B2B Website Personalization Guide: Steps, Tactics, and Tools

Often people are quick to assume that B2B marketing is boring. However, it doesn't have to be like this. One way through which you can create memorable experiences is by making use of B2B website personalization.

This means making your website more personal so that your visitors keep coming back for more. It's like when you go to your favorite store, and the staff knows your name and what you like to buy.

In this article, we will explain what website personalization is, why it's important for B2B companies, and how you can use it to provide a more engaging and relevant user experience.

What is Website Personalization?

Website personalization is the process of creating customized experiences for your website visitors.

So, instead of showing everyone the same webpage, businesses can change them to match what each person needs. When a website is personalized, it's like the business is saying, "Hey, we see you, and we care about what you need."

Why is it Important for B2B Companies to Personalize Their Websites?

So, what's the big deal behind creating personalized content for B2B websites?

It's kind of like getting a suit that is made for you. Just like how a tailor takes your measurements and adjusts the suit to fit you perfectly, a B2B company can tailor its website experiences for visitors of similar demographics, pain points, stages of the sales funnel, etc.

By adopting website personalization strategies for your B2B company, you can experience the following benefits:

Visitors spend more time on your website:

When visitors find content that's relevant to their interests, they are more likely to spend more time exploring the site and interacting with the information.

More landing page conversions:

When website visitors see a customized landing page, they are more likely to be interested in its offerings. This can lead to more people filling out contact forms and making purchases, which is great for any company.

Shorter sales cycle:

If visitors are having a good time on your website and are interested in what you have to offer, they are more likely to take the next step and get in touch with or buy from the company. This can reduce the time it takes to close a deal, which is crucial for the success of any B2B company.

5 Steps to Help You Get Started With B2B Website Personalization

Does the thought of B2B website personalization scare you? Do you think it's not suitable for your company size, or do you lack the resources to get you started?

Website personalization can appear intimidating. Not anymore, though, if you just follow the below steps.

Step 1: Establish your B2B website personalization goals

Before you begin with your website personalization campaign, it's important to set some goals. Doing so will help you stay on track and enable you to monitor the success of your campaign later on.

The goals you select will vary based on your company size and your overall marketing strategy. The following goals can give you a good starting point:

Step 2: Define different customer segments

Have you ever wondered how companies decide who to show their ads to or what kinds of products to offer to certain people? One way they do this is by using something called "segmentation." Segmentation means dividing people into groups based on different buyer personas.

Here are three different ways that companies might segment their customers:

  1. Segmenting based on demographics and company data
    Demographics are things like your age, gender, and income. But for B2B marketing, companies often focus on something called "firmographics," which means looking at information about the company rather than the individual. For example, a company that sells supply-chain management software might target CEOs and CFOs at food-related businesses with 500 or more workers.
  1. Segmenting people according to their habits and routines
    This kind of segmentation is called "behavioral segmentation." Companies look at what you do on their website or how you interact with their products to put you into a specific group. For example, if you click on a lot of videos about customer success stories, a company might show you more of those videos or suggest products that are similar to the ones featured in the videos.
  1. Segmenting based on location
    This kind of segmentation is called "geographic segmentation." It means that companies gather data about where you live or work to decide what products or ads to show you. For example, if a company wants to sell more products in California, it might show ads specifically to those living there.

Step 3: Create personalized content for different segments

Customizing content means creating information that suits the people who visit your website. This is important because it helps you connect with them better. But different types of businesses may use different ways to do this. Here are some examples:

  • Updating your website's landing pages to match what each group of visitors is interested in. This can help them interact with your website more and make them more likely to take action, like signing up for a newsletter or buying something.
  • Recommending products to people based on what they've looked at or bought before. This might make them more likely to buy from you again.
  • Creating content that matches the unique interests and needs of each group of customers. This can help increase conversion rates and engagement.
  • Customizing promotions for each group of customers based on their location.

It's important to remember that your potential clients and their interests might change over time. So personalizing your generic content is something you should keep regularly doing. You can use the right tools to track campaign analytics to help you make the right changes.

Step 4:Use a powerful tool for real-time personalization

Personalizing your website will be impossible to do without a solid platform in place. We'll be going over a few B2B website personalization tools for you to consider later on. But the tool you select must let you personalize content seamlessly and show campaign analytics (or offers integrations with an analytical tool) to track performance.

Step 5:Monitor performance and improve accordingly

Tracking the success of your website personalization campaigns is crucial. Doing so will give you key insights regarding what's working and what needs tweaking.

