automation-software

The demand for fast, scalable, and flexible web development tools has never been higher, especially as consumers continue demanding websites that are both higher quality and more personalized in order to earn their time, attention, and dollars.

Working with over 300,000 customers, we know firsthand how Webflow delivers real value and results — including accelerated time-to-market, conversion lift, and reductions in development costs — for leading brands, agencies, and freelancers alike.

We know that often companies have competing internal priorities, so to help our clients better understand the potential impacts of investing in Webflow, we commissioned a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study from Forrester Consulting. Five representatives from organizations using Webflow were interviewed to produce this study, and today, we’re excited to share the major findings, as well as the report itself.

Customers generated a 332% return on investment with Webflow

The ability to build, launch, optimize, and scale websites in a visual-first platform helps businesses create engaging customer experiences that generate measurable business impact.

Interviewees shared how building more polished and well-designed websites in Webflow has given them the ability to better position their brand and communicate the value of their products and services — increasing site traffic and subsequently, conversions.

The study also highlights how Webflow enhances collaboration between marketing and technical teams, which in turn, positively impacts their website.

“Being able to create webpages in such a streamlined way has completely changed how we think about the new ideas for what we can do next.”

— Director of web strategy, security software

Content management efficiencies improved time-to-market by 94%

One of the biggest challenges teams face today when it comes to the website revolves around resourcing and empowerment. When teams are solely reliant on highly-technical talent to make even the smallest of site changes, this lack of agility compromises business goals. This is often the case with organizations using legacy solutions with content management systems managed by engineering teams.

“The nature of [previous solution] just made it a really painful, long, long process to get anything done.”

— Senior manager of digital and marketing operations at a banking hardware, software, and services organization

Webflow’s visual, composable CMS empowers teams to create on-brand website experiences that convert, eliminates an over-reliance on IT and technical teams, and enables greater cross-functional collaboration — whether between departments at in-house teams or organizations working with design and development agencies.

Forrester found that Webflow’s efficiencies in content management improved time-to-market by 94%, as well as an 80% efficiency improvement in the time needed to make changes and corrections on the main website and microsites.

“The value of speed to market is ultimately time is money. The more time you have [to build] these experiences and market them, the more value you can actually drive and spend on future campaigns and initiatives.”

— Director of web strategy, security software

Teams saved $850,000 on decommissioned legacy systems and reallocated labor

In addition to compromising agility, traditional content management systems come with a hefty price tag beyond the product itself. Interviewees reported their previous solutions were custom-coded, which required a large investment in technical teams. Forrester found that Webflow’s hosting capabilities and reduced need to enlist full-stack developers to manage the platform are some of the primary drivers of cost savings.

“Webflow is quickly surpassing even [a competitor firm] as the easiest end-to-end implementation. Even if you don’t have those dedicated resources, because of the libraries of UI and built-in components, you can easily implement even if you don’t have that knowledge set.”

— Director of web strategy, security software

Read the full TEI study today

Evaluating the potential financial impact of any investment your team is making is critical, and this study highlights the core benefits — positive ROI, cost savings, accelerated time-to-market — teams realize after implementing Webflow.

To dig into the findings of this study further, as well as explore the full methodology and framework, access your complimentary copy here.

Psychology and UX design go hand in hand. Psychological principles outline how people respond to stimuli and what motivates them to take specific actions. Designers can use this information to create more effective sites. By better understanding subconscious behaviors like shape recognition, designers can satisfy expectations users might not even know they have.

When designing a fitness app, for example, you could place exercise goals inside upward-facing triangles. These shapes signal growth and progress, subtly encouraging people to work out and reach new milestones. 

8 principles of psychology in design

The following eight psychological principles play a big part in UX design and have remained relevant through many years of experimentation and peer review.

1. Color theory

Colors affect how people interpret websites, and designers can use these feelings to subtly influence website visitors’ emotions. That’s what makes color theory so powerful — it helps designers decide when to select one color over another. 

Blue, for example, denotes dependability and integrity, while red signifies danger and urgency. For this reason, websites tend to use blue when showcasing security and privacy features and red when calling attention to an alert that requires immediate action.

2. Hick’s Law

Hick’s Law states that it takes more time to make a decision as options increase in complexity or volume. When too many stimuli compete for attention, the short-term memory overloads, causing people to avoid making a decision.

Every stimulus source increases the cognitive load on the brain. The cognitive load is the effort it takes the brain to understand a situation. Leveraging Hick’s Law in your web design means reducing cognitive load to give your users options that are easy to understand. 

For example, a restaurant’s online ordering page could start with categories like Pasta, Pizza, and Salads. Patrons can choose between those three options before selecting a specific dish so they won’t be overwhelmed by seeing the entire menu at once.

3. Gestalt principles

Gestalt psychology studies how humans perceive complex images and recognize patterns. Many principles of Gestalt psychology apply to UX design, including symmetry, similarity, and continuity. Understanding these foundations helps designers understand how users interpret websites. 

Take similarity, for instance, which refers to people naturally grouping similar-looking items together. Designers can leverage this effect by making the “Next page” button a consistent color and shape across the website. This approach allows visitors to quickly identify and understand the button’s purpose, improving navigation.

4. The golden ratio

The golden ratio is a visually appealing ratio of 1:1.618, which appears in nature in places like the shape of a ram’s horn or the number of petals growing on a flower. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci have used this ratio in famous works, and it still has a place in modern-day design.

When UX designers size elements according to this ratio, their layouts are easier to understand because they follow a natural convention. This principle even applies in typography — making headers 1.618 times bigger than the body font clearly marks headers as important information.

5. Anchoring bias

Anchoring bias occurs when people give more value to information they receive early in the decision-making process. Say shoppers see a table comparing two subscription service tiers, and the first column has fewer features than the second. Because the first column looks more basic, people will be more likely to buy the second tier, even if they don’t need all the listed features.

Web designers use anchoring bias by front-loading information they want readers to internalize. For example, designers might create a homepage stating their client’s product is “protected by enterprise-grade security” or “backed by cyber-security professionals” so users are more likely to trust the brand.

6. Persuasive design

Persuasive design uses visual and social cues to affect people’s emotions. Designers use techniques like storytelling and color theory to subtly persuade their audience to complete desired tasks, often increasing conversions. 

One example of a common persuasive tactic is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. Designers and marketers use limited-time offers or timed content to make their audience feel they’ll miss out on something if they don’t act fast. This pressure encourages customers to make a purchase or sign up for email campaigns.

7. Social proof

Social proof refers to accolades, customer reviews, and testimonials that brands use to improve an audience’s perception of their products. Potential customers are more likely to trust shoppers’ or outside institutions’ opinions of a product since they’ll see these endorsements as unbiased.

Say a designer is building a website for a car company. To prove the cars are safer than competitors’, designers can feature safety awards on the brand’s homepage. This social proof signals that customers’ families will be safe during accidents, leading to more sales.

8. Scanning patterns

When people read a website, they tend to follow either an F-shaped or Z-shaped pattern, so named because that’s how readers’ eyes travel across the page: 

• Z-shaped pattern — Users start by scanning horizontally across the top from left to right, then diagonally down and across again. Website visitors who follow this method will better understand the whole site.
• F-shaped pattern — Readers first review the top of a page before scanning down just the left side, which can lead to missed details in the middle and right sections.

Designers aim to discourage F-shaped patterns by using strategies such as clear headings, bolded key terms, and structured lists. 

These formatting choices emphasize important information, encouraging visitors to slow down and pay more attention to the content. By fully engaging the reader, you may be able to teach them something new or convince them to check out your client’s product.

Why psychology matters in web design

User testing, focus groups, and surveys are all great at capturing user feedback, but these research methods don’t assess the subconscious reasons people respond to content. When web designers consider psychological principles, they use decades of established data to decide which elements will catch readers’ attention. Understanding visitor intent allows teams to build websites that suit people’s needs and nudge them to complete desired tasks.

Test your design with Webflow

Incorporating psychology into your design is essential for creating sites for clients that engage various users’ decision-making processes. Employing these principles can help you drive conversions and help your clients connect with their audience. 

Try experimenting with psychology during your next website experiment with Webflow Optimize. Make consistent, comprehensive changes across your site with reusable components, and surface valuable data with analytics integrations.

