Why You Should Never Underestimate User Experience

Marketing is required to attract new customers and make people aware of your business. But what happens once a customer lands on your website? How much time have you spent evaluating the customer experience after he or she sees your marketing? When you don’t have processes, messaging, and clear next steps in place, your marketing is less powerful. We’ve decided to outline a few tips on how you can better communicate with your customers – from start to finish.

Complete a User Experience Audit

One way to understand how your customer interacts with your business is to complete a user experience (UX) audit. Go through your business’s process as a potential customer. Start with the top of the sales funnel – when someone first hears about your business. If he or she does not know who you are or what you do, that person cannot convert into a customer. Does your marketing have clear calls-to-action? Is it obvious what the customer should do next? When we’ve spent hours on our website, app, etc. it’s easy to overlook simple steps that are less obvious to a potential customer who is typically in a hurry. If a button doesn’t work, or a landing page takes a long time to fill out, it could be a lost customer. Does the overall flow from marketing, to your website, to conversion, make sense? Where are the gaps? Simplify where you can and consider when information is presented. For example, you don’t want to ask someone for money too quickly (first they need to understand what they’re getting). But if that person is ready to buy, ensure they’re able to do so with a “Buy Now” button.

Strengthen Your Messaging

Once someone has heard of your business, they will likely continue doing research. Be clear why a potential customer should make a purchase. Having solid brand messaging helps you stay consistent across channels. Think about your main value proposition – does this show up frequently in the customer experience, and is it reinforced in other ways? If your messaging says “easy, quick customer service” then that’s exactly what potential customers expect. Use messaging that connects with your customers by highlighting words they use around key pain points and solutions.

Revisit the Final Step

Your marketing is on-point. Your messaging speaks to your leads & clearly lets them know what to do. Now it’s time to convert these prospects into paying customers. If you work with other businesses, how do you finalize a proposal and contract? Is it complex and difficult to navigate, or is it a streamlined system? Consider ways to improve your client intake and make it easier. Give a positive impression of your brand from the get-go with simple onboarding. If you’re a business-to-consumer brand, how straightforward is the checkout process? If customers have unanswered questions, how easy is it to find answers? When your customers know what to expect and feel empowered by interacting with your brand, it leaves a positive impression.

User experience is an important component of finding and retaining customers; broken technology and systems create barriers for them. Go through your process as objectively as possible. Identify what can be improved, from how your site looks to what’s presented as most important on the page. If you’d like a second opinion, we’d be happy to help!

Tags: custom web design, custom web development, web design, web development