Top 7 Trends In B2B-Website-Design For 2024 [Including Real-World Examples]
Include these Top 7 Trends In B2B Website Design For 2024 and let your website look current and relevant.
How essential is great Website Design for businesses in 2024?
In 2024, website design has transcended from being merely important to absolutely essential. As we navigate through this digital era, where the boundaries between the physical and online worlds blur, a website often serves as the first and possibly the only interaction a potential customer might have with a brand. This digital forefront not only introduces your brand but also sets the tone for the customer journey, making website design a critical player in business success.
Hence to remain competitive in the ever-growing online market, you need to keep your website up-to-date. A well-maintained website can help your business stand out from the crowd.
What makes B2B website design important for B2B firms?
As technology advances, best practices in B2B website design are constantly evolving. In 2023, B2B firms saw huge advances in AI influencing so many aspects of our professional lives. There is no doubt that web design strategy has evolved over the years, just like UX best practices.
B2B website design refers to the strategic planning, layout, creation and optimization of a website specifically tailored for businesses that sell products or services to other businesses, rather than directly to consumers. By keeping up with the current knowledge of trends and techniques, you will be able to position your company as a market leader.
A B2B website design is essential for B2B businesses as it’s not only the first place your prospective customers will look, but it’s also where most of your B2B sales will happen.
It is a fact that most purchase decisions in the B2B world start with an online search. Therefore having a website will not only help searchers to find your business but also encourage visitors to engage with you.
If your B2B company doesn’t have a website, or you have one but haven’t dedicated enough time or resources to developing it, you are missing out on these enquiries, the opportunity to increase the exposure of your business and improve your business’s revenue generation. Investing in a website is investing in the company's growth and future.
B2B website design trends in 2024
Throughout the years, we've seen a diverse range of web trends come and go. Here are the top trends that we have been seeing at our B2B website design agency. We have uncovered these trends based on our agency's experience, client demands, and industry research.
Messaging first approach
The ‘messaging first approach’ as a trend in B2B website design is really starting to make waves. Instead of hitting you with a bunch of flashy designs or high-tech features the moment you land on a B2B website, companies are leaning toward something a bit more straightforward - really clear, punchy messages that get straight to the heart.
Imagine you're hopping onto a B2B site because you're on the hunt for some solutions or insights that your business desperately needs. You're not there to play around; you've got a mission, right? Well, that's where the magic of putting messaging first comes into play.
The messaging first approach in a B2B website design caters to this intent by ensuring that the site's messaging from headlines to call-to-actions is strategically crafted to address the visitor’s needs, questions, and pain points right from the get-go. This trend acknowledges that in the B2B space, where decisions are deeply considered and often involve multiple stakeholders, clarity and relevance of information can make or break engagement."
Joe Daniels, founder of Spiel, a Narrative Design agency for B2B SaaS, puts forward that, “customers don't care whether it's leading with benefits or leading with features. What they do care about, however, is what your product does for them. They care about how it helps solve their problems.”
The endless debate between leading with features or benefits often misses the mark because, at the end of the day, what truly resonates with customers is the story of how your product fits into their lives. It's not just about what your product has or what it can do. It's about the journey your customers are on and how your product can be the ally they need to overcome their challenges.
Think about it when customers are looking for a solution, they're not just shopping for a list of features or a set of benefits. They're looking for something that speaks to their situation, their needs, and their desires. They're seeking a guide to help them navigate their problems, and that's where Narrative Design shines. It transforms your product from a simple commodity into a character in their life story, making the purchase decision personal and emotional.
By crafting a narrative that positions your customers as the heroes of their own stories, with your product as the trusty sidekick, you're doing more than just selling, you're engaging. You're creating a connection that transcends the transactional and taps into the emotional. It's this connection in a B2B website design that sets you apart from competitors, whose features and benefits may be similar but who haven't taken the time to really understand the customer's journey and offer a place in their story.
This approach fosters loyalty and advocacy because customers don't just feel like they bought something, they feel like they embarked on a journey where your product was key to reaching their destination. And in a world where customers are bombarded with choices, being part of their story is the ultimate differentiator.
Minimalistic and clean design
Let's talk about this whole minimalistic and clean design trend which is predominant in the B2B world.
A minimalist design, negative space, and short paragraphs are some of the best practices for B2B web design in 2024. In a B2B website design the use of white space enables its users to easily navigate through the page and allows important elements like pictures and demo videos to stand out. It is crucial to keep the visitors' attention on the products/services rather than on secondary elements. The use of ample white space and short paragraphs of text creates a better hierarchy and makes it easier for users to digest the key selling points.
