User experience is a term that is being used more and more. Whether in the creation of a multichannel strategy or to improve your prospects’ buying journey. Did you know that user experience is now more important than price for users and that, in the long run, it can help you generate leads? In this article, discover the definition of user experience, its importance in your marketing strategy, best practices, as well as mistakes to avoid.
What is user experience?
User experience can be defined as the way a user perceives and reacts to the use of something. In marketing, we mainly talk about user experience when using an application or a website. In other words, it is the set of methods and tips for achieving your objective while offering a pleasant experience that sparks a positive, or even very positive, emotion. It is also the overall experience a user has with your brand
The pillars of user experience
User experience is made up of several factors that can be grouped into three categories:
- Ergonomics
- Navigation
- Content
Ergonomics, responding quickly to customer needs
In marketing, ergonomics is the ability to respond quickly and effectively to your customer’s needs. The main challenge lies in the fact that you often target several audiences, so you need to find the right balance to satisfy all of them. To achieve this, focus your efforts on your users’ expectations and habits. If you offer content, make sure your user interface is readable and pleasant to read.
Navigation, making your tool easier to use
The second important point concerns navigation. There is nothing more frustrating for a user than going around in circles and not finding an easy way to navigate between your pages.
Beyond your user’s navigation, you especially need to understand their needs beforehand. For example, if your reader is reading one of your articles on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), there is a good chance they are also looking for information on SEA (Search Engine Advertising). Good navigation enables the user to move efficiently between your different pages and thus helps generate leads.
Content, the main element of a successful user experience
Keep in mind that you first write content for your users and then for your marketing actions. We tend to focus only on results, for example, the ranking a given article will have in search engines. A quote from Google says, “Focus on the user and all else will follow”.
In fact, writing relevant content based on your customers’ expectations will reassure your leads. High-quality content read by the right person at the right time is an excellent way to generate leads.
More broadly, writing relevant content means integrating an inbound marketing and lead nurturing strategy. It is thanks to marketing automation that you will be able to multiply the power of your content. We will come back to this a little later.
Why integrate user experience into your marketing strategy?
It is important to integrate this notion into your marketing strategy because it will support the user throughout the entire sales funnel, from awareness to the customer loyalty phase. Indeed, it is no longer enough to offer a great user experience only at the moment of purchase. You must offer it throughout your entire conversion funnel.
Your prospects are becoming more and more autonomous. They consult and gather information on many websites before making their final choice. This is why taking care of your user experience means making your prospects want to get to know you and use your solution rather than those of your competitors. Every detail can matter and improve the user journey.
In fact, ignoring user experience means giving your direct and indirect competitors the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage over you. Offering a good user experience gives you the opportunity to attract more prospects to choose your solution over another. A good user experience will help boost your ROI insofar as your leads will feel reassured and therefore more inclined to choose your solution.
Best practices for a successful user experience
To offer a successful user experience, you need to organize and optimize each of your communication channels. To do this, focus on the users of your different channels: what are they looking for, why, and when?
Your website
Your website is the showcase of your company. It is generally the starting point of the user journey. That is why you need to make sure you keep a clear homepage by smartly highlighting your core business and expertise.
User experience does not depend solely on your homepage. When you create landing pages, dress them in your company’s colors and aim for a single objective with a single message so as not to lose your users. Your message must be clear and understandable to everyone. Remember to carry out A/B testing regularly to optimize these pages.
Loading time
According to a study by kissmetrics, 40% of visitors to your website may leave it immediately if it does not load within 3 seconds after their request. Optimizing your loading speed means optimizing your future conversions. Measure your website’s loading speed. There are many digital tools on the internet that allow you to optimize this point, including PageSpeed Insights which gives you a score out of 100 as well as many tips for optimizing your page. Notably, image and javascript resource optimization.
Above the fold
Also take into account the principle of above the fold. It is all the information that appears on your users’ screens without them needing to scroll. It is important to include in this area the essential information on your page, the information that will spark your user’s interest. When the user reads this area, they must immediately understand the benefits of your solution. For example, Semji uses this area very well on its website
Homepage Semji
The area is well organized and the benefit provided by the solution is immediately clear.
It is, however, interesting to note that users have become accustomed to scrolling through pages. This area is admittedly less important than before, but it is still necessary to work on it to reassure your users.
Finally, prioritize every means of access to your site. More and more internet traffic happens on phones. According to a report by Statcounter, in 2021, more than 50% of internet traffic came from phones, and this figure is constantly increasing. It is therefore important to have a responsive website. It has become a crucial issue for all companies.
Update your content
If you publish content regularly, it is important to update it regularly. For example, a user will feel frustrated if they come across an article on your site titled “the best digital tools for implementing a good strategy in 2012”. To avoid any mishaps, avoid stating dates as much as possible when you write your content.
Your newsletters
You probably use newsletters as a communication channel. Here too, best practices exist.
