You might think that face-to-face sales are crucial for selling products that require an explanation. Digitalization has changed that, even though in-person sales are still important. The fact is that today, more than ever, we search for information online beforehand. The decision to stay on a website longer is influenced by various factors. These include, among other things, loading times, an appealing and responsive design, good navigation, and the variety of product information available. This is especially true in B2B, where multiple people are often involved in the purchasing decision-making process. However, search engine optimization—especially the technical aspects—is no less important for ensuring that potential customers can find you in the first place. The site must then perform well, meaning visitors should be able to reach their destination quickly.
The following list is intended to provide you with an overview of the features that, in our experience, are crucial to the success of websites featuring products that require explanation. This will help you establish a solid foundation and further improve the user experience for your visitors.
Features specifically for products that require an explanation?
The following features are, of course, also suitable for providers of services or other products. However, since products that require explanation often involve a longer purchasing process, the examples are particularly well-suited for those products.
Product Configurator – Customers must be able to easily find the product that's right for them
Finding the right product isn’t always easy. This is especially true when a manufacturer’s product range is very extensive, but the products differ only in subtle ways—as is the case, for example, with CNC milling machines, household appliances such as washing machines, smartphones, or similar products. That’s why it’s important to provide potential customers with tools that either make it easy to compare products or simplify the selection process. This can be achieved, for example, through the navigation menu, where categories provide information about the product’s intended use, industry, material, benefits, and so on. Additionally, tables listing product features or technical data sheets are helpful. These are particularly useful when comparing multiple products. And doing so digitally is much easier than poring over printed data sheets or brochures.
Alternatively, it makes sense to implement a product configurator, even if the initial costs are usually somewhat higher than for simply displaying information. This is because a configurator has the advantage that the customer can see at a glance, through the available choices, which options are available to them. This allows them to quickly select the specifications they need. This is similar to searching for a hotel: you use filters to narrow down the product range, and in the end, only the results that match the selected criteria are displayed. Furthermore, when implemented correctly, a configurator is usually much more user-friendly because customers can “click together” their desired product rather than having to laboriously search for information via the navigation or categories.
Search—when potential customers can find content quickly, they're happy
It’s clear that users should be able to find your site first, and in most cases, Google is simply better at this than any internal search. But when a user visits your website to look for relevant information or products, either the navigation or the search function should guide them to their destination quickly and easily. And let’s be honest—if you have a lot of content, you probably don’t want to cram everything into the navigation menu. That’s why a search function is highly recommended.
Factors that make for a good search function include—in addition to obvious elements such as the search’s discoverability—the relevance of search results to the user, the ability to narrow down results using filters, the ability to find synonyms, auto-completion of words and auto-corrections, as well as the display of alternative search suggestions. Furthermore, indexing file content—such as text from PDFs—can be a standard feature of the search. And if you really want your search to stand out, in addition to a clear presentation of results, the following ideas can complement your products and provide added value to customers:
- Display categories or page paths
- Show the document type
- Provide the file’s publication date
- Display the available languages for the content and allow users to easily select them
Admittedly, implementing such a search isn’t the easiest task in the world. After all, the technical implementation and the process of entering search terms, synonyms, autocorrect, etc., take time. However, the payoff for you as a business owner can be all the greater when customers can access the information they need quickly and conveniently.
Contact – Give your customers the chance to quickly find the right contact person
There’s little more frustrating than spending ages searching for the right contact person for a product when you still have unanswered questions. Especially in large companies, calling a general number rarely gets you where you need to go quickly.
Wouldn’t it be much better if you were connected to the right contact person right away when you reach out? It’s possible! This means that the website itself dynamically finds the right contact person based on product category, the state or country where your potential customer is currently located, or other criteria you specify. As a provider, you gain additional value if you have an interface between your web application and your CRM. That way, relevant data—such as name, company, and the product in which the customer has expressed interest—can be automatically imported into your database. And don’t make it so hard for your potential customers—don’t hide your phone number!
But don't forget: Your content is one of the most important factors
Features aside, what matters most is still the content and the products you offer. If you have boring content—or no content at all—for your potential customers, even the best search engine in the world won’t help.
Depending on the industry, the most relevant content for customers includes: product details, case studies, testimonials, the latest news, as well as things like how-to guides (e.g., videos) or technical data sheets. Above all, however, it should be clear to the customer what benefits they’ll get from each product. When marketing services, some of the points mentioned above are also very important, since it’s not possible to showcase a physical product. That’s why the company’s and its employees’ expertise must be highlighted—for example, through certifications. Images and graphics also help to present complex topics in a simple way. And since your website is one of—or the first—points of contactpunkt dethroughout the entire customer journey, don’t miss the chance to make a good (first) impression.
And what do you think are the most important features a website offering products that require explanation must have? I look forward to hearing about your experiences!
