Marketing executives agree on two things about B2B company websites: 1) A top website goal is to drive revenue and 2) their own dot-coms are failing on this front.

Only 16% of leaders say that their websites effectively support their company’s revenue objectives, according to Sitecore’s new Websites 2025 report. Not great news, considering the enormous pressure that marketing leaders now face to deliver revenue and prove attribution.

“Our website is clunky and lacks personalization, directly impacting conversions,” said one CMO who participated in Sitecore’s survey.

This statement suggests that marketing execs already understand one of the most significant problems: Their websites fail to deliver the seamless, personalized experiences that users demand. And they’re right.

But how do you fix it? Not with technology alone. To deliver great digital experiences, you’ve got to start with a strategy and a mindset to put the user’s needs first. And that’s where marketing leaders might still be missing the mark.

What the Sitecore Websites 2025 Report Tells Us, and What It Doesn’t

Sitecore’s survey shows that both marketing leaders and practitioners recognize the importance of digital experience in driving revenue generation:

• 93% of marketing practitioners “identified a seamless user experience as an important website functionality for maintaining competitiveness in today’s digital landscape, with 59% ranking it as the most important,” according to Sitecore.
• 69% of marketers identify personalization as their top-priority website enhancement to drive impactful business outcomes.
• Only 32% of marketers said their current website supports personalization well.
• Only 18% of marketing practitioners say their current website supports AI.

You can see where this narrative is going, and how it speaks to marketing executives: Your digital experience problem is a martech problem. Find the budget dollars and you can solve it with better technology that unlocks personalization and AI.

For the record: At Tendo we don’t disagree that digital experience and personalization technologies can be transformative. We’ve seen it first-hand. But starting with technology is always the wrong move. As a marketing leader, you should adopt a strategy-led approach on digital experience, in which technology is one part of the solution.

“Step back for a moment to consider your objectives more holistically,” says Lindy Roux, EVP and partner at Tendo. “By considering how to deliver better digital experiences, you’re ultimately saying: We want to put the user’s needs first. We want to recognize the context in which they arrive at our website, empathize with their needs and challenges, facilitate the journey they’re on, and help them find what they need without frustration. That’s a good digital experience.”

5 Ways B2B Marketing Leaders Can Elevate Digital Experiences

As you explore your options to enhance digital experience, consider these strategic and operational action items. They can pay dividends with greater website engagement, conversions, and revenue generation.

1. Embrace an Experience Design Mindset

Familiarize yourself with the discipline of experience design, which takes a human-centered, problem-solving approach to creating “high-quality, optimized, seamless experiences,” according to Nielsen Norman Group.

There’s a lot to say about experience design. Here’s the TL;DR for how marketing leaders can incorporate it:

• Actively incorporate user research to inform website updates and optimizations. Orchestrate personalized digital experiences for users, through strategy, technology, and execution.
• Think beyond individual webpages and content assets; consider the overall user journey and how digital experiences work together to shape those journeys and deliver business outcomes.

2. Empower Teams to Take Control of the Experience

Is your digital team an order-taker when it comes to website updates, or are they empowered to make decisions that put the user first? Are website updates made based on the demands of the loudest stakeholders, or strategically mapped out based on the needs, behaviors, and feedback of your users?

“As a marketing leader, put in place the workflows and governance that will empower digital and content teams to identify and fix broken digital experiences, or to flag content and messaging that doesn’t serve users,” explains Roux. “Make it their responsibility to ensure high-quality experiences that generate leads and strengthen customer loyalty.”

3. Insist on Audience-First Experiences

B2B websites often use inside-out messaging, talking to buyers and customers in a company-centric way, positioning products via speeds and feeds rather than customer needs, or organizing pages based on internal corporate structure rather than the way their audiences think. As a result, the entire digital experience is difficult to navigate and hard to digest.

“In principle, nobody disagrees with being more audience-focused,” says Nilay Gandhi, content strategy lead at Tendo. “But when you’re rushing to announce a new product launch, it’s easy to lose sight of how to deliver the appropriate experience.”
In these hair-on-fire situations, marketing leaders must insist that teams stay focused on established experience design principles and editorial direction, explains Gandhi. “So, for example, when a product marketing team sends over a request, the digital or content team should weigh in on approach and implement it in a way that makes sense for users.”

4. Invest in Content Quality and Content Experience

Improving content quality ranked as the #2 marketing team priority (behind personalization) to enhance websites and drive revenue, according to the Sitecore survey. But from a marketing leader’s perspective, how should you think about improving content quality?

• Prioritize quality over quantity: If the quality of your content is lacking, consider throttling back your content engine a bit so that writers can dedicate more time to polish copy and make it engaging and relevant to each target audience. Or supplement your in-house team with content creation experts.
• Identify content gaps and performance issues: Analyze and score your content to determine where and why it’s not meeting user’s needs; find and fix the gaps in your content, by audience, journey stage, or content type.
• Deliver better content experiences: A great content experience is connected, engaging, and relevant. Encourage teams to consider the breath of content experiences they’re creating—how multiple content elements across different channels can work together to support the user journey and meet them where they are in that journey.

5. Streamline Digital and Content Operations

Multiple teams can support your goal to put users first and deliver better digital experiences. Each bring their own expertise and perspective. Talk with your team leaders about opportunities to streamline digital experience and content operations across the organization.

“User experience, customer experience, digital, and content strategy teams can often find ways to collaborate effectively, share insights, and find process efficiencies,” adds Gandhi.

Never Stop Experimenting and Optimizing

Will transforming digital experiences for users open the revenue floodgates? We all know it doesn’t work like that. Marketing leaders must oversee multiple initiatives to improve website performance and ROI: conversion rate optimization, SEO, messaging and positioning, demand gen strategy, in addition to digital experience and personalization. And of course, they need appropriate KPIs to measure progress.

“All of these efforts require ongoing experimentation and optimization, guided by steady marketing leadership,” says Roux. “Over time, step by step, you can turn around an underperforming website and deliver the experiences your audiences expect.”

Get Tendo’s Take on Your Website Challenges

Want a fresh perspective on how to enhance your website and align it with user needs and business goals? Schedule an initial strategy session with Tendo’s senior leaders. Contact us today.