B2B Website Design Services

B2B Website Design Trends for 2023

Our B2B website design team has compiled their top 8 B2B website design trends for 2023.

1. Motion Graphics

Video

While video content isn’t exactly new, its widespread popularity has changed the branded internet landscape as we know it. Short-form video is dominating thanks to social media apps like TikTok and BeReal. This video format is going to be wildly popular on company landing and product information web pages.

(Source: Y.CO)

(Source: Bienville Capital)

(Source: RielloSistemi)

(Source: Purple)

(Source: Accenture)

Parallax Scrolling

Parallax scrolling is already a popular tool for making sections of a web page more dynamic. It’s often used in full-width applications along with image, video, or texture imagery to add depth to a page. As the user scrolls past the image or video, the scrolling behavior makes it seem as though the image is placed behind the neighboring sections.

(Source: On Corps AI)

(Source: Plink)

Micro Animations

Micro animations are extremely helpful when it comes to guiding users through your B2B website. Another big trend that we are seeing is animating a cursor, shapes following the cursor, and creating an effect, like “kinetic type.” While some find these animations annoying or negatively impacting the website load time, it’s still on trend for 2023. Why? Because modifying the form of the cursor or implementing cursor-triggered animations engages the website visitor.

(Source: Skillsoft)

(Source: imotion factory)

Kinetic Type

Typing in the headline and other text animations, including scrolling text, will be big in 2023.

(Source: Databricks)

(Source: Future London Academy)

Get more info: Download the B2B website buyer’s guide.

2. Dark Mode First Mindset

Dark mode has been here for a few years, but it’s become more commonplace as it makes for easier reading and improves nighttime visibility. Besides its prominence in mobile operating systems, it has also become a go-to UI structure for B2B website design. Designers who utilize this trend incorporate bright, single pops of bold color to help the visitor navigate through web pages.

Dark Mode

Dark mode helps reduce eye strain as we spend more time looking at screens. Additionally, visually dark mode creates an ultra-modern feel. It is more popular in the technology and cybersecurity sectors as many industries view dark as undesirable, but we expect it to catch on in many other industries by the end of the year.

(Source: SpaceX)

(Source: Spotify)

White Space

White space is about giving content room to breathe and providing a more relaxing scrolling experience. It exudes the confidence of a seasoned storyteller who takes a pause before making an impactful statement. As a result, the content stands out and readability is improved.

While some clients are terrified of “empty” and “wasted” space, it should be viewed as an element in storytelling rather than as real estate to be built out.

(Source: DocuSign)

(Source: Qualtrics)

(Source: Fivetran)

(Source: formlabs)

3. Bold, Organic Shapes + Swiss Design

To make a product, message, or website stand out in 2023, designers are turning to bold abstract shapes. These elements add an additional layer of visual interest without distracting from a graphic’s main focus.

While asymmetric style will continue in 2023, we’ll see more traditional “Swiss” designs with rules, simple sans-serif fonts, and multiple columns. This look provides a utilitarian and modern feel, providing a blend of a progressive yet stable and traditional feel. It is most useful in the technology space and in very complex design systems. A great example is IBM.

Art Deco will also be popular in 2023 B2B website design aesthetics as it is based on symmetrical and geometric shapes. This style is often patterned, decorative, and ornamental. Geometric shapes help to reduce visual stress and provide a smooth experience.

Geometric shapes were a big website design trend in 2020, but in 2023, we’ll see more organic, morphed, fluid shapes. A clear example is Spotify and Android using circles behind products and copy.

(Source: Spotify.com/wellness)

(Source: Tableau)

(Source: Sprig)

(Source: Nuvolo)

4. Typography-Driven Designs

 Simplicity is the name of the game with an emerging trend of text-only hero images. This new trend catches the visitor’s attention by removing the background image in the hero section and replacing it with eye-catching typography that is bold, big, and straightforward.

(Source: Reachdesk)

(Source: Poggio Labs)

(Source: Emergence Capital)

Full-Page Headers and Full-Height Homepage Hero

Heatmaps and tracking tell us that visitors tend to focus their attention on the top-left portion of a website page. As such, designers are now using large text and call-to-action buttons on the left of the header and enticing graphics to the right. Similar to the text-only hero, full-height focuses the user’s attention on distraction-free messaging.

The Return of San Serif Fonts

Serif logos are beginning to reach saturation point, which is why designers are adding freshness with geometric sans or grotesque Swiss-style typefaces (or indeed, a more evolved version of the serif, see Flared Fonts, below).