To learn more, check out how other designers use Webflow.

Headless commerce offers the flexibility to modify your website’s appearance independently from the server side. By leveraging headless ecommerce features, you can update your site in real time.

Adopting headless commerce involves more than implementing new technology. It means rethinking how your ecommerce platform can support rapid updates, scalability, and consistent experiences across all channels.

Discover the benefits of headless commerce, how it works, and why it’s essential to futureproof your online business.

What’s headless commerce?

Headless commerce is an ecommerce architecture in which the front end is decoupled from the back end. Making changes on one end of the framework doesn’t impact the other, allowing both ends to function independently.

This separation lets you use any front-end technology to create a custom user interface (UI) without affecting the back end, which handles operations like processing payments, tracking orders, and managing customer data.

To understand how headless commerce works, first consider these essential layers of the architecture:

• The front end is your website’s UI, where customers interact with the online store. In a headless setup, you can use any front-end technology, like Webflow, to create a visually appealing and functional user experience (UX).
• APIs, or application programming interfaces, bridge the front end (server) and back end (client), letting them exchange data and commands.
• The back end handles commerce functionalities, such as inventory management, payment processing, and customer data. It operates independently, so you can update complex processes like product information and transactions without affecting the UI.

How headless commerce works

Here’s a step-by-step explanation of headless commerce, highlighting the interaction between the front end, API layer, and back end:

1. The front end makes a request. The headless process begins when a visitor interacts with the front-end UI, taking actions like viewing a product and adding an item to their shopping cart.
2. The front end makes an API call. The API is the intermediary, sending the visitor’s request to the back-end system. It translates the front-end requirements into a format that the back end can understand and process.
3. The back end processes the request. The back end is responsible for the heavy lifting on the server side, including data management and business logic.
4. The back end responds to the front end through the API. The response could be the requested data, an action, or other relevant information to update the UI.
5. The front end updates. The front end receives the response and updates the UI accordingly. For example, if the visitor adds an item to their shopping cart, the front end displays the updated cart quantity without reloading the page.

Headless vs. traditional commerce

Traditional ecommerce platforms combine the front-end UI and back-end operations into a single, cohesive system. Any change to the visual elements or UX directly affects the underlying functionality and vice versa. 

These platforms usually have predefined templates and limited customization options, which can restrict you from personalizing the shopping experience to accommodate unique target audiences or market demands. It can also limit the adoption and scalability of new technology and integrations.

Headless commerce overcomes these limitations by separating the front end and back end into distinct entities communicating through APIs. This separation lets developers leverage the latest web technologies with flexibility and control over the UI and UX. Meanwhile, marketers can update the front end, changing layouts or testing new features, without reconfiguring or disrupting back-end systems.

5 benefits of headless commerce

Headless commerce provides the following five advantages to improve how your online business operates.

1. Creative flexibility and customization

Separating front-end and back-end operations means you can customize your site’s UI without server-side limitations. You can update layouts without downtime and create engaging experiences that align with modern trends.

For example, you could add a 3D model viewer to your online store so customers can view your products in 360 degrees. This level of customization is possible using advanced graphics libraries in the front end without changing the back end.

2. Omnichannel capabilities

Headless commerce platforms let you deliver consistent experiences across desktop browsers, mobile apps, smart devices, and even in-store kiosks. With a centralized back end and a flexible front end, you can maintain your brand identity across multiple channels.

Say you run an online store and a physical location. Headless functionality ensures your product or service catalog and prices remain consistent. Updating a price change in the back end reflects on all front-end channels instantly.

3. Scalability and performance

Decoupling the front and back ends means you can scale each independently based on demand. For example, during high-traffic events like Black Friday, you can scale front-end resources to handle more visitors without overloading back-end systems. This separation keeps the website fast and responsive for customers without compromising the operational side of the business.

4. Faster time to market

Headless ecommerce strategies allow you to implement and push updates faster by working on the front end without waiting for back-end changes and vice versa. These strategies enable quicker releases of new features, updates, and bug fixes. You can also rapidly adapt to market changes and stay ahead of the competition, as well as react to customer feedback or unexpected crashes.

For instance, you could implement A/B testing tools to see how different layouts drive conversions. Headless commerce lets you roll out weekly front-end changes without needing back-end adjustments, so you can iteratively design and optimize.

5. Integration with third-party tools

API layers in headless architecture enable you to integrate ecommerce sites with valuable tools and services. Whether you need a new payment processor, marketing tool, or customer relationship management system, you can incorporate these tools into your site’s existing functionality without disrupting the front-end UI. This easy integration makes headless ecosystems more feature-rich and adaptable to modern business needs.

To collect feedback, for example, you can add a new customer review integration. In headless commerce, integrating a third-party service involves connecting its API to the existing back end, allowing data to flow between the systems without altering the user-facing side.

Use cases and examples

​​Headless ecommerce solutions provide many opportunities to create personalized, engaging user experiences. Here are real-world use cases that highlight its versatility.

Content-rich user experiences

With headless commerce, you can create content-rich websites with high-quality videos, interactive graphics, and ecommerce functionality to design an immersive UX without impacting server-side functionality. Quality content educates potential customers and displays products and services effectively, encouraging people to engage.

For example, you can use headless content management systems (CMSs) to create a dedicated blog on your site with videos, case studies, and articles about your services. This setup lets you continuously update content to attract and retain customers while the back end handles the data.

Mobile commerce applications

Headless systems let you use the back end as a centralized data hub while optimizing the front end with mobile-first designs. This capability ensures fast, responsive mobile experiences across multiple devices and screen sizes.

With mobile devices becoming the dominant means of online shopping, headless commerce allows you to leverage device-specific features without sacrificing performance and customer-facing UIs.

Progressive web apps

Progressive web apps (PWAs) provide app-like experiences directly within web browsers. These offer the best web and mobile features, like fast loading times, offline capabilities through downloaded content, and responsive designs.

With headless commerce, you can create PWAs by serving content through the front end, with the back end operating independently. For example, you can make a PWA for a documentation and customer support portal. The PWA lets users access guides, tutorials, and troubleshooting tips offline, ensuring they always have the required resources — even with limited internet access.

The right CMS for your business

Headless commerce is a versatile and flexible approach to building and managing stores, allowing you to update the front and back ends independently. But while there are many headless commerce software solutions on the market, like Contentful and Ghost, you still need engineers to create and maintain the front end. 

That’s where Webflow’s visual-first, composable CMS comes in, letting you build and manage your site without relying on developers. Instead, you can craft visually appealing, content-rich ecommerce sites to scale faster. Plus, Webflow’s powerful integrations and APIs let you seamlessly connect various tools, ensuring your platform grows with your business needs.

Expand your enterprise’s operations from top to bottom with Webflow.

You’ve heard all about the increasing importance of website personalization. You have a firm grasp on how to achieve it and how to measure success. The next step in the B2B buyer journey? Assembling stakeholders to execute a more customized website experience for your prospects and customers.

With the right team in place, you’ll build website personalization campaigns that are thoughtful and strategic and cover every aspect of the buyer journey. 

In this post, we reveal how to structure a successful website personalization team, why structure matters, and how to divvy up duties across different departments to create a better customer experience and, ultimately, increase conversion rates.

B2B website personalization: why it’s important

Website personalization has become a powerful strategy for B2B marketing teams because it opens doors to new revenue opportunities. Today’s personalization solutions help those without the technical know-how deliver tailored user experiences, test and optimize site experiences, and track the success of personalization campaigns. 

Examples of website personalization can take many forms:

• Dynamic content and interactive elements to enhance the customer journey
• Custom messaging that speaks to visitors’ intent or pain points
• Localization that makes content accessible to visitors all over the world 
• Personalized recommendations based on queries or past behavior

When implemented methodically and effectively, website personalization can positively impact B2B marketing growth in a number of ways:

• More accurate persona targeting. Personalization allows you to narrow your audience targeting to hit the right people with the right message at the right time. 
• Increased engagement with decision-makers and B2B customers. A website that delivers exactly what you’re looking for is more likely to catch your target’s attention, especially if the messaging speaks directly to their immediate needs.
• Improved brand awareness and trust. When a visitor knows the site will hand them solutions without having to scour the website themselves, they’re more likely to develop loyalty to that brand.
• Meets customers’ expectations. According to a study from Forrester and Adobe, 72% of B2B customers expect either a fully or mostly personalized experience when they interact with the professional products and services they use. 
• Increased conversion rates. A Statista survey revealed that 93% of B2B professionals attribute an increase in revenue to personalized website content. 