What’s cool about this trend is that it’s not just about looking sleek. It’s strategic. By stripping away the unnecessary bits, the really important messages and calls-to-action pop. It’s like, instead of trying to catch your attention by throwing everything at you at once, these sites gently guide you to where they want you to go. And that’s pretty powerful, especially when you’re dealing with decision-makers who don’t have time to sift through a maze of information.
Above all, as a result of the minimalist web page design, loading time is reduced, readability and user experience are improved, and visitors are encouraged to take the desired action by displaying the desired information.
Example
Take Ono's, website for example. It does have a very simple yet sleek design. All of the elements are carefully segmented. The website's messaging is also straightforward and the product is described in just a few words.
Designing UX that converts
With the upcoming modern technology and its complexities, UX design becomes increasingly important for B2B firms to be successful in the digital world.
A common complaint that we frequently hear from clients who contact us is that their current B2B website design does not convert. More than ever, in 2024 getting conversions from your website is very important and crucial. With the pandemic striking, traditional sales tactics like in-person meetings, and conferences have been stuck. Therefore a strong digital strategy is becoming the new and permanent fixture in B2B website design.
Only with the help of a good user experience conversion is possible. These conversions are the key to increasing revenue because the more leads you get the more sales opportunity it is. When we talk about leads, it can’t just be any leads. It’s got to be quality leads.
In 2024 and further, it is a fact that only a strong user experience can attract the right leads. This will guide the visitors through an engaging user journey which will make them convert right away.
A prominent statistic illustrates how important it is to have an improved user experience in a website design - 88% of users are less likely to return after a bad user experience.
Companies should invest money and time into user experience design. Investing in UX design is essential for companies because it can have a significant impact on the success of their products.
Personalization
Personalization is kind of a big deal, and it's setting the new gold standard for how B2B website design rolls. Businesses have realized that no two customers are the same. Each visitor comes with their own set of needs, challenges, and preferences.
Personalization in B2B website design is all about showing your visitors that you understand them and their business. It's like having a bespoke suit that’s crafted just for you, except it’s a digital experience designed to meet your specific business needs, interests, and preferences.
Now, how do brands pull this off? Well, it’s all about data and technology. By leveraging analytics, cookies, and AI websites can gather insights into visitor behaviour, preferences, and past interactions. This information is gold. It allows the website to display content, product recommendations, and even tailored messaging that resonates with the individual visitor.
So, when a B2B web design can convey "Hey, we understand exactly what you're looking for and here’s how we can help," it instantly boosts the user's experience and engagement.
It’s a powerful way to build trust, improve customer satisfaction, and stand out in a crowded market. As we move forward, expect to see more B2B companies adopting this approach, because, in a world where everyone wants to feel understood, personalization is key.
Here's a breakdown of what personalization in B2B website design encompasses:
Dynamic Content:
Content that speaks to your audience's needs and pain points, while also communicating the value and benefits of your products or services, is crucial. While designing a B2B website always make sure that your content never sleeps. Your website’s content from blog posts to product descriptions should always work for you. It's been indexed by search engines, shared in social media and potentially going viral, all while you’re offline. Your content should always attract new visitors, generate leads and build brand authority continuously.
A B2B web design agency should make it a priority to build strong copy all the way through. Ensure that your subheader and headline communicate your business's unique value proposition (UVP).
User Journey:
Personalization also extends to the user journey on the website. A B2B website design should focus on making the user journey more smooth, providing them with relevant information and solutions tailored to their unique business context. It’s like having a guide in an unfamiliar city who knows all the best spots that suit your taste.
A well-crafted user journey can guide visitors through a path that makes the most sense for them, helping them find solutions faster and making the decision-making process smoother. This could be through personalized CTAs, custom forms, or even live chat support that picks up right where the last conversation left off.
AI and Machine Learning:
Artificial Intelligence is set to play a bigger role in tailoring website content to individual visitors. 2024 will see a surge in websites leveraging AI to offer personalized experiences to visitors.
From content tailored to the visitor’s industry to personalized product recommendations, AI is enabling B2B websites to cater to the specific needs and preferences of each user, enhancing engagement and conversion rates.
In terms of a B2B website, a chatbot helps to improve a prospect's journey throughout the website and make them feel cared for. It will be able to provide more accurate and helpful responses, and predictive analytics to enhance user engagement.
Feedbacks
Feedback is one of the prominent aspects of personalization. A visitor who comes to the website can be engaged by asking questions. B2B website design should enable a feedback loop where customers can leave reviews or comments on their support experience. This feedback is gold for continuous improvement, allowing you to refine products, services, and support strategies over time.
Including customer feedback in the web design will unknowingly demonstrate a company’s commitment to its customers and to staying current. This agility can significantly enhance a company's credibility.
