Web designers will often debate whether a B2B web site should be aethestically pleasing with rich graphics and clever copy or simply a bunch of well organized text with links to more information.

At i-Dialogue we strive to find a happy medium between the two schools of thought. But in the end, B2B sites with text-heavy copy and links tend to perform better.

In fact, this recent Marketing Sherpa case study showed that there was a 7% increase in sales and 13% less time spent on pages before clicking using a text-heavy design.

From the article:

... "He decided to test three significant changes:"

#1. Text-format with textual hotlinks instead of colorful graphics with click buttons.

#2. Main options listed in a vertical column instead of a horizontal row.

#3. Moving the user sign-in form to a small corner in the upper right of the screen, rather than allowing it more valuable real estate.

DeHaven ran the test for a week, splitting traffic to discover which page converted more visitors into sales. He also examined back-end data to see if sales reps were having better luck converting leads that had been to the test version of the site.

Then, DeHaven used results to create one more test panel. This time he tweaked all the hotlink wording on the page to see if longer, wordier hotlinks that search engines love would be better for human beings as well. (Link to sample below.)

The design team didn't think much of this test. "Everybody who saw it internally said version C was way too crowded and there wasn't enough white space. We worried people would see it and feel overwhelmed with links."

RESULTS
Turns out everyone was wrong. The heavy-text version that got thumbs down internally won more customer accounts than the cleaner, more graphical design.

It seems that business executives prefer to look at fairly plain textual content online rather than cheerful graphical interfaces. Plus, they prefer vertical to horizontal groupings of options and longer, wordier textual click links.

Read the complete article...