A website in the B2B sphere is the face of a company in the Digital space. You can conduct high-level social networks, telegram channel, PR, participate in ratings, connect cold calls, but often potential customers still say "Drop the link to the site, we'll read there" and the decision to cooperate or cooperate is influenced by the site. There are 3 classic functions of the site:

commercial: lead generation and receipt of applications;

image: literally forming an image in the eyes of customers in compliance with the so-called "tone of voice";

information: If you are engaged in complex solutions, then this is a message of "expertise" in this area. No site is "sharpened" to perform only one function — there is always a synergy of several and their ratio in a certain volume.the new functions of the site are considered to be:

In my experience:

manufacturers of a simple B2B2C product (doors, windows, siding, finishing materials) have a 60-70% commercial function (traffic, conversions, applications), 20-30% image function (a story about the company /manufacturing plant, demonstration of various technological solutions), up to 10% informational function in the form of attraction clients;

for manufacturers of more technically complex goods (various sensors, special equipment), the ratio is distributed as follows: 50-70% — commercial function, 10-20% — image, 10-20% — information, because it is important for customers not only to find basic data about the product and buy it, but also to get information about pre-sale and after-sales service. For example, how to carry out commissioning;

for suppliers of IT solutions and services and other B2B services, the site performs a commercial function by 40-60%, and 20-30% is allocated to image and information, because they primarily sell expertise. Accordingly, the site must demonstrate to the client that there is already a solution in the form of a product of company N. for the problem and need that has arisen.

Regardless of the industry, there is a certain benchmark of the site structure:the main page, where on the first screen it should be clear who we are or offers, then a brief summary of the company, positioning and the company's UTP (not to be confused with the product's UTP), product sections, cases, where to buy, etc. are presented. In fact, this is a well-developed Landing Page.

• information about the company where the core competencies are "sold" and the trust of potential customers is aroused.

For example, as a page about us, the Completo digital agency.

• catalog, if there are products for sale. The purpose of its creation is to attract SEO traffic by collecting the semantic core, clustering it and configuring filters or sorting on sites depending on the queries themselves.

• services. It is not necessary to provide them yourself, you can promote the services of contractors and partners by collecting relevant SEO traffic to your site. As, for example, the Client decided to do in this case.

A nice bonus will be that with this approach, the partners who receive applications become more loyal and can recommend you to customers;

• information about each brand sold, if the company produces products under several brands. As practice shows, buyers know the brand name better than, for example, the manufacturer. Accordingly, if the brand has a high brand demand and a good reputation, then customers' trust in other products of this company can grow;
• industry solutions and their corresponding cases, so that the user does not waste time searching for the necessary information on the site, and he could immediately understand what you offer competitively, such pages help well to collect additional traffic for SEO queries and YAN configured for certain targets, and also increase conversion in MQL and SQL. The main thing here is to know well and work out the client's pain, prepare relevant lead magnets.information about cooperation.
• cases, examples of integrations, implementations, solutions found. Such a section helps to increase customer loyalty and trust, and also works well as landing pages when using YAN or retargeting with a multi-level funnel and a long cycle.
• information about cooperation. Since sales in B2B can be built through dealers, designers, installers, plumbers, etc.
• with information that fulfills the client's pain or corresponds to the purpose of the product/service.It is often confused with industry solutions, which is not entirely correct: pages with proposals based on the client's pain sometimes do not have a link to the industry. For example, you are engaged in IT and you have a product for the implementation of an ERP system. Thus, the implementation of ERP is a service, ERP for retail is an industry, automation of warehouse accounting is a pain.

• a blog for collecting information requests, creating an image, providing information for specialists and other similar tasks. You can keep a blog for all CA at once, but in this case, the materials should be tagged so that the reader can easily find the material he needs;
• if you do not sell directly, specify where you can buy your product. Dealers, online stores, valid links to them, maps, contacts, etc.;
• various configurators, calculators and other tools that will allow you to calculate the cost of the solution yourself or apply for a final calculation to specialists.