Before sending your marketing emails, remember to test your email deliverability. You can do this thanks to tools available on the internet, including mail tester
For example, writing an email subject line may seem easy, but if it is not attractive, there is a high chance that your email will not be read, or even opened.
To do this, make sure you interest your audience, talk about your new products or your events. You must spark your customers’ interest in just a few words. Be bold and challenge your audience.
Also be concrete in your message and adapt your vocabulary to your audience. Controlled communication is often a sign of a successful user experience.
Social media
Here too, there are best practices that can help you stand out and offer a good user experience. Offer your users relevant and easy-to-consume content. For example, if you publish videos, it will be much easier for your user to follow the video if it is subtitled. Also use explicit images that speak for themselves.
Make your users want to get to know you. Share your articles and content directly on your social media to make distribution faster. Make sure your content is relevant and brings added value: for example, you can publish tips that challenge your sector of activity. In fact, your content must fit into a cross-channel communication strategy.
Hire a UX Designer
Sometimes, the key to a successful user experience lies in recruitment. A UX designer has a different vision from yours, knows design best practices, and can help you create high-quality visuals to capture your prospects’ attention.
A UX designer will also use the right tools to meet the requirements of the market you are in. Call on a communication agency if hiring is impossible. If you are asking yourself how much it costs, also ask yourself how much it brings in.
Mistakes to avoid
Your website
To optimize the user experience of your sales funnel, there are also mistakes to avoid. We saw one previously with page loading time. But there are also very common mistakes in navigation. Indeed, it is commonly said that all the pages on your website should be accessible in three clicks or fewer. Beyond three clicks, it can sometimes become complicated for the user to find all the information they need.
Regarding the ergonomics of your homepage, it is common to see a menu overloaded with information. If you want to put multiple pieces of information on your homepage, use your footer, which will be much more practical for creating an information architecture. Keep only the most relevant information in your header: the products you offer, your pricing, a call to action.
Also avoid overloading your website with information; a user is above all looking for simplicity when carrying out a search. Be concise in your wording and make sure your user understands the essential message. Keep this in mind: one block of text, one single piece of information.
One-page websites to avoid
If you are self-employed, you may have had the idea of creating a one-page website. In absolute terms, it is not such a bad idea; it is a solution for quickly gaining online visibility, but I see three drawbacks to this approach:
- A one-page website is often a site with little information; it generally contains only company presentation information, which does not have high added value for the user. It will therefore tend to increase your company’s bounce rate.
- A one-page website has only one URL; in SEO terms, this is catastrophic. Google will have a lot of trouble indexing your site.
- Segmentation when it is carried out with a tracking tool, such as marketing automation. By tracking a single page, you will miss the navigation information from your visitor that is useful for personalizing your communications.
Your newsletters
The advantage of email is that you have control over all the data you send. For example, a classic mistake is using an email address such as “noreply@entreprise.com” for your sender email address. There is nothing better for driving away your future prospects. It is not reassuring for the recipient.
Another important point is to systematically add a pre-header to your email. It is not necessarily the most important thing, but it is always a plus when someone receives an email and gets a preview of its content without opening it.
Finally, check your e-mail by sending yourself a test to different email addresses using different email clients in order to verify whether everything displays correctly. There is nothing more frustrating than an image that does not display in an email.
Your social media
Are your social media sufficiently active? This is one of the most common mistakes that harms a good user experience. It is counterproductive to be present on all existing social networks. Choose the most relevant ones and develop an appropriate communication plan in order to avoid ghost pages. An underdeveloped page will unquestionably drive away people who want to follow you.
To avoid this kind of problem, use an editorial calendar that will allow you to organize yourself and thus offer content regularly.
Finally, update your page regularly.
Why marketing automation?
Marketing automation is the entire marketing process aimed at automating certain tasks in order to focus on those with high added value. One of the goals of marketing automation is to deliver the right content, at the right time, to the right person.
To do this, marketing automation is based on inbound marketing, that is, attracting customers to your company. As opposed to outbound marketing where the brand goes to the consumer, the traditional method.
Integrating marketing automation into the user experience
The use of marketing automation will indirectly push the user toward an improved user experience. Since marketing automation aims to generate leads effectively, each communication sent to your prospects will be relevant to them and will therefore be better perceived. This directly improves your user experience because it addresses the pillars of user experience: ergonomics, navigation, and content.
Ergonomics because you adapt your communication according to the person you want to target, you personalize your message, and they feel much more involved in the relationship your prospect has or will have with your brand.
Navigation because if the SEO work is done properly, your prospect will have no trouble navigating between the various articles and rich content you offer them; you guide them where you want them to go.
Finally, content because you create specific, high-quality content for each of your target personas. The more qualitative and targeted the content is, the more it will increase your chances of generating qualified leads.
For example, you would not appreciate receiving a promotional code the day after your full-price purchase, would you?
You can request a demo of our Webmecanik Automation software from one of our experts so they can show you the power of marketing automation, combined with a good user experience!
You now know everything there is to know about user experience. It is now up to you to optimize it for your marketing strategy. Good luck.