In summary, website personalization is a must for teams seeking to craft more  impactful and memorable user experiences that boost your bottom line. But to ensure you’re enacting your strategy in a way that works best for your business’s unique revenue goals, you need the right team in place.

Building your website personalization dream team

Assembling an in-house website personalization team might seem like an overwhelming and time-consuming task, but the more thought you put into this process, the better your outcomes will be.

Let’s dive in to identify who you might need for this process and who should be responsible for each task.

Define roles and responsibilities

Marketing

Involving your marketing team in website personalization may seem like a no-brainer, but the importance of having this team on board is still worth mentioning. From your SEO manager to product marketers and content writers, each member of your marketing team brings a unique perspective and skill set for optimizing your site.

For starters, they have a solid grasp of your business’s target audience, and they’re experts at developing content that speaks directly to these personas. With a propensity to make data-driven decisions, they’ll be the first to offer insights to guide your optimization efforts based on key performance indicators. 

Lean on your content writers to keep your persona-based messaging consistent across all channels and to optimize content for search engines, user experiences, and conversion.

By providing them with a visual-first web development platform from which to launch and monitor your site campaigns, your marketing team can keep a close eye on performance and make any necessary changes in the moment, without having to rely on engineers.

UX/UI designers

The visual appeal of your site is what will catch your target audience’s attention. To do this effectively, you need a strong team of UX and UI designers to create compelling, eye-grabbing websites that guide visitors on a journey to conversion. 

These key members of the team can help design personalized website experiences, examine how elements on the page integrate and interact with each other, and ensure a seamless path to action for the intended audience. 

Web developers

An essential addition to any web project, web developers gather all the elements above to build the website’s infrastructure. This may be a technically-capable web designer or someone embedded within your engineering or development team, depending on your org structure. They help establish optimal page load times and ensure seamless functionality across different browsers and devices to deliver a consistent user experience.

To help the marketing team optimize websites for search engines, for example, they can structure sites for easy navigability and implement security features that establish the website’s quality and reliability in the eyes of search engines. This also helps build trust with your target personas.

Data

It (almost) goes without saying that your data team must be a part of your decision-making process. It’s crucial to have these analytics experts on hand to help analyze user journeys and ensure website data is appropriately integrated with your customer relationship management (CRM) tool. This will give you insight into customer behavior and allows for greater alignment with the rest of the team to make informed decisions going forward.

The data team also can monitor website actions in real time and fix errors on the spot. Once a campaign is complete, count on them to create custom reports that deliver the precise learnings you’ll need for optimization efforts down the road. 

Other roles to consider

The teams above can give you a robust start to your website personalization efforts, but it wouldn’t hurt to include experts from two other departments.

CS and CX

Your customer success and customer experience folks witness your customers’ pain points and preferences on a daily basis. They’ll have valuable insight into where your customers struggle and can help inform your personalization tactics for the next batch of to-be customers.

Sales

Like your customer success team, your sales team also listens to prospects’ pain points and gets a first-hand account of where they need the most help and what would drive them to make a purchase. Adding a few salespeople to your website personalization team also ensures they’re aligned with marketing efforts in terms of messaging and positioning. 

How to structure your website personalization team 

Now that you’ve built your dream team, it’s time to implement structure to give you the best shot at achieving your goals.

Leadership

First, you’ll need to assign a project manager or project lead. This might be one person or it may involve one person from each of the teams mentioned above. This person (or people) is responsible for ensuring all teams are aligned and project deadlines are met. 

Centralized vs. decentralized

With a centralized team structure, there is a clear chain of command. A decentralized structure, on the other hand, offers more opportunity for flexibility as the decision-making is evenly distributed. The makeup and size of your team will determine which of these structures is the best option.

Two-team structure

You may find that you want to define a core team as well as a supporting team. The core team would be hands-on participants in the website personalization activities, while the supporting team would provide expertise if and when needed on things such as design and/or SEO.

Role-based structure

With this structure, each team would stick to its responsibilities (e.g., marketing would focus on messaging and content; design would manage UX and possibly include developers) without venturing into other teams’ duties. This creates separate, discernable boundaries to ensure teams stay in their lane and focus on the task at hand to help contribute to the overall shared goal.

Cross-functional structure

Regardless of which structure you choose, all team members must be prepared to eventually work across functions. Confirm that teams are on the right track by scheduling frequent check-ins, allowing for open discussion and expectations-setting.

Solutions and tools for B2B personalization

To build a team that supports a personalized B2B buyer journey, you and your team will need to identify a few things: goals you hope to reach, a strategy to meet those goals, and a way to measure the success of your efforts.

Whether you’re a smaller team just starting out or a big team ready to hit the ground running, a tool like Webflow can put the controls in the hands of whoever needs them, regardless of company size. For example, your marketing team can build campaigns on their own and tweak these campaigns post-launch, all without needing to involve developers for the smallest of tasks. 

Increased conversion rates: A collaborative approach 

Your website personalization efforts don’t end once your team is in place and your campaign launches. Lean on your team to conduct continual testing to track the effectiveness of the campaign as you go. 

Webflow’s optimization tools can assist with SEO, accessibility, and localization, amplifying your marketing efforts and ensuring a seamless customer experience. With a well-structured team and the tools to help you streamline personalization, you’ll transform your website into a conversion-creating machine. 

A good user experience (UX) design creates a journey that reliably converts site visitors into paying customers or engaged users. UX designers strive to build that journey by optimizing navigation, page speeds, and every other indicator that boosts engagement.

If initial designs and broad site changes fall short regarding engagement goals, designers can use conversion rate optimization (CRO) to experiment with changes that could move the needle on UX-based metrics.

Leveraging this testing method, you can tailor your website to bring in the most leads by providing an elevated visitor experience. Read on to discover how CRO and UX intersect and how to integrate CRO’s iterative testing into your design process. 

The importance of CRO in UX design

CRO is a fine-tuning technique for making careful, thoughtful web design changes aimed at increasing conversions. Rather than a heavy-handed approach like a full-site redesign or broad design system change, CRO seeks to make precise, measurable tweaks that deliver results. 

According to a study from Optimizely, only 12% of design changes produce favorable results like higher conversion or lower bounce rates. CRO ensures you make optimizations that actually lead to improved business results, rather than applying ineffective or even harmful changes to the UX.

Common CRO changes with noticeable results

To optimize your UX for conversions, you can experiment with almost any aspect of your page design and user journey. Sometimes the subtlest changes lead to incredible results.

For inspiration, try one of the following common CRO changes:

• Reorganize the layout — If visitors often bounce from your homepage or landing pages before scrolling to more content, test variations of different website layouts and CTAs to see if you can increase user engagement.
• Make navigation changes — Use a card sorting test to discover the most logical and engaging way to organize navigational elements like menus.
• Enhance your CTAs — A/B test various CTA options to see which one gets more clicks. You can change up the language or place these buttons in various spots on the site — either way, the goal is to track engagement. Once you know the CTA type that’s most effective, implement it sitewide.
• Personalize content — Incorporate subtle personalizations that dynamically change based on who’s seeing your pages. This technique requires a lot of expertise to implement manually, but tools like Webflow Optimize simplify the process.‍
• Add or change the social proof — Make sure your site’s social proof comes across as authentic and accurate. You want to convince visitors that people like them love your offering, so the language should be approachable and detailed to convince the reader the review is real. Then, experiment with placement. An uptick in clicks for a CTA nearby likely means your social proof is working.

The CRO process in 6 steps

Here’s a six-step process for discovering and testing design changes that can boost your site’s conversion rates.

1. Research

Use web analytics tools to identify where users stall on your pages. Microsoft Clarity is especially useful for this practice, as the heatmap functionality shows you precisely where most users hover on a page. This information helps you identify where website visitors are missing vital information or skipping past CTAs that lead further into your conversion funnel. 

