A B2B website works for industrial buyers when it is informative, well organized, credible and easy to act on. In research with business customers, four factors predicted how effective they found a B2B website: informativeness, organization, transaction-related interactivity and personalization. A separate experiment found that website credibility and information quality shape the online experience, and that buyers who can't find what they need expect to reach a person. Because industrial buyers now do much of their research before contacting a supplier, the website is often the first sales meeting, and it has to answer the questions engineers, operations, finance and procurement bring to it.
Why the website matters more than it used to
Marvasti and colleagues (2021) note that B2B buyers now carry out over half of the buying process through digital touchpoints before they make significant contact with a seller. Lundin and Kindström (2023) found that digitalization adds new touchpoints to B2B customer journeys, transforms existing ones and activates customers to do more themselves.
For an industrial company, that means a buyer may form an opinion of your capabilities, reliability and fit before anyone on your team knows they exist. A dated or vague website can remove you from the shortlist without anyone telling you.
What the research says
Four factors that predict effectiveness
Chakraborty, Lala and Warren (2002) surveyed 540 business customers of a power tool company about construction-industry websites they knew well. They tested eight factors and found four that significantly predicted perceived effectiveness:
- Informativeness: the site provides the information buyers need.
- Organization: the information is structured so buyers can find it.
- Transaction-related interactivity: buyers can act, for example request a quote, check availability or place an order.
- Personalization: the site adapts to the buyer's needs or account.
The other four factors (non-transaction interactivity, privacy and security, accessibility, and entertainment) showed no direct relationship with effectiveness. Flashy features and entertainment were not what business customers valued.
Credibility and information quality
McLean (2017) ran an online experiment with 195 participants who completed tasks on business advisory websites. Website credibility and information quality had a significant effect on the online customer experience. The study also found that users with an unsuccessful search expected to be able to get help from a company representative online, and became dissatisfied when they couldn't. The author recommends live chat or an online help desk as a way to recover those visitors.
References belong on the website
Customer references are a core practice in business marketing, and the web has become an important channel for communicating them because buyers use the internet to source suppliers and solutions (Jalkala & Salminen, 2009). Jalkala and Salminen (2010) found that industrial suppliers use references to gain status from reputable customers, signal that they have passed customers' selection processes, make complex solutions concrete and give indirect evidence of experience, past performance and delivered value.
What this means for an industrial company's website
Translating the research into decisions:
- Informativeness means capability pages with real specifications, materials, tolerances, standards and industries served, not slogans.
- Organization means navigation built around how buyers think: by application, industry or problem, as well as by product.
- Transaction-related interactivity means a clear way to act on every key page: request a quote, book a technical call, download CAD files, check lead times.
- Personalization can be as simple as industry-specific landing pages, or a customer portal for existing accounts.
- Credibility comes from certifications, named customers, case studies, team credentials, photos of real facilities and equipment, and a professional design.
- Information quality means current, accurate, specific content. An out-of-date datasheet does more harm than no datasheet.
- Human help means a visible way to reach an engineer or salesperson when the website doesn't answer the question.
A page-by-page checklist for industrial websites
Home page
- States in one sentence what you make or do, for whom, and the main outcome.
- Shows the industries you serve and two or three proof points (certifications, notable customers, years of operation).
- Links directly to capabilities, applications and contact.
Capability and product pages
- One page per major capability or product line.
- Specifications in HTML text, with PDFs as downloads alongside.
- Materials, tolerances, sizes, standards and certifications listed.
- A related case study and a clear call to action.
Application or industry pages
- Organized by the problem or industry the buyer has, such as food processing, mining or aerospace.
- Explains the challenges in that setting and how you address them.
Case studies and references
- Named customers where permitted, with the problem, solution and measurable result.
- Filterable by industry or application.
About and team
- Real photos of your facility, equipment and people.
- Credentials, history and quality systems.
Contact and conversion
- Short forms. Ask only what you need to route the inquiry.
- Phone, email and a named contact or "talk to an engineer" option.
- Live chat or a fast-response promise for technical questions, if you can staff it.
Technical basics
- Fast on mobile, secure (HTTPS) and accessible.
- Unique title tags and meta descriptions on every page.
- An XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Frequently asked questions
What should a manufacturing company website include?
At minimum: a clear statement of what you do and for whom, a page for each major capability, specifications in text, industries served, case studies, certifications, real photos of your facility and team, and an easy way to request a quote or talk to an engineer.
How is a B2B website different from a consumer website?
B2B buyers are evaluating a supplier on behalf of an organization, often with several colleagues, so they need depth, proof and specifics. Research with business customers found informativeness, organization, transaction-related interactivity and personalization drove effectiveness, while entertainment did not (Chakraborty et al., 2002).
Do industrial buyers use live chat?
The research suggests buyers who can't find what they need expect to reach someone online (McLean, 2017). Chat is useful if it connects to someone who can answer technical questions. A slow or scripted chat can hurt more than help.
How often should an industrial company redesign its website?
There's no fixed rule. Redesign when the site no longer reflects your capabilities, can't be updated easily, performs poorly on mobile or search, or no longer matches how buyers look for you. Keep content current continuously rather than waiting for a redesign.
The bottom line
Open your website as a new buyer would, pick your most important capability, and check whether you can find its specifications, a case study and a way to talk to an engineer within a minute. If you can't, start there. AXXEN's Brand Systems work includes industrial websites built around how buyers evaluate suppliers.
About the author
Mo Farrokhi, PhD, is the founder of AXXEN in Calgary, Alberta. His path runs from electrical engineering through an MBA and a PhD in marketing to industry roles, including VP Marketing & Product at a TSX-listed clean-tech company. AXXEN builds marketing systems for technology, manufacturing and industrial companies that have outgrown ad-hoc marketing.
Sources
- Chakraborty, G., Lala, V., & Warren, D. (2002). An empirical investigation of antecedents of B2B websites' effectiveness. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(4), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/dir.10044
- Jalkala, A., & Salminen, R. T. (2009). Communicating customer references on industrial companies' Web sites. Industrial Marketing Management, 38(7), 825–837. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2008.04.009
- Jalkala, A., & Salminen, R. T. (2010). Practices and functions of customer reference marketing: Leveraging customer references as marketing assets. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(6), 975–985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2010.06.017
- Lundin, L., & Kindström, D. (2023). Digitalizing customer journeys in B2B markets. Journal of Business Research, 157, 113639. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113639
- Marvasti, N. B., Huhtala, J. P., Yousefi, Z. R., Vaniala, I., Upreti, B., Malo, P., Kaski, S., & Tikkanen, H. (2021). Is this company a lead customer? Estimating stages of B2B buying journey. Industrial Marketing Management, 97, 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.06.003
- McLean, G. J. (2017). Investigating the online customer experience: A B2B perspective. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 35(5), 657–672. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip-12-2016-0222
