Personalize for top of the funnel

When it comes to B2B sales, the process can take a rather long time compared to B2C where someone can visit an online store, select an item, add to cart and purchase all in one session. Your sales cycle might take several months and this is also why every step of the funnel is important and requires special attention.

This recipe is for you if you are already getting a good amount of traffic onto your website however you don't see that translating to further levels of the funnel. During the awareness phase, people are interested in bite-sized content about your business that clearly explains what you do and how you stand out. Let’s see how this works in practice.

Visitors at the awareness stage are at the top of the funnel so it is safe to assume that all first-time visitors will fall under this group. You could add additional conditions depending on what makes sense for your business but simply targeting all new visitors should be a safe bet, to begin with.

That first visit can be a make or break situation. Visitors can be very quick to bounce off your website so you have to attract their attention above the fold. If they are not intrigued by what they see at first glance, they will not scroll down. Make use of that prime real estate.

Introductory headlines

Start with a simple and ideally catchy headline that will grab their attention and express what you do, fast. A good headline is key to make sure your value proposition is clear from the start. Here are some examples to get you started:

• The analytics platform trusted by the world’s biggest companies to make better decisions. This headline clearly addresses what the company offers, what the value prop is, and who the company targets as customers.
• Spending too much time on payroll and not your business? We can fix that. This is another, more punchy take on headlines that clearly addresses the value proposition and inspires trust.
• The all-in-one marketing platform used by millions of SMEs to convert customers and build their brand. Here we see another example of a great headline that offers quick insight into what the company sells, why the visitor should trust them, and what they can accomplish if they use the software.

Low commitment CTAs

Someone at the awareness stage is less likely to jump straight into a demo with a sales rep but you still want to make sure you’re moving them through the funnel, one CTA at a time. So here you can make use of lower commitment CTAs such as “learn more” or “watch video” that they would be more likely to click on.

Keep it simple

Don't throw too much information or technicalities at a first time visitor. For now, your goal is to impress. Once they move to the decision stage, then you can get into the nitty gritty. At this stage, you can display a simple explainer video instead. Additionally, you can highlight happy customers and their quotes to use social proof and show that you are well-liked.

In this example, you can see that Billable has opted for a more introductory and welcoming tone when it comes to their headline and subhead. They have coupled this approach with a brief video that explains what they do without getting into too much detail. The CTA to book a demo has also been switched accordingly to the lower-commitment action of watching said video.