Sans serifs not only curate a clean, minimalist style for branding, packaging, and other print designs, but they also improve legibility and accessibility on apps and B2B websites. As more brands tune into the need for digital output to be fully accessible, we can expect sans serifs to take on a more dominant role online.

(Source: ServiceNow)

(Source: Stedelijk Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Design)

5. Interactive Data Visualization and 3D Elements

This is an emerging trend that has been most popular in the game design, museum, and engineering sectors. Opportunities for interactive 3D experiences continue to grow as the web speeds up. Often requiring experienced coding and/or 3D modeling artists, this trend should not be undertaken lightly. If executed properly for the B2B space, this trend has the potential to create new levels of depth and interest through 3D interactivity.

Creating images out of data is an engaging way for visitors to learn more about a brand. While some prefer to look at numbers and read copy, most website visitors like infographics and graphs to help them quickly understand the point.

(Source: CalicoLabs)

(Source: Snowflake)

(Source: Uplinq)

(Source: CLOU Architects)

6. Content Layering for Space

As we mentioned earlier, white space with enough breathing room for copy and graphics to stand out is here to stay for B2B web design in 2023. The trend is expanding to include the organizing of related content or benefits in click-throughs or animated containers continues. This content layering is often popular with SaaS companies that are relaying complex ideas in a short amount of time. This layering approach provides more space to showcase supporting visuals for each value proposition. 

(Source: Twilio Segment)

(Source: Southbank Centre)

(Source: UKG)

(Source: eduMe)

7. Grainy Gradients and Frosted Glass Effects

Gradients are a long-time trend that we expect to evolve in the coming year. They add depth to a text-heavy design and add texture and a 3D feel to illustrations. Look for big bold typography with static, animated, or parallax gradients on websites launching in 2023.

Advances in web technology have allowed for easy implementation of the frosted glass effect. This type of B2B website design effect adds color to an area while also allowing text to be legible over an image.

(Source: Dynatrace)

(Source: Catalyst)

(Source: Tekpon)

(Source: Stripe)

8. Accessibility

The demand for website accessibility is on the rise for B2B companies. Website accessibility is the practice of making B2B websites usable for all visitors, including those with visual, auditory, or cognitive disabilities. Making a website accessible affects all aspects of the visual design, as well as content and development. While it’s not a legal requirement for most B2B companies, it’s becoming an important goal. Making a website more accessible does include sacrificing certain design elements, but it provides better access to your content for more users.

(Source: Partake Foods)

(Source: GOV.UK)

Ready to chat about your B2B website design project?

Contact us today or look through our portfolio for inspiration.

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What Is B2B Web Design?

Effective B2B web design is a polished, custom digital platform that integrates your company’s branding and messaging to appeal to your ideal buyer. Business-to-business (or B2B) website design varies from B2C in that it often must appeal to a variety of decision-makers across levels of leadership and vastly different needs.

What You Get with Our B2B Website Designs

Websites your customers want to browse

The B2B web design team focuses on building websites that streamline content and feature efficient navigation—the most content with the least amount of clicks—so your brand message gets across quickly and clearly. The website content needs to be timely and relevant—compelling content that keeps a visitor on your site.

B2B web designs that nurture leads

An effective B2B web design communicates your brand message and entices your visitor to complete a desired action. There needs to be no mystery on why a prospective client should hire your firm over your competition. Our B2B web design team creates clear, compelling, and well-placed calls-to-action to turn website visitors into engaged prospects.

Websites that grow with your business

Our design team ensures your B2B website design is easily scalable so that you can integrate more functionality and content down the road with no issues. For instance, you may add new services, personnel or expand locations. The WordPress CMS makes it simple for a non-technical person to make content changes to the website. Ease of edits on the backend is critical for the future success of your B2B website design.

B2B websites that drive traffic

Your website has little value if no one can find it. Our B2B web design, content strategy and development is executed with the latest SEO best practices in mind so you’re ranking more prominently for target search terms. We identify geo-targeted and industry-specific keyword phrases that help you rank more quickly. Once the website is launched, we drive not only organic traffic but paid, social, etc. We want your B2B website design to not only be beautiful but to also be a gateway to new clients.

B2B website design for speed

Website load time is critical, not only for usability but from a SEO standpoint. At Bop Design, we understand that the cornerstone of an effective B2B website design is page speed. We will develop a website that performs optimally so that visitors stay on the website longer and visit more pages.

