Your website is the front door of your digital business. It’s how you communicate with your customers, partners, and other stakeholders. And it’s one of the most valuable tools you have in shaping perceptions about your company, brand, and mission.
As a manufacturer looking to establish or expand sales relationships with customers, prospects, and partners, you should put equal emphasis on creating an effective website as you do on other aspects of digital marketing, such as SEO or PPC campaigns. In fact, it is more important to upgrade an outdated website than to expand to organic or paid media campaigns.
But what makes an effective website? How do you know if it’s working well? What are the most important pages on your manufacturing website? Read on to learn more from the web design experts at IQnection, who’ve successfully built numerous websites for industrial companies.
Your Homepage – Your Digital First Impression
Your homepage is the first impression your clients have of your business, and first impressions are everything. It’s crucial that your homepage embodies the basics of effective web design and is clear, simple, and easy to navigate. On this page, you should be able to answer all their questions about what you do and how you can help them. Tell them who you are and what you do. More importantly, tell them why they should choose you over any other manufacturer.
It’s also important to keep in mind that this page is often used by search engines like Google as part of their ranking algorithm for determining which website appears at the top of results pages when someone searches for keywords related to manufacturing or industrial products. So, the technical performance of your homepage is key to your success.
Tips for Designing an Effective Manufacturing Homepage
There’s no one-size fits all approach to homepage web design, but there are a few rules of thumb you can follow. Remember to keep it simple, clear, and responsive.
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- Keep it simple – A homepage is the one page on your website that you want visitors to see first, so make sure it’s easy to navigate and understand. Your homepage should be designed with the goal of guiding visitors through a conversion process, not showing off all your products at once (unless they’re related).
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- Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) – You should have one CTA on every page, but this is especially important for your homepage because this is where most visitors will land when they come into contact with your company for the first time–if they don’t immediately know what they should do next after visiting the site then chances are good that they’ll leave without engaging further with any other pages on the site!
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- Make sure it’s mobile friendly – Making your website mobile-friendly is key to making sure you develop a great website, not just a good one. More than half of Americans now own smartphones so if yours isn’t responsive yet then consider making some changes ASAP since these days everyone expects websites like these ones too look good regardless of whether someone’s using them from their desktop computers or tablets/phones etcetera.
About Us Page – Tell Your Story
The About Us page is one of the most important pages on your manufacturing website. So, it should be designed with a clear goal in mind. The goal? Convince prospects that you’re the right choice for them.
To start creating an effective About Us page, write down everything that makes up who you are as a company. This can include your values, mission statements, and information about company culture. Then, pick out the most important things from this list that best represent who you want prospective customers to see. Then use those points as talking points when writing content for this section of your site. You can consider who your ideal client is and what makes you a good match.
Elements of Amazing Manufacturing About Us Pages
Every effective About Us page starts with a statement about the company’s driving motivation. Some companies call it a mission statement, others call it a power statement. Your mission or power statement tells visitors what you are all about and why they should do business with you. It’s important to write this section first because it will help guide the rest of your content creation process, especially when it comes time for keyword research and writing titles.
With your mission statement in mind, you can move on to explaining your services. In this section of your website, go into more detail about these services. This gives your readers a better sense of what makes you different from other manufacturers on the market today.
Finally, consider brand storytelling throughout the creation of this page. You can do this by telling the story of how your business was founded, and how you got where you are today. Knowing key details about your company’s history will inspire trust in users.
Product and Services Pages
The product and service pages of your website are your money-makers. These are the pages that will get you leads, sales, and revenue. It’s clear that content about your products and services are some of the most important pages on your manufacturing website. That’s why it’s important to invest time and energy into them!
There is a lot of search engine optimization (SEO) value in product and service pages: they help you rank on search engines for keywords related to what you sell. This makes it easy for your target audience to find you. When fully optimized, these pages can help you out rank and outperform your competitors without spending your hard-earned revenue on pay-per-click advertising.
Tips for Organizing & Presenting Products or Services Effectively
Product pages should include a description, images (at least one), pricing information if applicable (and links back to purchase), as well as links to additional resources like warranties or manuals. If possible, add reviews from customers who have bought from you before so potential buyers can see how much others enjoy working with you.
We recommend organizing and presenting products or services in a way that makes it easy for clients to find what they are looking for. You can do this by making sure the products or services are organized in a way that makes sense for your audience. In many cases, this means organizing products and services into categories for quick navigation.
Case Studies and Testimonials Page
Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show off your work. They can also be used to demonstrate your expertise, which is especially important. As the case study or testimonial portion of your site grows, it will become one of the most important pages on your manufacturing website.
Case studies and testimonials help potential customers see that you have real clients who were happy with the results of their projects. These happy clients prove to prospects that you’ll be able to help them as well. This puts the power of word-of-mouth marketing in your hands!
Elements You Should Include on Case Study and Testimonials Page
A case study or testimonial should always include details about your project, your client, and your company. To give prospects the in-depth look at a specific project that need, be sure to include:
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- Short and sweet: Keep the contact form to one or two sentences, if possible. You don’t want to distract them from taking action to contact you.
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- Be human: Add your phone number and email address so that customers can reach you directly.
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- Include all relevant information like your address and hours of operation.
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- Optimize your contact form: As a manufacturing business leader, you want to know as much information about your prospects as you can, up-front. We get that. But when it comes to form submissions, they include no more than four fields!
What Should Happen After Your Clients Contact You:
Once a client has contacted you, it’s important that you respond quickly. It’s also important to be friendly and helpful. A multi-touch approach will help you stay in contact with leads, which will support the efforts of your sales teams to connect with them through email lead nurturing.
Refine Your Industrial Websites Most Important Parts
The manufacturing B2B website is the center of your digital marketing efforts. It’s where you can connect with customers and prospects in an authentic way that builds trust and leads to sales. If you want to win new business, then it’s important that your website is on point with all its content, design, and functionality. For more information on how to leverage and measure the success of your industrial B2B website, visit our web development page.
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- Your client’s name.
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- Your client’s location (city, state) and industry.
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- Your client’s website.
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- Quotes or video testimonials about the service you provided.
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- Photos or videos of your work for them.
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- Specific information about the project like its objective and timeframe.
