The Number One Reason Your Website Isn’t Converting

If you’re running a business-to-business (B2B) website, especially in life sciences, there’s a good chance that your website isn’t converting as well as it could be. The number one reason? You’re only targeting sales-qualified leads at the very bottom of the funnel. Why? Your only call to action is a “Contact Us” or similar inquiry form.

Most of the websites that we analyze only have opportunities to engage visitors who are ready to request a quote, schedule a meeting, or otherwise talk to sales. But here’s the reality – the majority of your website visitors aren’t at that stage in the sales cycle yet. They’re still in the early or middle stages of their buyer’s journey, researching and evaluating their options. And many of them won’t even make it to the bottom of the page (where that Contact Us CTA/form is located) before they drop off.

The Three Stages of the Buyer’s Journey

Think about big purchases you’ve made personally, whether a new fridge or laptop. You didn’t wake up and immediately talk to a sales rep, did you? You likely did a ton of upfront research first before considering specific products or suppliers.

It’s the same for your prospective customers. You’re not selling T-shirts. You’re selling expensive instruments or large service contracts that have a long sales cycle, very technical details, and a lot of stakeholders.

Every buyer’s journey has three key stages:

• Awareness/Education – They’re first learning about their challenge and exploring potential solution categories. Sometimes the person tasked with gathering information is not the decision maker who will ultimately close the deal.
• Consideration – They’ve identified that you’re offering a solution to their pain points, but are weighing their options and different vendors. While pricing is relevant at the consideration phase, in the life sciences industry, it’s often not publicly available, so they’re considering other parameters, such as sensitivity, accuracy, sample input, turnaround time, and throughput.
• Purchase – Finally, they’re ready to request pricing, get a demo, and talk to sales to ask any remaining questions.

The typical web page, however, is entirely focused on that last purchase stage. That is, the only opportunity for engagement is a “Contact Us” form. So you’re missing out on engaging the much larger pool of leads in the awareness and consideration phases.

Offer Content at Each Stage

To truly maximize your website’s conversion potential, you need content and calls-to-action aimed at each stage of the buyer’s journey:

• For the awareness stage, offer educational content that frames their challenge and the value of solutions like yours over alternatives. This could include blogs, infographics, or brochures. The goal is to convince them that there is a solution to their problem, it’s painless, and it involves your technology/offering.
• For the consideration stage, they’re going to want to see data, so showcase case studies, white papers, technical notes, publications, posters, and webinars. The goal is to convince them that your approach is superior to your direct competitors.
• And yes, for the purchase stage, have your traditional pricing/quote requests for hot leads who are ready to buy.

You probably already have some of this content, but typically it’s buried away on a resources page that is seldom seen. Bring it into your landing pages and leverage bulleted key takeaways and thumbnails of the content to entice users to download.

The Biggest Reason Your Website Isn't Converting: Overlooking Early-Stage Leads

The biggest mistake is assuming only purchase-ready visitors matter. By overlooking the awareness and consideration stages, you’re letting the vast majority of your potentially interested audience slip away.

So, audit your website and add CTAs, resources, and forms tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey throughout each page. Capture those early-stage leads so you can drip relevant content and convert more of your traffic over time.

Want to learn more? Reach out if you want us to provide a free audit of your website and provide a roadmap for unlocking its full conversion potential.