It's natural that something that works for others might not work for you. Hence, you should make it a practice to routinely monitor campaign performance and improve your practices if needed.

5 Website Personalization Tactics to Offer an Engaging Experience [+ Examples]

Looking for specific tactics to personalize your website? The following list is what you're in search of.

Personalize by audience segment

With segmentation, you can personalize your website's landing pages, calls to action, and chatbots, among others.

Greenhouse, a hiring platform for businesses, has created a personalized homepage specifically for enterprise companies, offering targeted resources and information most relevant to their needs.

Greenhouse personalizes its website through segmentation
Source: Greenhouse

Personalize by visitor's location

Personalization by location is an effective strategy for businesses to offer customized services or content to specific regions. Businesses can improve customer engagement and drive sales in specific geographic regions by tailoring their offerings to the right target audience.

One company that's doing this well is Instive. In the below example, Instive uses geo-location to offer services to Californian residents in the wake of the devastating wildfires. This message has been personalized for anyone in California, and people of other localities will not be shown this message.

Instive uses geolocation to personalize its website
Source: Dynamic Yield

Personalize by past website behavior

When a user visits the HubSpot website, they're greeted by their name and shown their past activity (the courses they've started) on the site. This kind of content personalization shows that HubSpot is paying attention to what each user is doing on their website.

Replicating a similar strategy for your B2B company will create personalized experiences for your visitors, encouraging them to engage more.

HubSpot personalizes its website through its audience’s activity
Source: HubSpot

Personalize by company logos

By displaying the company logo of the person viewing the website, companies can create a sense of familiarity and connection that can help to build trust and engagement.

Sleeknote, a platform that offers a pop-up builder, displays the company logo of the visitors that are viewing their site.

 Sleeknote personalizes its homepage by showing the visitor’s company logo
Source: Popupsmart

Personalize by calls to action

When first-time visitor lands on Proof's website, the goal is to get them to engage with the website and learn more about the product. So, in this case, the call to action displayed for these visitors is "Watch an instant demo."

 Personalized call to action example from Proof
Source: Proof

Once the visitor has watched the demo, they have shown an interest in the product and are likely more qualified as a lead.

At this point, the goal is to get them to take the next step and start using the product. So, the personalized call to action displayed to them now is "Start my free trial." By showing customized calls to action, Proof can increase the likelihood that the visitor will take the desired action.

Personalized call to action example from Proof 
Source: Proof

The Best Website Personalization Tools for B2B companies

With Google Optimize out of the picture, which trusted tool should you select for your business? The following list of B2B website personalization tools might be of interest to you.

Relevic

Relevic is a website personalization tool that lets you tailor content and messaging based on the visitor's location and the time of day/month/year.

Let's say you operate a nationwide office-sharing space for businesses. You can use Relevic to customize promotions based on your customers' location. Someone in New York might see a different promotion to someone based in your Los Angeles coworking space location.

Relevic homepage

Personalizely

Personalizely is another website personalization tool that tracks visits and session history. This means that the tool can recognize when a visitor has been to your site before and use that information to create a personalized experience.

Moreover, Personalizely can also identify visitors based on their referral source. This means that you can personalize your site's messaging and content based on where a visitor came from.

You can then use Personalizely to show them personalized messaging or content related to that page or element.

Personalizely homepage

Proof

Proof website personalization tool comes with multiple features, one of which is called "recent activity." This feature shows visitors a live feed of what other people have been doing on their website, such as buying products or starting a free trial.

Proof has another feature called "live visitor count." This shows visitors how many people are currently on the website. For example, if there are 500 people on the website at the same time, the visitor might see a message that says, "500 people are currently browsing our site."

This can create a sense of urgency and excitement for the visitor because they can see that the website is popular and lots of people are interested in it.

Another noteworthy feature Proof has is "hot streaks." This shows users how many people have recently taken action on their website, such as making a purchase.

 Proof homepage

Conclusion

If you're running a B2B website, it's important to create a unique and interesting experience for new and existing customers. This means personalizing your website's content and message for each visitor based on factors like their location, browsing history, and interests.

By doing this, you can boost engagement, credibility, and sales because your visitors will feel like you understand their needs. And the best part is that B2B website personalization tools like Relevic can help you do this automatically based on the data they collect.

Interested in what Relevic has to offer? Create personalized website experiences for free today - no credit card details required. 

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