List all the pages where you observed these issues and examine their metrics with Webflow Analyze or Google Analytics. Prioritize your list based on the best areas for optimization, such as landing pages with low conversion rates or product descriptions with high bounce rates.

2. Optimization

Build out alternatives for the pages you identified as improvement areas. Focus on small, manageable changes like different button placements, CTA text, and pop-up timing. That way, when you run an A/B test, you can experiment with one update at a time to determine which changes impact your conversion rate the most.

3. A/B testing

Use an A/B testing tool to evaluate which design variations perform better. For example, you could conduct a test where you switch out a static graphic for a 3D animation. Monitor which version has a higher conversion rate, and consider other metrics like bounce rate or engagement.

4. Measurement

When you’ve tested your alternate page designs thoroughly, revisit your analytics and heatmap tools. Measure the impact your design changes made, noting how conversion rates, bounce rates, and view time shift. Examine the heatmap to determine if readers discover your CTAs more frequently or hover on areas of the page that lead them to the next step in the user journey.

5. Publishing

If your measurements demonstrate that a change is favorable, publish the updated version. Then, continue to monitor the metrics to ensure the improvement holds. If it doesn’t, reexamine the change to refine it further. 

For example, removing a few fields from a contact form might have led to more submissions in testing but not when it reached the whole audience. Try a new A/B test where you remove or combine different fields.

6. Adjustments

Your CRO changes might require updates to your design system, such as a new “Subscribe” CTA button or a different headline font. If that’s the case, update all the instances of that element. Keeping your design system consistent ensures that any benefits you discover from these minor changes occur everywhere they appear.

How to improve your UX design with CRO

Keeping your changes hyper-specific is the key to leveraging CRO to improve your UX design. CRO isn’t meant to test drastic differences between site versions. For that, you need full-scale user testing that can surface big-picture insights about the overall user journey, such as client satisfaction and usability testing.

Instead, CRO works best as a small-scale optimization technique for established designs. Use it to test individual changes, fine-tuning them to raise your current conversion rate and improve the UX in precise but significant ways. 

Don’t let the small scale of this testing method fool you. You’d be surprised how big an impact introducing a pop-up or rearranging a landing page can make. For example, according to WPBeginner, an exit-intent pop-up can reduce cart abandonment rates by up to 53%. 

These minute changes often make all the difference between a lackluster conversion rate and a high-converting design. 

Drive conversions with Webflow

UX is the heart of your web designs, informing everything from the navigation structure to the color of buttons. To create a consistent and optimized website experience, you need a platform that makes refining your design system seamless. With Webflow, you can update reusable components, and with one click, those changes apply everywhere. 

Webflow’s robust Designer supports custom attributes, code, and variables, so you can delicately fine-tune everything from page layouts to schema markup, all in an intuitive interface. If you’re ready to build powerful pages that are optimized for engagement, sign up for Webflow today.

B2B marketing is equal parts art and science. If you’re still relying solely on cold emails and trade show booths, it’s time to update your strategies. The modern-day B2B marketing playbook is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve can mean the difference between surviving and thriving. 

Whether you’re a seasoned in-house marketing pro or an agency-based marketing manager, you’re in the right place. Below, we’ll walk you through the latest B2B marketing strategies you need to stand out from the crowd. 

What is B2B marketing?

B2B (business-to-business) marketing involves businesses selling products or services to other businesses. It’s about building relationships, establishing trust, and demonstrating value to other businesses.

Now, you might be thinking, “Marketing is marketing, right?” Well, not exactly. While B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing share some common ground, there are some key distinctions:

• Decision-making buying process: B2B purchases often involve multiple decision-makers and long sales cycles that can take months (or even years). B2C could be as quick as seeing an Instagram ad and hitting “Buy Now.”
• Emotional vs. rational appeal: While B2C marketing often appeals to emotions, B2B marketing needs to appeal to both hearts and minds. You’re not just selling a product — you’re selling ROI, efficiency, and business growth.
• Relationship building: In B2B, the sale is just the beginning. Long-term relationships and account management make for lifelong customers and repeat business.
• Content complexity: B2B content often needs to be more detailed and technical.

B2B marketing starts with knowing your audience, and they’re not just a target corporate logo. You’re not marketing to a faceless corporation — you’re marketing to people within that corporation. 

And to do that, you need to:

• Create detailed buyer personas — Identify the decision makers and their pain points.
• Map the buyer’s journey — Understand the steps your potential clients take from realizing they have a problem to choosing your solution. Know the purchasing decisions they face and who gets the final say.
• Speak their language — Familiarize yourself with industry jargon so you can have more efficient conversation.
• Provide value at every touchpoint — Whether it’s a blog post, a webinar, or a sales call, always ask yourself, “How is this helping my audience?”

Top 7 B2B marketing strategies

Here are the B2B marketing strategies you should implement to make the most of your marketing resources.

1. Audience personas

Create buyer personas. These aren’t just generic profiles, they identify your customers behaviors, preferences, and goals.

Here’s how to create effective buyer personas:

• Do your homework — Dive into your current customer data, conduct surveys, and talk to your customers.
• Go beyond demographics — Identify their daily challenges and long-term goals.
• Map their journey — Understand every step they take from “We have a problem” to “This solution is perfect!”
• Keep it real — Remember, there are real people behind these persona files and PDFs. 

Use these customer personas to guide every aspect of your marketing strategy, from content creation to email campaigns. In B2B marketing, one size definitely does not fit all. The more you tailor your approach to your specific audience, the more likely you are to turn prospects into partners.

2. Content marketing

Content marketing isn’t just for B2C brands — your brand can use it, too. Create an enterprise content strategy to build brand awareness, establish authority, create relationships, and even entertain your audience.

Here are a few ways to create compelling content for your B2B audience:

• Mix it up — Blog posts are great, but don’t stop there. Whitepapers, case studies, webinars, podcasts, infographics are all content formats you can try.
• Tell stories — Yes, even in your B2B content marketing strategy. Share customer success stories, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or even the occasional failure (and how you bounced back). People connect with stories, not just facts and figures.
• Make it actionable — Your content should leave readers knowing what their next step is, whether visiting your site or signing up for a demo.
• Optimize for search — Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t just for e-commerce sites. Use tools like Webflow’s SEO features to make sure your content ranks well on search engines.
• Repurpose — That in-depth whitepaper? Turn it into a series of blog posts, social media snippets, and a webinar.

3. Lead generation

Leads are the lifeblood of your B2B business, but they don’t usually come to you — you have to meet them halfway with lead generation strategies. These strategies fill your sales pipeline with a steady stream of qualified buyers, reduce money wasted on spray-and-pray marketing tactics, and shorten your overall sales cycle.

Here are a few lead-generation tactics you can try:

• Gated content — Offer high-value gated resources, like ebooks, webinars, or industry reports, in exchange for contact information.
• Lead magnets — Create offers that solve immediate problems for your target audience. Think lead magnets like templates, checklists, or free trials.
• Webinars and virtual events — Host online events that showcase your expertise and provide real value.
• LinkedIn lead gen forms — Leverage LinkedIn’s robust B2B targeting capabilities with pre-filled forms that make sign-ups simple and easy.
• Chatbots — Use AI-powered chatbots to engage visitors 24/7, qualify leads, and book meetings.

It’s never about quantity over quality — that’s a surefire way to overwhelm your sales team and tank your sales cycle. 

Instead, use these strategies to attract the right leads:

• Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) — Know exactly who your ideal customer is before you start reaching out.
• Use progressive profiling — Gather information gradually instead of asking for everything upfront.
• Score your leads — Develop a system to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert.
• Nurture, nurture, nurture — Not every lead is ready to buy right away. Use email campaigns and targeted content to keep them warm until they’re ready to take the plunge.

4. Email marketing

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere — especially when it comes to B2B marketing strategies. Unlike social media blasts, emails land directly in your prospect’s inbox, and with metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, you can know the exact ROI of each campaign you send. 

Here are a few B2B marketing tactics that’ll help you maximize your email marketing program:

• Segment — Break your email list into specific groups based on industry, job title, behavior, or stage in the buyer’s journey.
• Personalize — Use dynamic content to tailor your emails based on the recipient’s interests, past interactions, or pain points.
• Nail your subject lines — Make subject lines intriguing, value-packed, and concise. These are just as important as the headlines on your website.
• Provide value — Educational content, industry insights, or exclusive offers should be a regular part of your emails. Save the hard sell for your actual sales team.
• Optimize for mobile — Make sure your emails are responsive and look good on mobile.
• Test, analyze, repeat — A/B test everything from subject lines to send times. More data means better results. 

