Lesson 2 for B2B websites - from the master

If you feel that Lesson 1 & 2 were too basic and didn't apply to you, then this is the post to listen to.

Actually, don't listen to me, go read what website usability guru Jakob Nielsen has to say about B2B websites.

"It might seem unfair that sites must provide both B2C's quality of service and simple user interface and B2B's depth of specialization and complex workflow support. And typically, such sites must do all this with fewer resources than Amazon because the site isn't seen as closing the order. You don't click "add to shopping cart" when you want a deepwater cementing system for your North Sea oil platforms."

The article lists three goals for B2B websites:

• Survive the screening process--make the site usable and content useful.


• Support your advocates--give enough content for visitors to select your product and justify it to others.


• Provide great service--use the power of the web to improve customer satisfaction.

He then suggests some tools to add to your site for your advocates. This was already a goal for me this year, and these are useful suggestions. Just realize there are some people at your client's companies that are 'nerds' for your type of product and they need (and crave) lots of tools and data.