Example
Interactive Elements
When things get a little dry in a B2B website design, it is the interactive elements which are that secret ingredient that keeps visitors engaged. In order to increase the time visitors spend on your B2B website, you need to give them a variety of interactive design elements. This can be quizzes, polls, interactive infographics, clickable content, engaging media files, or any other type of interactive design element. These elements not only engage users and provide a more immersive experience but also help in conveying complex information in a digestible and fun way.
When a few interactive elements are included in your B2B website design, suddenly you will see that the website isn’t just showing its products/services, it’s talking with you. That's the power of interactive elements.
Micro-interactions:
Micro-interactions are tiny interactions between the design and the user and can become memorable on their own. These interactions typically involve subtle changes when users perform certain actions. For example, when you hover over a CTA and the colour changes, yes, that’s a micro-interaction. Or when a website’s loading time is a little longer than that animated countdown, that’s a micro-interaction. If done well, they enhance a user’s experience with the design and make it more memorable.
Example:
Videos on the home page
Videos on the homepage can be a game-changer for a B2B website design in 2024. In the world of B2B website design, the trend of ‘videos on the homepage’ is getting a lot of attention, and for good reason. When a visitor lands on a B2B website and is greeted not by the usual sea of text and static images but by a dynamic and engaging video, this will definitely change the way he looks at a brand. A well-made video can evoke emotions and build a connection in a way that text alone might struggle to do.
Being a web design agency ourselves, we have seen and understood how clients connect with a video when it's on the homepage. Clients do mention that they were able to understand quickly about the company and the services with the help of just a video.
The importance of videos on the homepage is that they have the superpower to convey a ton of information in a digestible and engaging format. In just a minute or two, one can showcase a company's products or services, share their brand story, highlight customer testimonials, or even give a behind-the-scenes look at their operations.
When we talk about videos on a B2B website, apart from the home page it can be anywhere on the website. Videos are always one of the interactive elements of a website design, so adding one or two videos throughout the website will always grab the visitor’s attention, set the tone and give you a taste of what the company is all about. And above all, it builds trust which is the most important aspect.
So, if you're thinking about giving your B2B website a facelift or building one from scratch, consider including videos in the website design.
Example
The website Yellow.ai is an AI platform for automating customer support experience across chat, email and voice. On this website, we can see a video on the home page that explains what it does and how satisfied the customers are. The video shows how friendly the AI is in guiding the users with numerous services like baby clothing, setting up a gadget, and even making a payment. This video develops trust between a visitor and the brand.
Lottie animations to explain products
Motion and animation have always been a trend in B2B website design. And it’s going to remain one of the popular trends in 2024 as well. This trend says - it is always better to show than to tell. In today's digital world, people expect all digital interactions to be enhanced by moving graphics. With all the social media platforms out there, motion graphics, animation and video content are hitting the heights of popularity.
The use of animation makes the experience more engaging and enjoyable for users because it creates a visual interest that grabs their attention and at the same time will bring the products/services to life. If pictures say a thousand words, moving images can say a million more to those across the screen. Few reasons to use motion design in a B2B web design:
- Motion design can evoke emotion
- Motion design can create engaging content and drive conversion
- Motion design drives better brand awareness
- Motion design simplifies complex concepts
- Motion design makes education content exciting
Since humans are visual learners, motion and animation are far more digestible, and B2B website designs can cash in on that part of human psychology. However, creating an animation from scratch might be expensive and time-consuming, because one needs to be familiar with animation techniques and tools like Adobe After Effects. Here’s where LottieFiles comes in.
A Lottie is a JSON-based animation file format. These are small files that work on any device and can be scaled up and down without any pixelation. With the help of LottieFiles, one can create, edit, test and ship a Lottie in the easiest way possible. These animations, which are lightweight, scalable, and easily integrated across web and mobile interfaces, offer a dynamic way to showcase products in an engaging and informative manner. Motion is the future of design and LottieFiles makes it easier.
Remember to use motion graphics and animation smartly because if you add too many features that could result in making your website crammed. Businesses always want to stand out from their competitors. Animations and motion graphics will help a website visitor to remember the website among the crowd. Hence using such trends will help a visitor to spend some extra time on the website or even come back to make a decision.
Example
Whoop, a fitness and health performance tool utilises Lottie animations on its website and mobile application to explain its product’s features, such as sleep monitoring, strain tracking, and recovery analysis. By incorporating Lottie animations, Whoop not only enhances the visual appeal of its digital platforms but also makes the experience more interactive and informative without overwhelming users with text or static images.
Apart from the above-mentioned seven trends, here are a few more that we will discuss very briefly.