Don’t neglect your existing customers in your email strategy. Use email to provide ongoing value, upsell complementary products or services, and turn satisfied B2B customers into raving fans.

5. Social media marketing

At first glance, your brand might not seem like a fit for the social media stereotype of cat videos, food pics, and viral dances. In the professional world and on the right marketing channels, however, social media opens up networking opportunities.

Here are a few ways you can up your B2B marketing game on social media:

• Choose your social media platforms wisely — Not all social networks are created equal in B2B. Prioritize LinkedIn for reaching your target personas, and Twitter/X and Instagram for more casual social engagement.
• Make content that resonates with your target audience — Share content that resonates with your audience’s professional interests, such as industry news, expert tips, and success stories.
• Engage, don’t just broadcast — Respond to comments, join relevant discussions, and don’t be afraid to reach out via direct message for collaboration.
• Leverage employee advocacy — Encourage your marketing team to share company content and insights.

6. Account-based marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) focuses on your ideal clients. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, this strategy tailors your marketing efforts to specific high-value accounts. 

ABM is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to build relationships and see results. 

Follow these steps to optimize your ABM strategy:

• Identify your target accounts — Look for companies that align with your ideal customer profile and have high potential lifetime value.
• Do your homework — Understand their pain points, challenges, and goals. 
• Personalize everything — Tailor your messaging, content, and offers to each account.
• Coordinate your channels — Use a mix of targeted ads, personalized emails, social media channels, direct mail, and phone calls.
• Leverage technology — Use ABM platforms and marketing tools to track engagement, personalize at scale, and measure results.

7. B2B sales funnel optimization

Your sales funnel might have some leaks where you’re losing customers or wasting your marketing budget. Patching up these holes and optimizing your funnels helps smooth out the buyer’s journey and maximize your spend.

This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process. You’ll want to regularly evaluate your sales funnel before it becomes outdated.

Here’s how to kick off your optimization:

• Map out your current funnel — Before you can optimize, you need to document each stage of your funnel, from awareness to decision.
• Identify bottlenecks and drop-off points — Find the point where leads get stuck or leave.
• Create targeted content for each stage — Top-of-funnel leads need different nurturing than those ready to buy. Tailor your content accordingly.
• Implement lead scoring — Not all leads are created equal. Use a scoring system to prioritize your most viable prospects.
• Align sales and marketing — Double-check these teams are working together. Silos can damage the entire process. 
• Use automation — Automate repetitive tasks, but don’t lose the human touch. Find a balance between efficiency and personalization.

Emerging trends in B2B marketing

B2B marketing is always changing. Here are a few of the up-and-coming trends to keep your eye on and get ahead of the curve.

Personalization expectations

Today’s B2B buyers expect experiences tailored just for them. Use data-driven insights to create personalized content, product recommendations, and communications. Your potential buyers want to know you know them and what they actually want. 

Tools like Intellimize can help you optimize your sites for conversion with scalable, AI-powered personalization and AI-driven copy suggestions.

AI and automation

AI in B2B marketing is revolutionizing lead scoring, customer segmentation, and predictive analytics. Analytic tools help turn your data into actionable insights, and Webflow Localization enables you to customize your website based on your visitors’ languages and locations.  

Data-driven marketing

Use analytics to inform your decision-making, optimize your campaigns, and prove ROI for your campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics and Tableau give marketers all the data they need to make informed decisions. 

Examples of successful B2B marketing campaigns

Sometimes, you just need a bit of inspiration to launch your own B2B marketing strategies. Let’s take a look at a couple of real-life examples of B2B marketing campaigns that nailed it.

Shopify’s “Let’s Make You a Business” campaign

Here’s what made Shopify’s campaign work:

• Empowering messaging — Instead of focusing on their features, Shopify positioned itself as a partner in their customers’ success.
• Multi-channel approach — From YouTube videos to social media posts, they met their audience wherever they hung out online.
• User-generated content — They showcased real Shopify users, turning customers into their best marketers.

LinkedIn’s “In It Together” campaign

LinkedIn proved they’re more than just a place to update your resume with their “In It Together” campaign. They turned the spotlight on their diverse user base, showcasing how professionals from all walks of life use the platform.

What made LinkedIn’s campaign work:

• Emotional storytelling — They tapped into the universal desire for professional connection and growth.
• Diversity and inclusivity — By featuring a wide range of professionals, they broadened their appeal.
• Cross-platform integration — The campaign seamlessly integrated TV ads, social media, and on-platform content.

Launch cohesive B2B marketing campaigns with Webflow

Transforming your B2B marketing game can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to go it alone. Webflow can help you build, launch, and grow websites that turn visitors into customers.

Don’t just take our word for it — see for yourself. Contact our sales team to get a first-hand look at the Webflow platform and everything it can help you do.

Analyzing competitors helps you understand your market position and identify improvement opportunities. By examining what’s working for other companies, you can uncover successful SEO practices you’ve not yet tapped into.

Effective competitor analysis starts with assessing your own SEO strategies, such as your backlinks, target keywords, and technical optimization. Then, you analyze competitor websites with analysis tools that illuminate why they outrank you in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Learn how to conduct a competitor analysis so you can adapt your SEO strategy to outrank them.

The importance of conducting an SEO competitor analysis

Analyzing competitors can provide you with the following valuable information:

• New insights into your industry landscape and trends, such as new content types, target keywords, and search intents.
• SEO gaps your competitors fill that you don’t, such as popular subtopics or emerging audiences.
• Untapped strengths you have over your competitors, like features and design choices you can highlight to differentiate your brand.

3 competitive analysis tools

To conduct SEO competitive research, start with an SEO tool that can provide insight into your competitors’ websites. Here are three of the best SEO analysis tools on the market.

1. Semrush

Semrush is a robust competitive analysis tool that offers crucial insights about your site’s organic traffic, direct and indirect competitors, and keyword data. It checks multiple data points to discover gaps in your content and compares your traffic against those of your competitors. Then, it generates actionable tips for improving your SEO strategy, like optimizing meta tags, focusing on different keywords, or fixing broken links.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs, an alternative to Semrush, offers many similar features. They have their own content and keyword database, which they use to provide insights on search intent, domain authority, and keyword rankings. Combined with their web crawler, Ahrefs has quickly become one of the best sources for web traffic data.

3. SpyFu

SpyFu focuses primarily on identifying opportunities for search engine marketing (SEM) ads, but the tool also offers SEO features like keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitor analysis. The company also recently introduced an AI tool called RivalFlowAI that can suggest changes to your content to improve SEO performance. 

These tools each offer valuable insights into your competitors’ strategies, but the real value lies in how you interpret and apply the data. Outline and compare how your competitors perform across different factors — including keywords, content, and backlinks — to uncover opportunities to improve your own SEO performance.

Effective SEO competitive analysis: 5 elements

An effective competitive analysis involves digging into your competitors’ SEO strategy to uncover opportunities to perform better. 

First, identify your competitors by checking the SERPs or SEO tools to find websites ranking higher than you in relevant query results. Then, use your SEO tool and review those competitors’ sites to analyze the following five factors.

1. Traffic sources

Traffic sources are the various channels through which competitors get their web traffic. Pay attention to how much of a competitor’s search engine traffic comes from organic traffic versus paid search ads. Higher organic traffic indicates their SEO is doing most of the heavy lifting, meaning they may have invested significant effort into their SEO strategy. Higher paid search traffic likely means they’re supplementing weaker SEO tactics with paid SEM methods.

2. Content gaps

Use your SEO tool to analyze your competitors’ top-performing pages and compare them to your own content. Look at topics and keywords that your competitors rank highly for that you don’t. Also, examine the types of content that perform well — for example, blog posts, videos, or landing pages. By addressing these content gaps, you can capture untapped search traffic and improve your overall website SEO.

3. Backlink opportunities

Backlinks direct users to your content from other sites. Search engines consider backlinks when determining a site’s authority, assuming that a site with more backlinks must have authoritative content since so many people refer to it. 

