Based on our exclusive interview with Compete.com’s Senior Internet Marketing Manager Drew Fortin, Subscription Site Insider’s newest Case Study examines how the site attracts triple the traffic of its more established competitors, and how it’s converting those visitors into paying subscribers.
To my mind, one of the best lessons that other B2B subscription database & research publishers should take to heart from this Case Study is how cleverly Compete.com’s homepage is designed.Most B2B database sites have a fairly static, stodgy homepage. They’re more like informational billboards with some text links. You know, this is who we are, this is what we do, here’s a press release, here’s our nav bar. Sometimes the designer will dress it up with a happy-executive stock photograph. Blah.
Compete.com, on the other hand, is really designed for interactivity. The homepage is dedicated to getting you to digging into their database. Then, once you dig in, you’ll hit a paywall tailored to your specific query. This is a proven formula in the B2C database homepage design — consider dating sites, criminal records database sites, etc. But, aside from Hoovers.com, I rarely see it in B2B sites. Why not?