Marketing budgets are more scrutinised than ever - we are living and breathing this right now.
They are trimmed, or actually just treated as discretionary spend, possibly even a cost line in the PnL. The website is probably also written off as just a branding exercise. This is one of the most expensive strategic mistakes a C-Suite can make.
I get what you are thinking, that I am obviously going to say this. But I have a case so hear me out. In modern B2B buying decisions, a website and marketing engine aren’t just mere support functions, it’s important that they are considered as revenue infrastructure. For example, if you are selling £50k to £2m+ enterprise software with a 6 to 12 month buying cycle, which includes multiple stakeholders, procurement reviews, and risk scrutiny then a basic brochure website will just quietly kill any sniff of a deal before they even start.
For enterprise tech companies, the website isn’t something that can just be refreshed every few years, and left to simply exist as a tick on the marketing asset list, without being constantly optimised for a B2B buying audience. Whilst from a high-level view, cutting spend on the website looks like a cost saving exercise worth exploring, the reality is in fact that by not investing in it (or the overall B2B marketing strategy itself) then it won’t keep things stable, it will in fact slowly but surely erode pipeline, credibility, and competitive position. All the while with everyone assuming performance is absolutely fine. The damage will show up elsewhere, for example in longer sales cycles, lower win rates, competitors advancing and higher acquisition costs.
Today's tech buyers prefer to conduct more thorough research. 70% now choose digital or remote over face-to-face, making decisions long before speaking to sales by exploring, comparing and validating independently before contacting sales.
What this means is that buyers will come to you once they are sure it’s worth it. So why continue to invest in your website?
1. A weak B2B website silently filters out your best buyers before sales ever has a chance to engage them.
Enterprise prospects won’t take time and effort to seek clarification or book a call to do so. They will simply move on to a competitor who answers their questions faster and builds confidence sooner. That means you’re not losing deals in sales conversations, you’re losing them before they ever enter your sales eco-system. This shows in fewer qualified leads feeding your sales team, a weaker pipeline, and stalled growth, even though demand technically exists.
2. When your website doesn’t pre-sell, revenue generation becomes slower, harder, and more costly.
Sales teams should be spending time advancing deals. But if the pre-sell doesn’t do its job properly, opportunities stall, fewer prospects convert, and each deal requires more time and effort to win. You end up needing more sales resources to generate the same revenue. You may want to take a step back on your own situation and see if you’re investing heavily in bolstering sales with more heads as a result.
3. Without strong trust signals, you will lose deals you should have won
In enterprise B2B sales, perception often outweighs product strength. Even if your solution is technically better, a lack of visible proof creates hesitation. This is why case studies, certifications, recognisable logos and clear positioning are imperative. Hesitation is enough for buyers to choose a competitor who simply feels safer and more established.
4. What looks like saving money on marketing, in actual fact creates ripples across the business; hidden revenue loss, operational friction, and potential deal-killing.
Slow pages reduce conversions, weak SEO limits traffic, broken integrations lose or directs leads to the wrong place, and security or compliance gaps can stall or even block enterprise deals during procurement. Meanwhile, bad data makes it harder to measure what’s working, so marketing and sales decisions become guesswork.
If you would like further guidance as to how to approach your B2B website, we would love to hear from you - just get in contact (feel free to quote this article). If business growth is your objective, then partnering with an agency like us where B2B digital transformation is at our core will pay dividends down the line.