There are many ways to get backlinks, such as partnering with sites in adjacent industries or adding your site to a directory. But ultimately, the best way to attract these links is to write authoritative content that other sites will refer to as a credible source.

Semrush offers a helpful Backlink Gap tool that checks competitor content for backlinks and shows where they’re coming from. If you notice many competitors are getting theirs from the same places, contact those websites and ask them to consider linking to your site, too.

4. Paid search keywords

You can learn a lot from reviewing the keywords that sites select to advertise for, especially regarding the topics and intents they’re prioritizing. For example, online retailers will often go after intent keywords like “buy” or “purchase” — but if you notice your competitors start bidding on terms like “subscribe,” you know they’re trying a strategy that leverages an email campaign, a newsletter, or a subscription service. That may inspire you to try similar strategies.

5. Technical SEO

Technical SEO is another vital component that affects how your site ranks in SERPs. As you review competitors’ websites, observe technical elements like:

• Site speed. Use a tool like YSlow to compare competitors’ website load speeds to yours.
• Structured data. Tools like Schema.org’s markup validator can show how competitors use schema markup to label and categorize their website elements — which helps search engines understand content better.
• Responsive design. Check how well competitor content displays and functions on multiple device types.
• Redirects, 404s, and site errors. You have an advantage if your competitors have any of these problems. Ensure your site contains fewer of them, and — all other things being equal — you’ll perform better in search results.

Future-proof your SEO strategy with Webflow

As your industry grows and evolves, it’s up to you to learn from your competitors and adapt your site to remain competitive. Far from a one-off project, SEO competitor analysis is a regular part of website maintenance. And with the right website platform, it’s not as time-consuming as it sounds.

‍Webflow has the tools you need to quickly make the SEO changes highlighted by your competitor analysis. Breeze through site adjustments with sitemap controls, automated metadata, and scalable schema markup. These SEO features (and more) can help you pivot your content strategy to pull ahead of competitors.

While the publicly available APIs used to access LLMs present a fairly run-of-the-mill workflow for developers, the task of calling an API and handling its response misrepresents the true complexity of the problem. When building features on top of large language models, you’ll mostly be working at the edges of the model’s capabilities. Doing this effectively requires skills that most software engineers haven’t had to develop yet, including those from related but fundamentally different disciplines like data science. 

Our Webflow teams working on AI products have encountered this conflict while trying to build out Webflow AI products. Our LLM pipelines are complex and have many different points where they can fail. For example, in some cases we chain calls together. In many cases we have strictly defined output formats to enable the response to trigger logic in our system that actually accomplishes work on behalf of the user. Understanding how the system performs and why it is failing to produce a high quality result is a significant challenge for our team.

The challenge comes from the fact that the model’s response is probabilistic, not deterministic. One consequence of this is that while we still must write our typical integration and unit tests to verify that our system accurately handles a predefined set of responses, we also need a different category of tests which programmers are not used to maintaining and integrating into their workflows. This is where model evaluations come into play. In this post I’ll cover what model evaluations are and how we use them at Webflow.

Understanding evaluations

Model evaluations are tests that run a large number of predefined inputs through your system and contain a mechanism for grading the quality of the output. We run a large number of inputs because we aren’t trying to prove that the system is working correctly; rather, we measure either the probability of a passing response or the average quality of the response. In short, we’re moving from a binary measure of a test passing to a probabilistic measure. This testing mode is conceptually different from other tools that developers use to maintain systems such as unit tests, integration tests and end to end tests.  Instead, model evaluations are a concept from data science where we evaluate how well a model performs on a wide range of tasks and use that information to understand how we should change the model.

In order to get a holistic view of how our system performs, we want to measure it along a few different axes. For example, since language models are built to interpret human language, we’ll often need to employ subjectivity in evaluating how well the model performs. We may also want to grade the output along a scale rather than a simple binary pass/fail criteria. Let’s go over a few types of evaluations:

Subjective vs. Objective evaluations

In subjective evaluation,  we use human judgment in determining how well the response suits the input. Subjective evaluations are often done using a multi-point rating system. For example, on  our AI teams we want to understand semi-subjectively how good the output component looks. I’ll go into more detail on how we accomplish this later, but it’s important to note that we use a 3 point scale to capture this subjective judgment: “Succeeds”, “Partially Succeeds”, and “Fails”.

Objective evaluations (also called Heuristic evaluations) check that a specific true/false condition is being met. For example, if you require responses to be returned in a specific format you can write code logic that checks the format is correct across all of your generated outputs.

Creating subjective evaluations: Human evaluations

The quickest way to get started with model evaluations is to generate a set of test inputs and have a human manually inspect and grade the outputs alongside your predefined evaluation criteria. While this requires minimal set-up and will yield excellent quality of results out of the gate, it’s extremely time consuming and can be expensive in terms of developer hours. In order to reduce the amount of manual work performed, We wanted to find solutions to automate the evaluation process.

Automating subjective evaluations: Grading AI with AI

Objective evaluations are easy to automate, as you can typically write code that performs the check. Subjective evaluations are trickier. For this task  we turn again to language models to subjectively analyze how well the response performs on some set of criteria. Luckily, large language models are surprisingly good at grading whether or not another model’s output has successfully accomplished a given task. These outputs may not always align 1:1 with human judgment , but in aggregate they are often good at spotting larger changes across a wide set of prompts. For example, automated tests have not been the most reliable for identifying trends for what specifically is causing quality scores to be low in specific outputs, but they typically are good at determining whether or not a change to the system is yielding a net positive result across the board. This often is because they lack the context for how every other output looks and are looking at single output in isolation.

In order to gain confidence in your automated scores, you can do AI evaluations and human evaluations side by side to gather data on how well your automated evaluations match your human evaluations. In practice you’ll usually run automated evaluations frequently while periodically conducting a human evaluation to verify that the ground truth is not far from the automated scoring. For example, at Webflow our best practice has been to conduct a weekly manual scoring and rely on automated scores for day-to-day validation of changes made by developers. We also rely on automated scores to detect unexpected regressions in quality.

Evaluations in practice

On our AI teams, we’ve begun using evaluations extensively, both within our development lifecycle and as a means of alignment across shareholders. Our problem when we first started development of Webflow AI projects was that we knew the quality of our feature was poor but lacked a language to discuss quality. Because our team was used to identifying software bugs, we tried using a Jira-based workflow to address language model quality problems. However, this doesn’t empower developers to know which problems occur most frequently or how much their fix has reduced the frequency of occurrence.

Before launching a website, you need to create a website strategy that considers your client’s goals, target audiences, and potential roadblocks to the site performance. This proactive approach helps you set your client up for success by building a website that meets all their needs. 

Learn how to create a solid strategy and ensure every aspect of your client’s site works to achieve their business goals.

What’s a website strategy?

A website strategy is a business plan centered around your client’s site. It helps create, organize, and manage site content. 

For example, you can plan how to present your client’s product or service, optimize user experiences and customer service, and implement marketing initiatives to drive traffic. By setting clear objectives and aligning them with your client’s overarching goals, you can attract target audiences and increase conversions.

How different website types impact your strategy

There are several types of websites, each with a specific purpose — and understanding their nuances and functions helps you create an effective strategy. Here’s how strategizing differs for each kind of site.

Business websites

A business website is your client’s primary online presence, showcasing their products and brand identity. A strong strategy for a business site involves clear messaging and search engine optimization (SEO).

For example, you can highlight project case studies and customer testimonials to build credibility and generate leads. Performing keyword research also improves brand messaging within these sections.

Ecommerce websites

Ecommerce websites are platforms for selling products or services online. An ecommerce-focused website strategy revolves around optimizing the shopping experience, from legible product listings and intuitive navigation to secure checkouts.

An online apparel store, for instance, would benefit from high-resolution images, detailed product descriptions, and faceted navigation to increase customer satisfaction and sales.

Portfolio websites

Creative professionals like designers, writers, and photographers use portfolio websites to showcase their work. A website strategy for these sites should include creating appealing layouts, categorizing projects, and providing contact information so potential clients can reach out.

Media websites

Media websites share informative content like news articles and videos. In planning a media website’s content strategy, you’d consider factors like audience engagement and monetization methods.

