Your B2B website looks beautiful. The design is modern, your brand shines through, and the messaging clearly explains what you do. But there's just one problem: it's not generating enough leads.
You're not alone. Many B2B organizations invest significant resources into creating polished websites that end up functioning as little more than digital brochures – static showcases of products and services that fail to actively engage potential customers.
Did you know that 96% of visitors who land on your website are not ready to buy? And even once you’ve established visitors as new leads, 80% will fail to become customers. These statistics highlight the challenges that B2B websites face in generating meaningful leads and turning these leads into customers.
But it doesn't have to be this way. Your website can be transformed from a passive information repository into a dynamic lead generation engine that consistently brings new business opportunities to your door.
In this guide, you'll learn exactly how to make that transformation happen. We'll cover proven strategies for turning visitors into leads, along with practical steps you can implement starting today.
Start with Performance Measurement
Before making any changes to your website, you need to understand exactly where you stand. This baseline will help you measure the impact of your improvements and identify the areas that need the most attention.
Start by looking at your website's current conversion rate – the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your site, such as filling out a contact form or downloading a resource.
B2B companies tend to see conversion rates between 2-5%.
To give you an idea of some specific numbers to strive for, here are average conversion rates broken down by B2B industry:
- B2B eCommerce: 1.8%
- B2B Tech: 2.3%
- B2B Services: 2.7%
Beyond conversion rates, you’ll also want to pay attention to:
- Time on Site: How long are visitors staying on your website? Longer engagement often indicates higher interest. The median time on page for B2B companies is 1 minute and 40 seconds.
- Bounce Rates: What percentage of visitors leave without taking any action? B2B companies should aim for a bounce rate of 60% or less.
- Traffic Sources: Where are your most valuable leads coming from? Traffic sources include direct, referral, organic search, paid search, email, and social.
- Form Completion Rates: How many people start filling out your forms versus actually submitting them? The average form completion rate for B2B companies is 2.2%.
Building Strategic Foundations
Having a solid strategic foundation is crucial for effective lead generation. This means understanding your buyers' journey and creating clear paths to conversion.
Think about how your ideal customers make purchasing decisions. What information do they need at each stage? What questions or concerns might hold them back?
Your website needs to provide relevant content and appropriate conversion opportunities for visitors at every stage of their journey.
- Awareness Stage: These visitors are just beginning their research. They might not even be fully aware of their problem yet. Focus on educational content and light conversion actions like newsletter signups.
- Consideration Stage: Now they're actively researching solutions. Offer detailed guides, comparison tools, and case studies in exchange for contact information.
- Decision Stage: These visitors are ready to make a decision. Make it easy to request demos, consultations, or proposals.
Salesforce: An Expert in Content Mapping
When it comes to nurturing leads and converting them into loyal customers, Salesforce has nailed the art of mapping content to each stage of the buyer’s journey. The cloud-based software company understands that delivering the right content to the right prospects at the right time is the best way to guide them from their initial interest to their final decision.
Awareness: Educating and Informing
Salesforce creates awareness-level content aimed at educating and informing prospects who are just starting to realize they have a problem that needs solving, whether the issue is poor customer relationships or inefficient sales processes.
This content introduces visitors to the concept of customer relationship management and customer success metrics. Content at this stage consists of how-to guides and blog posts like “What Is CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?”
Consideration: Offering Solutions and Building Trust
Next, they create content for prospects who are starting to explore various remedies. In the consideration stage, visitors are actively evaluating how different CRM systems work and whether Salesforce is the right solution. More detailed resources such as case studies, whitepapers, and comparison guides can help Salesforce showcase the value of their platform and explain how it can address their prospect’s pain points.
Salesforce’s B2B website even has a “Solutions” dropdown in its navigation menu. Once clicked, users can select a link based on business size, industry, or capabilities.
Users are then presented with valuable, decision-level content as well as a call-to-action prompting them to answer a few quick questions to receive a customized CRM solution based on their industry and business size.
Decision: Providing Clear Value to Drive Action
Finally, the software company offers content explaining why Salesforce is the right solution. This content helps remove any lingering doubts and guides prospects toward making the decision to buy. The most valuable decision-level content might include product demos, free trials, customer success stories, and pricing guides.
For example, Salesforce offers a contact form that puts prospects directly in contact with a sales expert that can help them find the right free trial for their needs or discuss custom solutions. On that same page, prospects who are ready to take the next step can start a free trial or see pricing.
Nurturing Relationships Post-Purchase
Even after a prospect becomes a customer, Salesforce doesn’t stop the conversation. They continue to nurture the relationship through onboarding content, support articles, tutorials, and regular check-ins that support the client’s success and ensure customers feel valued and supported.
Salesforce’s content strategy works because it’s aligned with buyers’ needs at every stage. The company understands where their prospects are in the journey and doesn’t rush them into making a purchase before they are ready. Salesforce plays the lead-nurturing long game, which helps them build real, meaningful relationships with prospects.
Creating High-Impact Lead Generation Elements
The difference between a B2B website design that acts as a brochure and one that serves as a lead generation engine often comes down to a few key elements. Here are a few of the most important features to implement.
