10 Great B-to-B Sites: Iridesco

Iridesco's product, Harvest, is a time-tracking and billing software program for professionals who follow billable hours. The company's previous site had been up two years when co-founder Shawn Liu decided to give it an overhaul. “I wanted it to feel more like a solid brand and give it a more polished look,” he said. “We wanted the site to reflect how established the company is, while at the same time conveying how easy the software is to use.”

The site's three-pronged navigation lets visitors choose their affiliation—freelancers and individuals, small business and teams, or professional services—and gives them an idea of how they can use the software. There are just enough choices, Liu said, to get people involved without frustrating them. “We have a lot of analytics going and [have learned] that people don't want to make so many choices,” he said.

They also often want to get right into the features, which is why detailed information sits right on the home page. If someone already knows about the product, they can sign up for a free trial or get started using the software via a green button—the color that worked the best, Liu said.

“We did a lot of testing—trying blue, silver, gray—but the green worked perfectly,” he said.

Liu also used analytics to determine the other elements that needed to be on the home page. The content that got the most traffic from natural search results warranted a second look, he said.

“We don't put a lot of keywords in,” Liu said. “Our site traffic and ranking has really grown organically, so we knew that if something was getting traffic, it was what people were actually interested in.” Expert commentary—Nick Gould, CEO, Catalyst Group: The b2b community tolerates more of a bait-and-switch mentality—get the credit card number however you can—but [Iridesco] doesn't have to do this. They exhibit a more customercentric approach, putting the free trial that's actually a free trial right on the home page. They also do a really good job showing exactly what the product does using nice, big screenshots and explanations of features and functions right on the home page. I also like the roles-based navigation. Too often you see companies do this and they have 16 choices before you know it. They are focusing on the ones that are highest priorities, which enables people to lump themselves in without thinking too hard.