A news outlet’s strategy might prioritize timely updates, compelling headlines, and social media integration to inform readers of the latest happenings. To monetize their site, they could sell a subscription service for exclusive additional content.

Nonprofit websites

Nonprofit websites raise awareness and support for various causes. An effective strategy includes an emotion-evoking story, clear calls to action (CTAs), and transparent financial information for initiatives like sponsorships and donation drives.

For example, a nonprofit focusing on environmental conservation can use their platform to share success stories, announce volunteer opportunities, and offer public donation gateways.

Educational websites

Educational websites provide courses and resources for learners. Strategies for these sites involve organizing content logically, leveraging gamification features, and designing for accessibility.

An online academy could have interactive quizzes and weekly challenges to improve the learning experience and encourage friendly competition among the community.

Infopreneur websites

Infopreneurs are organizations that sell informational products such as ebooks, courses, and webinars. Their website strategies center around creating valuable content and optimizing the sales funnel.

An infopreneur offering digital marketing courses can use their website to provide free resources and capture leads as they build their customer base. Simultaneously, they can upsell by promoting their premium content to increase revenue.

How to create a website strategy: 8 best practices

Here are eight best practices to implement as you build a website strategy and set your client up to succeed.

1. Determine the website’s main goals

The first step is identifying and prioritizing your client’s goals for the site. Whether they’re looking to increase brand awareness through SEO or drive sales through compelling CTAs, clear objectives guide every site development decision.

Create a roadmap by setting SMART goals to ensure clarity. For example, “increase newsletter signups” is ambiguous without clear steps. A SMART goal provides attainable tasks, such as “increase newsletter signups by 20% within the next three months through a new marketing campaign.”

2. Identify target audiences

Target audience preferences guide most design and content-related decisions. Knowing who you’re targeting helps you tailor the website to meet their expectations, solve their problems, and provide value.

Create detailed buyer personas to represent various psychographics within the target audience. For example, millennials might prefer mobile-friendly, responsive layouts with modern features like animations and interactive buttons. 

Use analytics tools and heatmaps to visualize user behavior on your site and identify patterns. This data can inform design changes, such as placing specific elements in areas that different demographics interact with most, ensuring a user-centric design that maximizes engagement and conversions.

3. Create and maintain your client’s brand image

Consistent branding across your website reinforces your client’s online identity, building trust and recognition among their customers. This brand image should weave into all aspects of the website’s design and content, whether you’re showcasing products, services, or projects.

Define the brand’s logo, color scheme, voice, typography, and iconography, and apply these elements across all pages for a uniform aesthetic. Regularly update your client’s branding guidelines to reflect changes.

4. Tell the brand’s story

A winning website tells a story that reflects the company’s vision statement, brand identity, and unique value propositions. This narrative should resonate with your client’s audience to build trust and encourage engagement with the organization.

To make the story more credible and leverage social proof, you can add a human touch to your storytelling by featuring customer testimonials and case studies. Refer to your client’s style guide when making web design and messaging decisions. 

5. Build a content inventory

Creating a content inventory helps you understand your client’s existing assets — like blog articles, images, and videos — that will be added to the website. This process gives you a view of the content landscape, so you’ll know what you have and what you need. By understanding your client’s content, you’re setting yourself up for a more strategic, efficient website launch and content distribution strategy.

Use a content management system to manage, update, and publish content efficiently. Tag and categorize each piece so it’s readily available to find and update. Regularly refresh the content bank by adding new resources or removing those that are no longer relevant.

6. Leverage personalization

When you build your website strategy, factor in ways to personalize your site visitor’s browsing journey to increase conversions and engagement. Tools like Webflow help you customize the web experience based on your visitor’s preferences. 

For example, you could offer personalized content that guide potential customers to the most relevant features or products. Analyzing visitor data and creating segments within your client’s target audience also lets you personalize the user experience.

7. Optimize site performance

In website strategizing, site performance optimization involves developing fast-loading pages, mobile-first designs, and accessibility for all visitors. This optimization ensures that all aspects of the website work, from SEO practices to customer-facing functionalities.

8. Analyze and adjust

Regularly reviewing and adjusting your client’s website will help you understand what’s working and what’s not. Making changes based on performance data ensures your client’s site remains relevant and valuable.

Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates. If the site needs updating, A/B testing allows you to experiment with different elements to see what works best.

Strategize and succeed with Webflow

A website strategy covers everything from ideation to execution. By implementing these best practices, you’ll ensure your client’s website attracts visitors, creates positive impressions, and encourages repeat business for long-term success.

With Webflow, you can build and maintain professional, high-performance designs that align with your client’s website strategy. From localization tools to SEO, Webflow offers all the solutions you need to create effective sites without relying on developers.

Execute your website strategies today with Webflow.

To stay relevant and competitive in a world demanding high-quality web experiences, businesses need better, faster. and more intelligent ways to scale creativity. Customers now expect personalized and engaging websites that not only provide relevant, quality content but also feature high-quality photographs, illustrations, and imagery that clearly convey key messages.

Traditionally, marketing teams have relied on design teammates to produce and edit creative assets, yet the volume and speed at which these are required has grown significantly. An Adobe study noted that 83% of creative professionals said their team’s workload increased over the last year. As a result, there’s significant demand to equip marketing teams with the tools they need to create high-quality imagery — and doing so can help businesses go-to-market faster than ever.

A suite of powerful image generation and editing tools

Webflow’s visual-first web development platform and new page building and collaboration features make it simple for team members to quickly build, edit, and their sites – without relying on developers. 

We’re excited to team up with Adobe to introduce the new AI-powered content creation Webflow App, Adobe Express, that gives anyone building in Webflow the ability to create and edit high-quality images and visual assets for the website that adhere to brand guidelines.

As one of the largest and most diversified software companies in the world, Adobe empowers everyone — from individuals and small businesses to government agencies and global brands — to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences. Adobe pioneered creative software, with tools like Photoshop and Illustrator used by creative professionals around the world.

“Webflow is introducing AI into how sites are built, launched and optimized, through our own product development and with ecosystem integrations. We’re excited to welcome the power of Adobe Express, which helps teams scale their creative production workflows and create compelling content.”

— Rachel Wolan, Chief Product Officer, Webflow

Increasingly, Adobe is working to equip everyone with the power to create through products like Adobe Express.

“Adobe Express provides marketers with easy-to-use design and editing capabilities – powered by Adobe Firefly AI– to create and deliver exceptional digital experiences. Making Adobe Express available on the Webflow Marketplace enables in-house and agency teams, whether designers or developers, to create and edit high-quality images and visual assets quickly and easily.”

— Aubrey Cattell, VP, Developer Platform & Partner Ecosystem, Adobe

Powerful features that equip marketing teams with creative superpowers

This App brings powerful image generation, creation, and enhancement capabilities directly into the Webflow Designer. Adobe Express uses Adobe Firefly generative AI to create extraordinary images and text effects from a simple text prompt description. It helps teams stick to brand guidelines to ensure consistency and is integrated with Webflow to make workflows fast and intuitive.

How Webflow customers are using Adobe Express

IMB Bank

Since 1880, IMB Bank has been supporting people and communities in Australia looking to achieve their financial goals. It offers a range of digital financial solutions including banking, home and car loans, business services, and more. The team uses Webflow to build and manage their website, and they have been recognized as a finalist in the 2024 Webflow Awards.

IMB Bank is exploring AI in a growing range of applications, from information retrieval to insights and content generation. The team used Adobe Express to create imagery for a recent business banking page, using reference images to create visuals to help communicate various financial services such as accounts, loan and payroll.

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“The Adobe Express App for Webflow empowers us to quickly produce high-quality images. The app drastically helps us accelerate content production like new product pages and resources, and we’re excited to further personalize and scale image generation.”

— Daniel Locke, Senior Manager, Digital, IMB Bank 

Oyster

A rapidly scaling business, Oyster provides step-by-step guidance for every part of the global employment lifecycle, enabling teams of all sizes to hire, pay, and retain the best talent — no matter their location. Without a centralized design system, the global HR company was dealing with an inconsistent web brand presence. To solve this, the team upgraded from self-serve to Webflow Enterprise to uplevel team collaboration, scale global web initiatives, and elevate their brand.

