When ESOP Companions was prepared for a brand new web site, the preliminary ask appeared simple: give the design a refresh, modernize the feel and appear.
However as we dug into the info, we found a possibility that went far past aesthetics.
Right here was a web site wealthy with over a decade of thought management content material, attracting substantial visitors, but struggling to transform guests into significant enterprise alternatives.
This can be a problem I see typically with B2B firms, particularly these promoting complicated options: distinctive experience doesn’t robotically translate into leads. To successfully convert guests into certified leads, a extra strategic method is required — one which tightly aligns your web site to your patrons’ journeys. And if you achieve your mission, the outcomes might be transformative for your corporation.
I invited Eric Strebe, Director of ESOP Consulting, to speak via the particulars of their web site’s transformation from visitors magnet to lead-generation engine. Whether or not you’ve obtained half-hour for the complete episode or three minutes for the highlights, we’ve obtained you coated:
Beginning Level: Visitors Wealthy, Conversion Poor
ESOP Companions had constructed their web site to showcase their deep experience in possession transitions through worker inventory possession plans (ESOPs). As Eric put it, “We’re consultants in what we do. We’re recognized in our trade. And we constructed our web site to showcase that.”
The positioning was doing an important job when it comes to attracting guests — however guests aren’t the identical as certified advertising and marketing and gross sales leads. And when it got here to changing guests into session requests, one thing wasn’t clicking.
Regardless of sturdy visitors, ESOP Companions couldn’t correlate many closed gross sales to web site journeys.
The Pivot: Mapping Content material to Buyer Context
The breakthrough got here after we stopped enthusiastic about the web site as a platform for demonstrating experience alone, and began enthusiastic about it as a device for guiding various kinds of customers via their distinctive journeys.
We recognized a number of distinct personas:
- Enterprise homeowners exploring exit methods
- Current ESOP firms searching for administration companies
- Advisors serving to purchasers consider possession transitions
- HR professionals researching expertise retention options
Every of those audiences wanted various kinds of data, offered in numerous methods, to maneuver them towards significant engagement with ESOP Companions.
Strategic Shifts: Engineering the 900% Lead Development
Listed below are the important thing components of our web site redesign technique to raised align the location with all of the shopping for personas’ journeys.
Restructured Structure:
We flipped the normal B2B web site paradigm on its head. As an alternative of front-loading capabilities and companies (the “what we do”), we created intuitive pathways based mostly on customer intent and data stage.
For enterprise homeowners simply starting to discover exit methods, we supplied foundational ESOP schooling. For advisors and HR professionals already conversant in ESOPs, we provided deeper technical content material. This user-first structure meant guests now not needed to translate ESOP Companions’ capabilities to suit with their particular wants — the web site did that work for them.
Enhanced Context:
Technical accuracy isn’t sufficient if you’re coping with complicated enterprise options. We reimagined how data was offered, guaranteeing each bit of content material answered not simply the quick query, however the subsequent few questions a customer would doubtless have.
For enterprise homeowners, that meant connecting ESOP ideas to their exit planning timeline. For current ESOP firms, it meant framing administration companies inside their governance obligations. This contextual framework reworked standalone data into significant steering for every consumer kind.
Refined Conversion Provide:
One seemingly small however important change was how we positioned ESOP Companions’ session supply. Fairly than a “no-cost feasibility evaluation,” which created some confusion with paid feasibility research — frequent in lots of industries — we launched the supply as an ESOP readiness evaluation, distinguishing it from a paid service to get rid of friction and encourage conversions.
Proof Factors: The place Technique Meets ROI
The influence was quick and substantial:
- 900% improve in gross sales certified leads
- 55% improve in consultations
- Constant constructive suggestions at trade occasions
However probably the most telling suggestions got here from prospects themselves. As Eric shared, one potential consumer informed him:
“It is such as you knew the following query I used to be going to ask.”
4 Efficiency-Driving Rules
This transformation provides a number of key insights for advertising and marketing leaders in complicated B2B areas:
- Visitors is not every little thing: Excessive customer numbers are meaningless and not using a strategic conversion structure to information customers towards conversion
- Person intent issues: Understanding and mapping to totally different consumer journeys is essential for complicated B2B options
- Small adjustments, huge influence: Typically probably the most important enhancements come from refined shifts in how choices are positioned
- Measure what issues: Concentrate on metrics that tie on to enterprise outcomes, not simply visitors or engagement
Because the search landscapes evolve and extra individuals take their search queries to AI platforms, the capacity to supply real experience with strategic consumer pathways turns into much more crucial.
The success of ESOP Companions’ web site transformation demonstrates that if you mix deep trade data with user-centric design, the outcomes might be transformative.
Your web site is likely to be the hardest-working member of your gross sales staff — or it could possibly be the weakest hyperlink in your pipeline. For extra insights on turning digital belongings into enterprise development drivers, tune into the complete episode and make amends for previous conversations.