A team of experts

A well-planned website requires a team of B2B marketing professionals— brand strategist, web designer, web developer, content strategist, copywriter and SEO expert—in order to reach its full potential. Bop Design employs a team of specialists on all B2B web design projects, creating an effective brand platform to attract and engage ideal prospective clients. Our team has worked on a range of B2B website designs and marketing strategies.

TV Ads Say Websites Are Cheap and Easy, So Why Are Custom B2B Websites Expensive?

You’ve seen the ads, putting together a website is as easy as 1…2…3! All you need to do is add your logo, change the colors, and put in some copy, right?

It’s true that certain website builders, like Wix or Squarespace, enable you to build a website fairly quickly. However, building a custom B2B website design is not so quick (or cheap). Here are a few reasons why those websites advertised on TV are so inexpensive and relatively quick to launch:

1. They Are Customizable Templates, Not Custom Builds

These website building services are template-based. You can choose a template and do various levels of customization, but it’s not a custom B2B website that is designed and built from scratch to meet your needs.

Learn how to determine your B2B website objectives. 

2. The Functionality Is Already Set, You Get What You Get

Being that these services make money on volume rather than individual pricing, they are fairly cheap to build. However, along with the minimal cost is minimal functionality. If you want to have custom animation or change how the CTAs function on your website, you are out of luck with a template. You get what you get with the existing functionality.

If you want to have certain features and functionality, your best bet is to work with a B2B website designer and developer who won’t “kinda make the website work,” but who will listen to your needs and make the website function or perform accordingly.

3. You Do All the Heavy Lifting

Just as you can build a house cheap if you do all the construction, you can build a website cheaply if you do all the heavy lifting. That means you have to choose all the images, write all the copy, upload all your resources, position everything on the right pages, implement all the search engine optimization, and more. If want to do all the work yourself, a template website may work for you. However, if you’d like to maintain control without doing all the heavy lifting, you are likely in the market for a custom website design and build.

Why does great web design take so long? 

4. You Get What You Pay For, Additional Services Are Additional

The great part, and major drawback, of a template website is that you often get what you pay for, and only what you pay for. It’s important to read up on what is included in the price of the build and what will be extra. Is customer support included or billed at a monthly or hourly fee? Do you need some minor development help? That often costs more and you will be billed every time you ask for revisions. Any additional features or plugins will always cost extra and may be billed a recurring rate. It’s rare that it’s a one-time fee. While you can keep costs to a minimum if you don’t require any assistance, the costs can start to rack up if you want certain levels of customization for your website.

5. You Have Access to Customer Service, Not a Dedicated Team

Many of the template website services advertise that they have 24/7 support –which sounds great. However, it often means that the support is offshored to ensure support is always available, even at midnight in Missouri. It also means that you are emailing or calling into a support center with a rotating staff. If you call or email twice in the same day, chances are you won’t even talk to the same person. They will likely have a ticketing system, but those are only as good as the people entering the notes.

Conversely, custom-built B2B websites are crafted by a dedicated team of 4 – 5 people. The advantage here is that you often only have 2 -3 points of contact and they become familiar with not only your business but with you, personally. There is a level of continuity and responsibility that the call centers just can’t provide.

6. The Ideal Market Is Small, Mom & Pop Shops

If you are that template website builder’s ideal customer, then you should absolutely work with them. They will offer you just the right amount of value for your budget. These types of services are often best for one-person consulting firms and mom and pop shops. Many of your clients will understand that you are a small-scale operation and won’t be put off by a simple, straightforward website that isn’t 100% customized.

Perform a 5-minute B2B website audit.

B2B Custom Websites: Totally Worth It If…

B2B custom websites are totally worth the investment if:

• You are looking to create a polished, professional image
• You need to build credibility with prospects, partners, or potential investors
• You are looking to establish your authority in your industry
• You are looking to build a living, breathing resource center
• You are interested in generating qualified leads for your business

There is a slew of other reasons to build a custom B2B website, but these are the main reasons why businesses consider it. For websites, just as in life in general, you get what you pay for. If you pay $50 – $100 for a website, it will look like an inexpensive website. If you invest in a custom web design, you will get a polished digital asset that accurately reflects your company as forward-thinking and established.

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7 B2B Website Design Best Practices

Web design is such an exciting industry to be a part of, especially when you get to see innovative, lovely designs. While there are a vast amount of beautiful, functional websites, there are also a ton of ugly, overdone, useless websites.

Based on our experience, we’ve compiled a list of the best B2B web design practices to ensure web designers are creating functional, useful websites.