Most recently, Oyster used the Adobe Express App for Webflow to collaborate on a landing page launch. Racing against a tight timeline, the team used the App to generate conceptual images using text-to-image prompts. The output were creative assets that delivered on their needs, and because they uploaded existing brand assets as reference images, the App generated visuals that incorporated the Oyster color schemes, style and illustration preferences. 

“The Adobe Express App for Webflow has sped up our design process by providing relevant placeholder images on landing pages that expedite stakeholder approvals during concept reviews. This accelerated workflow helps reduce ambiguity by aligning on concepts quickly and enabling designers to create final images from inspiration rather than starting from scratch.”

— Sudiksha Khanduja, Lead Website Marketing Manager, Oyster

Christian Schmitt

Christian is a Webflow Certified Partner based in Germany, who specializes in designing creatively stunning, accessible websites. He places an important focus on accessibility, ensuring all users have equal access to the content and functionality of sites he builds. He has worked with retailers, manufacturers and software developers.

Christian notes that in many cases, his clients ask for support in creating and editing images, so he was excited to use the Adobe Express for Webflow App. 

“This is a big win for Webflow, as it helps teams manage creative tasks themselves. The Adobe Express App makes it easy for non-designers to hop in and quickly edit images, from resizing to adding or removing backgrounds.”

— Christian Schmitt, Webflow Certified Partner

Amplifying creativity for best-in-class teams

During a period where businesses are competing on the basis of customer expectations, the ability to create more visually stunning and engaging websites is critical. That’s why the new Adobe Express App is game changing; for teams building in Webflow, it unlocks the ability to quickly and easily create compelling visuals that capture user attention and convert them into customers. 

The App is now available in the Webflow Marketplace, alongside other Apps from partners like Google, Microsoft, Figma, Bynder and more. Try it out today!

When people arrive on a website, they typically have a goal in mind, like finding new information or buying a product. Sites with proper information architecture (IA) ensure visitors find and interact with content as per their expectations, creating a more positive experience.

Read on to learn how to create an effective information architecture when designing a website.

What’s information architecture?

IA involves structuring and mapping content to ensure visitors can quickly navigate pages and find what they need. It’s a key pillar of user experience (UX) design that focuses on creating clear and logical paths for people to follow.

Here are a few components that make up a website’s IA.

Content organization

Content organization involves logically arranging information for quick and convenient access using categories, visual hierarchies, and groups. For example, you might organize product listings on an ecommerce website into categories like “Clothing,” “Electronics,” and “Home Goods.” Each category will have subcategories that help customers quickly locate the products they need.

Labeling

Labeling is how you name and describe content on your website. Effective labeling uses concise, user-friendly terms that accurately represent the content, helping people understand what each section or link offers. A blog might use labels like “Popular articles” or “Latest posts” to guide readers to different categories. Descriptive labels with topic names, authors, and dates ensure visitors quickly find relevant articles.

Search functionality

Search functionality allows visitors to search for specific content directly within a website. A search feature helps people find specific information without browsing multiple pages. 

For example, a news site with thousands of articles and videos should have a search bar at the top of the page. Users can type keywords or phrases to find specific topics, like “technology” or “climate change.” Filters like date ranges or categories could sort articles further.

Navigation

Site navigation includes the menus, page sections, and links that help people move through a website. Effective navigation systems are as intuitive as possible, with consistent paths to the site’s most important sections and heuristics to meet user expectations. 

For instance, a navbar at the top of the page with links to about, services, and contact pages ensures users can quickly access various parts of the site from any page.

Why information architecture is important for websites

IA provides a clear visual representation of your website’s structure, features, and hierarchies. Here’s why it’s essential during development:

• Improves usability — Well-structured IA simplifies the UX by making content more accessible and readily available. When you logically organize information, visitors can intuitively navigate the site according to their expectations. This organization reduces frustration and improves satisfaction, keeping people on your site longer and encouraging return visits.
• Streamlines development — A detailed IA is a blueprint, providing a clear roadmap of the site’s structure. It reduces miscommunication between team members during wireframing and prototyping.
• Supports content strategies — Coherently organizing layouts and navigation allows you to logically present information to visitors. To create a more content-cohesive website, prioritize important headings, identify and fill content gaps, and plan for future updates.
• Helps with search engine optimization (SEO) — Clear and structured copy helps search engines crawl and index websites more effectively. Labeling categories also improves UX metrics like bounce rates and dwell time. These factors potentially lead to higher search engine results page rankings.
• Promotes scalability — A solid IA foundation ensures you can integrate new content and features as website trends and technologies evolve. Scalability is crucial for long-term maintenance, allowing your site to adapt to changing needs without significant overhauls.

How to use information architecture for UX

Here are a few ways to use IA to create more engaging and conversion-focused websites.

Create a sitemap

Sitemaps visually represent a site’s structure, showing the connection between pages and sections. They provide a clear overview of a site’s layout at a glance.

Include all necessary pages and logically arrange them in your sitemap to enhance navigation. This process helps you identify potential navigation issues early, allowing for adjustments when development begins.

Conduct a content audit

A content audit involves systematically reviewing your entire website, including copy, images, and videos. Complete this process to identify valuable, redundant, outdated, or missing resources.

Performing these audits is essential when redesigning a site or migrating to a new platform. They ensure that only relevant, high-quality content transfers to the new site and fits well in its structure.

Create an IA diagram

An IA diagram is a detailed visual representation of a site’s structure, showing the relationships between sections and web pages. Tree structures are common diagrams that are useful for organizing content hierarchically.

Here’s a tree diagram IA example:

• Home
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Team
    • Careers
  • Services
    • Web design
    • SEO
    • Content marketing
  • Blog
    • Recent posts
    • Categories
    • Archives
  • Contact
    • Email
    • Phone
    • Contact form

Test users

Before launching a site, collect feedback from users during real-world trials. Research techniques like card sorting and usability testing show what people expect from content organization and site navigation, allowing you to adjust accordingly. By testing real users, you can identify and fix issues before your site goes live, resulting in a better overall experience.

4 best practices to refine your site’s information architecture

Here are four tips to help you build a robust IA that improves the UX and supports your website’s goals.

1. Prioritize structure

A clear and coherent structure highlights the most important elements and encourages users to take action.

• Use headers and subheaders to distinguish different sections and create a seamless flow between content.
• Add visual cues like colors, spacing, and font sizes to highlight hierarchies and show the relationship between related elements.
• Create wireframes early in the design process to visualize the structure and organize content before moving to development.

2. Ensure logical flow

Logical flow prevents people from getting lost or frustrated. Consistent and predictable interactions build trust and satisfaction, encouraging users to engage more. For example, buttons, links, and sections should lead visitors to their intended destinations.

• Map common user paths to gauge visitor expectations, and design the architecture accordingly.
• Regularly test your designs with real users, especially after restructuring or migrating your site.
• Use consistent design patterns for navigation elements across your website to avoid confusing users.

3. Prioritize user needs

Focusing on your target audience’s needs leads to more personalized and relevant experiences. Research can help you understand user behavior and preferences, inform your design choices, and increase engagement and satisfaction.

• Gather insights through surveys, polls, and analytics tools to understand user behaviors and needs.
• Create detailed user personas to represent different target groups and tailor content accordingly.
• Regularly collect and incorporate user feedback to improve your site’s IA.

4. Follow consistent naming conventions

Using familiar terms helps people quickly understand your website’s content and elements. Consistent labeling reduces cognitive load and allows visitors to familiarize themselves with a specific section or page location.

• Develop a website style guide outlining naming conventions, labeling standards, typography, colors, and element shapes.
• Avoid jargon and use terms that are familiar to your target audience.
• Regularly update titling practices to ensure they’re relevant and user friendly.

Architect your website with Webflow

Making your website easier to navigate is a win-win — visitors find what they’re looking for, and your site will see higher engagement and conversion rates.

Once you brainstorm your website’s IA, you’ll need the right tools to bring it to life. With Webflow’s visual-first design tools, you can convert diagrams into cohesive website structures without relying on developers. Our community has created plenty of information architecture website templates you can customize for your own site.

Improve your website’s UX through consistent architecture and grow your online presence with Webflow.