“User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project,” according to usability.gov.
Think of your first impression when walking into a grocery store. If you’re there to buy flour, how easy is it to find the right isle? Are all of the items organized and neatly labeled on the shelves? Are there signs directing you to check-out? Consider how the friendliness of the cashier made you feel welcome to return to shop there. This scenario also applies to how people experience your website and online materials.
Customers today demand quick and simple ways to meet their needs and solve their pain points. They also highly value positive experiences and interactions. This is why user experience is critical. Here are a few ways you should consider it in your marketing plan.
Understand your customer’s pain points
Designing a great website user experience requires understanding the problems different visitors are looking to solve. Do some research to understand what your audiences exact pain points are. For example, someone may be concerned that they are spending too much money on their current provider/solution/products and want to reduce their spend. Start thinking about how to position your company or product as a solution to your prospects’ problems. Keep in mind that most people won’t dive in and start reading paragraph by paragraph – they will scan the headlines, browse through pages and seek a hierarchy of information.
Create flow with quality content and design
Your goal when sharing content is to reduce as many obstacles as possible. People should not get stuck looking for something or deciding what to do next. Take advantage of call-to-actions and buttons that lead people to the appropriate next step – whether that’s filling out a form, watching a video or making a phone call.
If you don't want your business to feel outdated, make sure your website looks fresh and modern. Some tools for a well designed website include a clean layout that utilizes white space, segmented content with bullet points and bold headlines and authentic imagery. According to Crazy Egg, white space around text and titles increases user attention by 20%. White space can also make your website feel open, fresh and modern and if your branding is consistent with these then it can help you communicate that feeling to the user.
Load times and mobile formatting
“Slow speeds kill conversions. In fact, 47% of consumers expect websites to load in two seconds or less — and 40% will abandon a page that takes three or more seconds. This means that if your site takes more than three seconds to load, you lose almost half of your visitors before they even arrive on your site,” explains CrazyEgg.
As you can see, load times are critical to user experience and the will abandon your site if they don’t have it. The same goes for mobile formatting. With up to 50-70% using mobile devices (depending on the industry) you want to push as much effort into your mobile page design as you do with your desktop.
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There are a number of ways to improve user experience in your marketing materials, these are just a few of the most important ones. If you’re looking for a team of experts to help you create a website that concerts – we’re here to help. Just ask On-Target!.