1. Focus on Your Target Audience

It can be easy to get caught up in the concept of a website and forget about the end-user. A successful website isn’t just a lovely visual piece, it’s a portal for attracting your target audience and giving them the information they need to decide if they want to become a new client.

(The Nogin website directly addresses the target market with strong, direct headlines while also pairing visuals of their platform and services.)

Before we start a new B2B web design, we get the low-down on the target audience.

• Do they know the company’s brand or services?
• Are there several different target markets?
• What makes them the same or different?
• What do they care about?

A common mistake we see designers make is focusing on the target audience at the beginning and then forgetting about them at the end of the design phase. Always keep your target audience front and center, even when making changes to the design, layout, and images.

2. Keep Branding Consistent

Website design that lacks consistent branding is stressful and confusing. Everyone has a friend or family member who is unpredictable. You never know what they are going to say/do/wear and they are stressful to be around. Unfortunately, there are quite a few brand websites out there that are like this unpredictable person. It’s difficult to tell what their brand colors are, what their logo looks like, how they are positioning themselves, and what their value proposition is all about.

(Safehub has a clean, tech-driven look and tone which is consistent throughout the website.)

A best practice in B2B website design is to keep the branding consistent throughout the entire site. Only use the predetermined brand colors, logos, and messaging on every single page of the website. This applies to images, iconography, typography, and videos as well. A brand’s story should be evident and supported in the design.

3. Simplify the Layout

Flashy, complicated websites typically deliver a poor experience and end up being visually noisy. Effective websites often have simplified layouts that are easy to navigate and enable each design element to shine. As experienced B2B web designers, we understand that a website typically has to accomplish a lot and host a great deal of information – which can be done in a clean, focused and ultimately simplified manner. If too many design elements are competing on a website, none of them will do their job (engage the user).

(JCA uses color and compelling photography to guide the visitor through the website.)

4. Create Strong CTAs

The main goal of a website is to attract a target market. The next goal may be to educate the visitor. The final goal should always be to entice the visitor to complete an action, whether it is to sign up for a newsletter, download a case study, or set up a consultation. Strong calls-to-action are essential to converting website visitors into leads or new clients.

Strong CTAs should be part of the initial B2B web design, not an afterthought. They should be placed in an appropriate place in the layout that makes sense for the target market. For example, a “Learn More” button may be placed higher in the design, while a “Contact Us” form may be placed towards the bottom of the design when the visitor is more educated about a brand or company.

(Momentum Labs uses large type and playful headlines throughout the website to help CTAs standout and convert visitors.) 

5. Use High-Quality Images or Videos

Smartphones now have 16, 20, or even 21 mega-pixel cameras in them. Remember, a phone’s main function is not necessarily as a camera. For this very reason, it’s imperative that all images, videos, and photos included in a web design are high quality. A fuzzy image or out-of-focus picture negatively impacts the credibility of a brand.

If your brand or firm isn’t able to invest in custom photography at this time, stock photography is actually a great option these days.

Great web designers balance clear, high-quality images with sizes that don’t slow down the website load time.

(WIB uses custom video and clear, sharp imagery that supports the brand’s overall message of precision and excellence.)

6. Enhance the User Experience

At its very core, B2B web design must be functional. This means that it should create a good user experience. Effective web design takes it a step further and enhances the user experience by creating an intuitive layout, telling a compelling story, and serving up what the user is looking for when they want to see it. For this very reason, seasoned web designers are taking an interest in the user experience (UX) to ensure their designs are anticipating the needs of the target market.

When looking to enhance the user experience, it’s important for a designer to put themselves in the user’s shoes. Also, it’s essential that the web designer considers how every element of the design builds value for the user and meets a need.

(The Accurate website design has a color palette and clean, easy-to-use layout that enhances the user experience and conversion rates.) 

7. Follow SEO Best Practices

If a website is gorgeous but no one sees it, is it effective? The answer is no. Strong websites attract and convert visitors. For this very reason, B2C and B2B web design must follow SEO best practices to ensure the website is showing up for the target market.

While the list of SEO best practices for web design can be fairly long, a few best practices include:

• Sizing pictures for faster load times
• Internal linking to keep users engaged & on the site
• Properly labeling images for search engines and users

(The Ducker Carlisle’s photo choices, layout, and navigation follow SEO best practices for website design.)

At the End of the Day

At the end of the day, B2B web design can be innovative, interesting, and beautiful – but it also needs to be functional. Successful websites don’t need to have boring designs, but they do have to marry smart design with a great user experience.

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