B2B Manufacturing Sites Don't Have to Be Sexy

Linda Rigano, director of strategic alliances for ThomasNet, is quoted in BtoB’s Vertical Insight Guide with regard to manufacturing Websites.

According to Rigano, manufacturing companies’ Websites don’t need to win design awards. Instead, a manufacturing company should “create a site that’s functional and easy for a buyer to use — one that’s going to lead them closer and closer to you.”

Rigano advises companies to include interactive CAD drawings — which is what my client Tolomatic, Inc. does. “An engineer looking for a particular component could go online, find the component’s CAD drawing, download it and determine if it will work with his design,” says Rigano.

The article also quotes Mike Newkirk, global marketing manager, manufacturing and services at SAS.

Newkirk says that his company conducts focus groups on the site’s navigation and content.

Feedback from these groups has helped the company place high-value content, such as case studies and white papers, at the top of the company’s “must-have site content” list.

Newkirk also adds that by white papers, he means meaty guides filled with information prospects can use, not “elaborate sales pushes.”

(Take a minute to view some of SAS’ 400+ case studies. Impressive!)

What both Rigano and Newkirk are saying is that manufacturers’ Websites need to focus on content, not design.

Numerous research studies have shown that B2B buyers want information to help them make purchasing decisions — not beautifully designed Websites.

You can listen to a podcast I did with Rigano in November 2007, as well as download the ThomasNet white paper, “Aligning Your Online Marketing Strategy with Your Business Plan,” (an excellent white paper, by the way) — simply click the link to see both.

And, be sure to check out GlobalSpec’s Engineering Trends Survey, also mentioned in the BtoB article. The survey shows that “90% of respondents use the Internet to find components and suppliers,” so says Angela Hribar, chief sales and marketing officer for the company.

(Pssst . . . GlobalSpec . . . I couldn’t find this survey on your site and had to do a Google search to find the link to the PDF.)