Use of high-quality real-people imagery
Gone are the days when B2B websites used stock images. Now the trend is to use real people imagery. Due to advancements in screen resolution, faster connectivity, as well as simplified design, obsession towards better imagery is growing more and more.
The images you use should be not just beautiful, but unique to your product or service. People can understand when they are looking at a stock photograph, and it can lower their level of trust. Hence, investing in high-quality images will make a huge impact. The use of high-definition images in B2B website design can create strong impressions on the target audience as well as increase brand recognition.
Example
https://www.ankercloud.com/careers
This website here Ankercloud, was designed by our B2B web design team and developed by our in-house development team. To make the overall output of the website design excellent, we went the extra mile to gather images of the people working in their office. This really made a big difference when compared to websites that use stock images.
Use of Bold Typography and Colours
Well, it turns out B2B decision-makers enjoy a bit of visual excitement just as much as anyone else. A website design's role is to make a positive impression, and what better way to do that than with bold typography and colours? B2B website designers are using oversized elements, bold typography and shorter messaging to create a powerful and modern visual impact and thereby help drive user engagement.
The year 2024 is up for this trend and it's gaining recognition already. It’s typically the first impression, so why not go bold? This clearly communicates a message while also making an impact. With the use of bold typography and colours, B2B websites are breaking the stereotype that B2B has to be boring.
Example
OneLern, a one-stop digital solution partner to empower educators, learners and management is a versatile project successfully pulled off by our design team. The team strategically planned for bold typography and a short message along with a few illustrations. This definitely made an impact on the visitor and allowed for some engagement.
Importance on the About Us Page
So, we have noticed something pretty interesting and going to remain popular in 2024 in the B2B website design, is all about giving the "About Us" page its moment in the spotlight. For a long time, most of the B2B websites often overlooked and undervalued this page. If a web visitor needs to have trust in you, it's important to showcase who you are. After viewing your website if a visitor needs to consider working with you, they will be very much curious to know who you and your team are beyond the sales pitch.
This isn't just fluff, it's about building trust and authenticity. When potential clients can see the journey you've been on, understand what you do, and get a glimpse of the people they'll be working with, it breaks down barriers. It transforms a faceless corporation into a group of real humans with passion and purpose. And thereby lays the foundation for lasting business relationships.
For a B2B web design agency, the About Us page is the opportunity to tell your story, share your values, show the faces behind the brand and convey how authentic your company is to your potential customer.
In a B2B website design, talking about the team and showing off their talents makes About Us a crucial piece of your website design strategy.
Example
https://www.hubspot.com/our-story
Clarity in Pricing
As a B2B website design agency, we have often experienced that after viewing our website people trying to bargain on the pricing. They are just trying their luck, but the reality is, that kind of a call or a talk puts us in a pickle. Further, the relationship with the visitor may not be as smooth as expected.
So in 2024, the trend that's going to make waves in B2B website design is about bringing clarity to pricing. Imagine landing on a website and, without having to navigate through a maze of pages or fill out a form just to get a quote, you find clear, straightforward pricing information. It's like walking into a store where the price tags are right there in front of you, no guessing games required. This move towards transparency is just smart business. It builds trust from the get-go. When a company is upfront about their pricing, it tells you they're confident in their value and they respect your time and decision-making process. Plus, it saves everyone involved a ton of back and forth, making the whole ‘getting down to business’ part smoother and faster.
When a B2B website design agency gives clarity in pricing, it streamlines the inquiry and sales process, attracting leads that are ready to commit because they already know the deal fits their budget. And for customers, it’s easy to compare options and make informed decisions. This trend will definitely make the B2B world a little less complicated and a lot more straightforward.
Example
https://slack.com/intl/en-in/pricing
Page Speed
Christos Soulaki, Head of Development at Creative Mules says, “I want to give my clients AND users the best possible experience. Slow-loading websites are not an option anymore with today's TikTok attention span. If your website takes more than 0.2s to load, your users already left.”
To give your potential customers an enjoyable and efficient experience, your website needs to be fast. Research says 39% of the viewers will stop engaging with content when loading time takes too long. So make sure your B2B website loads fast.
Conclusion
In summary, as we move into 2024, B2B website design is not just about aesthetics, it's a comprehensive strategy that influences user experience, brand perception, search visibility, and conversion rates. Investing in quality website design is essential for any business looking to thrive in the digital marketplace.
Website design trends will continue to evolve as technology and tastes change. In B2B website design, you might not jump on every trend, but you’ll want to keep your website looking current and relevant, to help your business connect and convert.
Combining these design trends with great website content can provide a website experience that helps to position your business as an industry leader.
