B2B Website Redesign: AFFLINK's Inbound Marketing Revamp

The Challenge

Like most successful B2B companies subscribed to the inbound marketing methodology, AFFLINK's website had a robust function other than conveying company information. The supply chain management's website is strategically designed to draw prospects, nurture them into leads, and ultimately turn them into clients.

By 2016, AFFLINK's website design had begun to look outdated. At this point, it had been almost three years since the company's website was last overhauled. Digital design trends, search engine algorithms, and programming functionalities had long since evolved.

Furthermore, AFFLINK had evolved over the years to a point where the messaging on their website no longer conveyed a sharp message that resonated with the company's buyer personas.  Additionally, AFFLINK’s website marketing funnel was basically non-existent and and the bottom of the funnel conversion points were a few and far between.

To combat these issues, AFFLINK looked to Adhere Creative to upgrade their website with a fresh design that better reflected their brand, had a tailored message for each buyer persona with a focus on the end-user customer, and incorporated lead generating landing pages and content assets to round out the marketing funnel.

The Plan

With these issues in mind, Adhere Creative set out to overhaul AFFLINK's website. A better design (aesthetics and user-experience wise), tailored messaging (to target each of the company's buyer personas), and lead generating pieces as well as strategic marketing funnel points were to be the keys to the company's website revamp.

The Website Redesign Strategy

Adhere launched an in-depth buyer persona research for AFFLINK and developed conversion points along the marketing funnel for each persona. These included: Become a Supplier, Become a Distributor, and Optimize With ELEVATE. 



By conducting thorough client interviews to gain knowledge on what each page would say and offer, AFFLINK's site didn't just have poignant content, but more importantly, powerful context. The information Adhere gathered through the interviews became the basis for the restructured product features, testimonials, and overall site messaging. With this valuable input, Adhere was able to:

• Reworked the site map by identifying what information clients needed to understand and in what order they would need it.
• Designed and developed a website that is well-optimized for mobile devices to help increase traffic and conversions by mobile users.
• Added content prompts for AFFLINK's website audience to be able self-identify and find the information they need. Take for instance, the suppliers. From the interviews, we uncovered that there are clients who wanted to become suppliers and distributors but lacked information on how to do it. To do this, we spoke with AFFLINK’s support team and asked what their most common questions and issues were so that we could incorporate the correct information on their respective landing pages.
• Developed landing pages and CTAs to generate bottom and middle of the funnel leads.
• Created a resource center for all content assets including checklists, infographics, whitepapers, webinars and more.
• Add social proof throughout strategic points in the site to boost AFFLINK's credibility for the company's patrons and first-time audience. These included social engagement buttons, testimonials, awards, feature- ins, and a press room.
• Reconfigured the site's messaging, tone, and voice. Although AFFLINK has three distinct buyer personas, the end-customer is their most important one. Because of this, most of the messaging on site was written for the end-user. We made sure to write copy that emphasized benefits and presented actionable copy for the end-user that would guide them to the next step in their journey. 
  
  While the previous website was filled with verbiage and long paragraphs which often resulted in messages being lost in translation, the redesigned one features re-written copy that is succinct and segmented into shorter paragraphs and bulleted lists. Headers were also created to segment the content by subtext and take advantage of header tags for SEO.
• Add custom icons designed to help visually communicate the messaging to end-user customers.
• Create clear CTAs using the language and visual elements the end-user customer would be used to seeing.
• Create a path to the company's supply chain optimization software. Prior to the new website re-design, AFFLINK had no path to their supply chain optimization software, ELEVATE. We created a separate site for ELEVATE and a very clear path from www.afflink.com

Remarkable Results

Numbers don't lie! AFFLINK's website redesign proved to be worth every effort. Here are the results at a glance:

1.  AFFLINK's website began to generate more bottom of the funnel leads since site launch

• Become a customer - 20% conversion rate - since launch
• Become a supplier  - 36% conversion rate - since launch
• Become a distributor - 15% conversion rate - since launch

2.  AFFLINK's website generated increased middle of the funnel landing page conversions:

• Webinar - 17% conversion rate - since launch
  
• Ebook - 30% conversion rate - since launch

3.  Whereas users could not get to AFFLINK's ELEVATE software and therefore had poor conversions, it's redesigned website saw an increased number of ELEVATE registrations coming from afflink.com

4. Thanks to a 13% (desktop) and 15% (mobile) drop in the redesigned website's bounce rate, organic visitors to AFFLINK's website increased by:

• 12% on desktop
• a whopping 50% on mobile

The Takeaway

Redesigning your b2b website isn't just about the aesthetics. A well-designed website is more than just a business card -- it's a living, breathing marketing machine attracting prospects, generating leads, and ultimately converting them into valuable clients for your business.

Keeping an updated website that reflects your company's value proposition and engages with your buyer persona is essential for the continued success of your business. While the commitment (time, money, what have you) seems daunting for a website overhaul project, ultimately the returns are priceless.