Strategic Calls-to-Action
Your calls-to-action (CTAs) should be impossible to miss – but not overwhelming. Place them strategically throughout your website, ensuring they're relevant to the content around them.
A CTA at the bottom of a blog post about implementation challenges might offer a complete implementation guide. A CTA on a product page might offer a demo or consultation.
The key is matching the CTA to the visitor's likely stage in the buying journey and the content they're currently consuming.
For example, trade show exhibit design company BTWN Exhibits features a “Services” page that explains the various aspects of their services, from custom design and in-house production to on-site installation and teardown and booth management.
For visitors who aren’t yet convinced and need to see more, a “View Work” button takes them to their custom trade show display showcase, where they highlight their work and feature case studies. For those who are ready to get started, a “Contact Us” button puts them in touch with a trade show design expert.
Optimized Lead Capture Forms
Nearly 50% of marketers agree that lead capture forms are their highest converting tool for generating leads. But despite the consensus that forms are vital tools for conversion, the average form conversion rate is only 1.7%. B2B companies in particular have a slightly higher average form conversion rate at 2.2%, coming in just behind professional services (2.5%) and the industrial industry (2.8%).
Here are average form rates broken down by B2B industry:
- B2B eCommerce: 0.7%
- B2B Tech: 2.1%
- B2B Services: 2.2%
Your forms can make or break your lead generation efforts. They need to strike a delicate balance: gathering enough information to qualify leads without creating too much friction.
Follow these tips for optimizing your lead capture forms:
- Choose the Right Number of Fields: The goal is to find the sweet spot that allows you to capture vital information while remaining short enough that it doesn’t frustrate potential leads, causing them to drop off before they convert.
5 is the average number of form fields across industries. When it comes to demo forms – a frequent element found on B2B SaaS websites – those with 4 to 6 required fields tend to have the highest conversion rates at 51%. Adding a seventh field drops conversion rates to just over 30%.
- Use Autofill: Autofill means using software that automatically inserts personal information into web form fields that users have entered previously. Visitors tend to convert at 10% higher rates when autofill has already completed some form fields for them.
- Implement Progressive Profiling: This is a method in which subsequent forms ask for different information rather than requiring everything upfront. This approach typically increases conversion rates while gathering comprehensive lead data over time. In fact, progressive lead forms can increase form submissions by 42%, boost marketing qualified leads by 61%, and escalate sales opportunities by up to 27%.
- Perform A/B Testing: A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a methodology for comparing two different versions of a form – testing just one element at a time – to determine which performs better. You can increase your conversion rates by 10% by using split tests to optimize your forms.
Progressive Profiling Implementation in Practice
Let’s take a look at the implementation of progressive profiling using an example from social media management platform Sprout Social.
The company allows website visitors to sign up for a 30-day free trial with only their name and email address.
But once you sign up and access your account, you’ll be asked for additional details about the organization you work for and the country where you live.
Once you start your free trial, Sprout Social asks a couple of questions about how you plan to use the platform and the goals you’re hoping to achieve.
This type of progressive profiling provides the marketers behind Sprout Social with the information they need to better understand their prospect’s role in their business and the pain points they’ve come to the site to solve.
Once they’ve gotten to know their leads on a deeper level, they can segment them into different audiences and nurture them more effectively. You can implement progressive profiling on your B2B website too.
Content Offers That Convert
The best lead magnets offer significant value while qualifying potential customers. Some proven formats include:
- Industry research reports
- ROI calculators
- Implementation guides
- Assessment tools
- Comparison frameworks
- Strategy templates
The key is creating content that's valuable enough to require contact information and relevant to your services.
Hootsuite, a social media management platform designed to help B2B companies excel on social media, offers a variety of free social media marketing templates that provide significant value to website visitors in exchange for an email address and a few other personal details. Visitors can choose from five pages of templates encompassing everything from social media strategy to style guides.
While these templates are free, Hootsuite does use lead capture forms to qualify their audience and gather information that they can use to market to their prospects in the future. For example, website visitors can download the company’s social media report template in exchange for their name, industry, company, role, number of employees, and business email address.
The prospect benefits by having the tedious work of creating a reporting dashboard done for them, and Hootsuite benefits by capturing valuable information about their prospects that they can use to nurture and convert leads.
Developing a Content Strategy That Drives Action
Your content strategy needs to go beyond just sharing information – it should actively move prospects toward becoming leads.
Every piece of content should have a clear purpose in your lead generation funnel. That means including relevant next steps and appropriate CTAs based on the content type and topic.
For example, a blog post about industry trends might lead to an in-depth research report. A case study might lead to a consultation request. A product feature overview might lead to a demo booking.
Case Study: Why HubSpot’s Content Marketing Strategy is a Success
Consider the success of HubSpot, a developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot has established a highly effective content strategy that drives lead generation through both organic search and lead nurturing campaigns.
The B2B brand consistently creates high-value educational content that addresses the challenges of businesses seeking to establish and improve their sales and marketing funnels.
Here are a few key features of HubSpot’s winning content marketing strategy:
- Research into Target Audiences: HubSpot doesn’t just push out content on a whim. They create blog articles, eBooks, and webinars tailored to address the pain points of each of their unique buyer personas.
