You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint. Likewise, a B2B website rebuild will fail without a strategic plan.
These questions will guide both you and your agency through the website planning process. You may not be able to answer every question, but do your best to fill them in. Keep this by your side throughout the process and you’ll find yourself on the track to success.
Goal setting questions
- Why are you considering a website rebuild in the first place?
- What are three to five primary objectives you need to accomplish with your new site to consider it a success?
- How much monthly traffic do you want to generate on your new website?
- How many monthly leads do you want to capture for your sales team?
Audience identification questions
Answer these questions about each one of your primary audience segments.
- Industry?
- Size of company?
- Geographic location?
- Who at the company are you targeting (job title)?
- What challenges does this person face?
- How can your product or service help this person address those challenges?
- How long is this person’s buying process and what does it look like?
- Does this person conduct significant research before buying?
- Or does he or she buy quickly?
Content planning questions
- What are the top-level content areas needed on your website? Examine some of your competitors’ sites to help generate ideas.
- What are the most important keywords that you’ll want to rank for in Google searches? Again, examine your competitors’ sites as a starting point.
- What existing company assets such as sales presentations, brochures, sell sheets or other materials are available that may translate to website content? Go collect them.
- Who at your company can play a role in developing valuable content for your audience?
Conversion path planning questions
- What actions do you want a visitor to take once he or she arrives on your website?
- What offers can you provide in exchange for a visitor’s contact information? (For example, downloadable white papers, case studies, free trials, buyer’s guides and webinars)
Lead nurturing questions
- What will happen after someone fills out a contact form?
- Who will be alerted?
- Will he or she be added directly to a database?
- How will new leads be nurtured over time so your company can build trust and remain top of mind?
This set of questions is just a starting point when planning your B2B website rebuild. And honestly, we’d recommend you take a hard look at whether a new B2B website is really what you need to drive the results you’re looking for in the first place. The following article presents an alternative perspective to help you figure that out:
Why your old, crusty, dated B2B website DOESN’T need a redesign
If you move forward with it, we put together a more robust (and free) guide to help you through the process. You can download our Website Planning Handbook here.