• contacts of all possible departments and departments that customers may need;
• information about service and maintenance;

Optional:

• if you work in the wholesale market of tires or air conditioners, then you will need a B2B portal, because this is the standard set by the largest players in the industry, and the client will expect its implementation from you as well;
• an online store, if you are also engaged in B2C goods.

In order to create a high-quality website, I recommend using the following algorithm:

1. Fill out and discuss the brief with the persons making decisions on business strategy in the company on the following issues:

The business philosophy that the site should reflect: values, concepts, principles;

The target audience and its most priority segments, so its content, composition and number of sections will directly depend on this and the ratio of the site's functions;

With the markets in which the company will operate, its trends and trends. For example, is there a tendency to reduce the number of intermediaries between the manufacturer and the end consumer, to open a manufacturer's own B2C direction, and the like;

the product purchase cycle by the target audience: how it happens, how many people decide what impression your site should and can make on them.For me, this is the most important stage.

It is very important to display the mission of the company.

2. Demand research:commercial: is it possible to distinguish it from B2C demand; what specific phrases are being searched for (it will help to understand what filters to make and product cards to prepare) in order to advance on low-frequency queries;

information: to cluster requests for technical, general and other, in order to generate a list of tags that will be used in the blog in advance;

on the main persons of the company. In some cases, it is possible to successfully promote through employee ambassadors, and it would be reasonable to create separate pages on the site with information about them to generate additional traffic.

3. Competitor analysis: The structure and content are being studied. It is better to make or find a checklist on the web for the standard content of the website of a company working in a certain field (sections, content, tools for converting visitors into leads); It is checked which pages and lead magnets they advertise on.

4. Forming a CJM and splitting it with sections of the future site in order to use possible points of contact with the client.

5. Creating a strategy for attracting, engaging, converting and retaining visitors, as well as analytics of their actions on the site

6. Terms of Reference. Many are limited to prototypes, but you need to understand that without a detailed elaborated TOR, the site development stage may be delayed. For example, the TK prescribes, what happens on the site when a user commits an action. Let's say a visitor hovered over a menu item, what should happen after that: a drop-down list opens, the name of the item is colored, the background changes, etc. At this stage, it will become clear, among other things, what kind of content will be needed next: what images, videos, texts, topics of materials, symbolic restriction, etc., which translates into TK for content.

7. Development of the website layout. It is important to check the correspondence of the design layouts with the prototypes and do not forget about the mobile version. It is not necessary to neglect such a check: there are cases when the developed website design does not match the prototype, is less useful and attractive to the target audience and, accordingly, will not perform its functions efficiently.In our practice, there were cases when a website was developed, we prepared prototypes, and the designer was on the side of the Clients. And when the finished design was sent to us for approval, we had to make a verdict "does not match the prototype". The designer had to redo everything, which negatively affected the timing of the project;7. Layout, programming and testing to determine the correctness of all its elements.

The main difficulties in creating a B2B website

1) Demand. More precisely, the separation of B2B demand from B2C

2) A long transaction cycle, and a long one not before making a purchase, but even before receiving contacts: due to the large amount of spam, persons involved in the process of purchasing B2B goods or services carefully protect their contact details.

4) The choice of the style of writing content and its presentation, which is related to the information function of the site and work with the same information demand. The problem is especially relevant for complex technical projects.

To determine which materials to prepare, you need to start from:

• who makes the decision on the choice of the counterparty and the purchase from the client — "tech guy", "merchant" or both, but at different stages of interaction;
• how the customer's purchase cycle is built: who, how and where is looking for a contractor, draws up a TOR for a tender, and so on..

3) Different cost of goods or services depending on the client's request and task. In the B2B sphere, it is not easy to create an online store with a single price for goods and a discount system for all buyers.

4) The choice of the style of writing content and its presentation, which is related to the information function of the site and work with the same information demand. The problem is especially relevant for complex technical projects.

To determine which materials to prepare, you need to start from:

• who makes the decision on the choice of the counterparty and the purchase from the client — "tech guy", "merchant" or both, but at different stages of interaction;
• how the customer's purchase cycle is built: who, how and where is looking for a contractor, draws up a TOR for a tender, and so on..