- Diverse Content Types Catered to Different Learning Styles: Whether their audience prefers in-depth case studies, videos, or interactive webinars, HubSpot has content tailored to individual preferences.
- Educational Content That Builds Trust and Authority: HubSpot’s content is valuable and informative, with a focus on educating website visitors, rather than just selling a product. This helps establish the CRM software site as an industry thought leader and boosts credibility with prospects.
- Search Engine Optimization: The customer platform optimizes its content for relevant keywords and the search terms used by its various buyer personas so it can be easily found by potential customers.
- Personalized Email Marketing Workflows: HubSpot segments their audience based on different buyer personas and delivers targeted email content that nurtures their leads and guides them down the purchase path.
HubSpot currently has 238,000 customers in over 100 countries, so they’re clearly doing something right when it comes to creating a viable content strategy that generates and converts leads.
Implementing Conversion-Focused Design
Small design changes can have a big impact on conversion rates. Focus on these key areas:
- Above-the-Fold Content: Your website should immediately communicate value and include a clear primary action.
- Social Proof: Incorporate social proof such as client logos, testimonials, and case study results and display these trust signals prominently.
- Navigation: Your navigation menu should be intuitive and lead to clear conversion points.
- Mobile Optimization: This is crucial – your forms and CTAs need to work flawlessly on all devices.
A Real-Life Example of Conversion-Focused Design
When B2B company Alba Americas, one of the world's largest aluminum producers, approached Trajectory in need of a more robust website, we knew we needed to implement several key design changes in order to boost conversion rates.
The company’s existing website made it difficult for North American customers to find regional-specific information, while also failing to highlight the key advantages of purchasing their high-quality aluminum products. We dug into their business model and customer needs to map out their unique value proposition and develop a content strategy built to capture and nurture leads.
Alba Americas’ redesigned website features above-the-fold content that immediately communicates their value (local warehousing and logistics teams and flexible delivery options) to clearly show website visitors why Alba Americas is their best choice. The home page features a clear call to action (contacting the company) that prompts visitors to get in touch.
We also implemented simplified, yet intuitive navigation to help manufacturers quickly find what they need, a streamlined product showcase to clearly present their aluminum product lines, and mobile optimization that paved the way for lightning-fast performance. All of these conversion-focused design elements resulted in an enhanced customer experience and increased conversion rates.
Integrating Lead Nurturing
Getting a lead is just the beginning. Your website needs to integrate with your broader marketing and sales processes.
This means connecting your website with your CRM and marketing automation tools to ensure leads are properly tracked and nurtured. Set up automated workflows that deliver relevant content based on user behavior and lead scoring.
Why is lead nurturing essential? Nurtured B2B leads make purchases that are 47% larger than purchases of non-nurtured leads. And yet 65% of digital marketers in B2B spaces have yet to establish a lead nurturing strategy.
That means there is ample opportunity for your B2B website to incorporate lead nurturing workflows and establish meaningful relationships with the leads that your competitors are failing to nurture.
Lead-Nurturing Email Workflows
One way to effectively nurture leads is to set up a personalized email campaign. Email marketing is a highly effective lead nurturing tactic that offers up to a 4,400% return on investment (ROI).
Here are a few ways to use email workflows to provide leads with real value:
- Create a welcome email series to onboard new leads and introduce them to your products and solutions
- Share research reports, webinars, and informative blog posts to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and start to gain your leads’ trust
- Highlight case studies and client success stories that showcase how you’ve helped similar business address their pain points and achieve their goals
- Provide free trials, demos, and promotional offers to leads who have shown interest but who have yet to make a purchase
Other ways to connect with and nurture leads include:
- Hosting a webinar or live event (did you know that 73% of B2B webinar attendees become leads, or that webinars provided the best results in 2024 for over 50% of content marketers?)
- Engage with leads on social media by commenting on their posts with thoughtful remarks
- Share helpful content such as blogs, videos, reports, case studies, whitepapers, and newsletters
- Run retargeting campaigns that provide personalized ads and emails
- Leverage mobile marketing and send subscribers exclusive offers
Implementation Guide
Ready to transform your website? Here's how to prioritize your efforts:
- Start by analyzing your current performance metrics and setting clear goals
- Implement proper tracking to measure results
- Begin with quick wins like optimizing existing CTAs and forms
- Develop your core lead magnets and content offers
- Gradually build out your content strategy and nurturing workflows
- Continuously test and optimize based on results
The key is making incremental improvements rather than trying to do everything at once. Focus on one area at a time and measure the results of each change.
Taking the Next Step
Transforming your website from a brochure into a lead generation engine takes time and effort, but the results are worth it. In fact, top-performing B2B companies with highly effective websites generate high-quality leads at a rate that is 2.5 times higher.
As you get started, focus on providing value at every stage of the buyer's journey while making it easy for prospects to take the next step. Implement one or two of the strategies we've covered, and be sure to test, measure, and make adjustments based on your results. Then gradually expand your efforts as you see what works best for your specific audience.
Remember, the goal isn't just to generate more leads – it's to generate better leads that are more likely to become customers.
