistic
The corporate website is the single biggest opportunity overlooked by sales and about how much your users
marketing teams in many business-to-business companies. As a marketing agency will want to engage. Do you
specializing in B2B high tech clients, we’ve seen the good and bad, and our really expect many people to
experience has given us insight into some clear best practices. post to their Facebook wall
about your products page?
Here’s how you can dramatically increase the conversion of corporate web visitors
Don’t overemphasize the social
to sales.
aspects to the detriment of
higher performing actions like
Most corporate websites, particularly for companies that require sales rep
involvement to sell, read like a brochure. There is great information about products newsletter signup. This mostly
and services, and a “Contact Us” form thrown in for good measure. But consider applies to your design team —
the value of these visitors to your site: no huge social logo bars when a
“like” button or two will do.
• They’re inherently more qualified than other marketing targets.
They took the time to come to you directly. Short forms
Get a group of your colleagues
• From a marketing perspective, it makes sense to try to get
100% of these visitors into your marketing database. together and ask them what
questions should be on your
• The incremental cost of adding an email address to a newsletter website’s registration form.
is near zero.
Inevitably, you’ll end up with
• Many hot prospects may not be ready to fill out a “contact me now” a laundry list, everything from
form, but are willing to take a meeting with a sale rep if engaged directly. industry, company size and
timeframe to buy to favorite
color and industry opinions.
Throw it all out. No doubt that
it would be great to have that
Good website redesign increased the conversion rate (of
information, but study after
visitors to leads) by 20-50%, from an average of 1.5% to study (and our own experience)
somewhere in the range of 1.8-2.25%. has shown that conversion
rates (the percentage of people
~ Forrester Research, “The ROI of Web Site Redesigns Made Simple” who complete the form) drop
off linearly with the number of
questions. The ideal form asks
only for an email address. If you
must have more information,
Enter your call to action (CTA) strategy. A high performance call to action:
choose wisely — each piece of
• Entices users to interact information you add reduces the
number of prospects you will get
• Provides value in return for their contact information
into your database.
• Is quick and easy for prospects

2. Elements of a Great CTA
Our Call to Action on bnj.com
Designing the perfect call to action is a blend of art and science. You must know your audience, what they
react to, and how to engage with them. That said, at the core, there should be three primary elements:
1 3
2
The call to action on our website, http://www.bnj.com
A Great Offer
Give your visitors a reason to casually interact with you. A great piece of relevant content (an analyst
report, infographic, thought leadership paper or technology review) is the perfect way to entice
them to engage. Now you have the opportunity to continue the conversation, nurturing them over
time with more great content.
Multiple Ways to Engage
It’s a mistake to have a registration form with 10 questions as your only contact option. Visitors
should be able to simply enter an email address to access valuable offers, or be able to “Like”
you on Facebook or “Tweet” about your content on Twitter.
Your sales team may believe “contacts without phone numbers are worthless,” but as marketers, we
know better. Today’s qualified email address is potentially tomorrow’s customer — money in the
bank if you stay in front of them until they’re ready to buy.
On the flip side, let visitors easily self-select if they want to connect with a sales person; they are
late-stage prospects and won’t mind a few extra questions. It should be obvious, on every page
in your website, where to go if a prospect wants to buy.
Pervasive and Visually Consistent
Most likely, each prospect will visit a few pages on your website — exploring before deciding
to engage. Studies show that people automatically ignore banners and other advertising
elements. And to your skeptical web visitor, your CTA is just another banner.
By being consistent with your call to action design, you are creating multiple impressions — giving
yourself multiple opportunities to achieve the desired result of lead capture. When a prospect
decides to engage, they know where to go.

3. Putting It All Together Keep in Mind...
Take a moment to evaluate your website against this criteria. How well do you Testing
score? Do you have a great offer as incentive for newsletter signup? Is it clear how When your CTA goes live, your
to connect with a sales person? Is it promoted consistently across your website? job is just beginning. Ideally,
Can you track conversion rates? you should be constantly trying
new approaches with A/B
Most will find a mix of hits and misses. Corporate websites are often political testing. That includes offers,
playgrounds, with many competing priorities, and it can be difficult to agree copy and design. The websites
on design changes. That said, your team should be able to agree that increased with the highest percentage of
sales is a priority, and you can impact that immediately by optimizing your call conversions have been testing
to action strategy. and tuning their approaches
for years and have built a rich
history of successful and failed
About Babcock & Jenkins experiments that lead the way.
Build the same discipline, and
Since 1992, we have evolved the concept of accountable B2B marketing—targeting, watch your conversion rates (and
acquiring and converting prospects. Retaining customers. Making heroes of our marketing database) get better
clients. And doing so through relevant conversation that begins by intercepting and better over time.
each contact where he or she consumes information. This approach requires
intricate insight into your audience, advanced understanding of marketing’s
evolved role in business, and creative thinking about every stage of the complex
Metrics
Most B2B companies with a
sale. At its core, this requires a comprehensive content and communication
strategy that can carry someone from spark to sale and back again. long sales cycle don’t have great
website conversion numbers, if
We do this for some of the leading B2B companies on the planet: Our passion they track them at all. Start your
is to deliver authentic, unique, relevant stories on behalf of our clients. To build CTA project with some goal
brand, drive demand and accelerate pipeline. To engage audiences in meaningful setting. What percentage of
conversations to form and preserve lasting, profitable relationships. visitors do you want to convert
to your newsletter? A rate of 2%
If you’d like to learn more about how Babcock & Jenkins can help your company isn’t an unreasonable goal for a
achieve great ROI and new levels of marketing greatness, visit us online at well-executed effort.
http://www.bnj.com, or contact Lauren Goldstein, VP of Business Development,
at laureng@bnj.com.