Online marketing is more than just creating a website, putting your product online, or advertising your business name. In fact, a great online marketing campaign factors in numerous different elements in order to be successful, including effective SEO (search engine optimization) strategies, a social media campaign, great content, and perhaps most importantly, an engaging and positive user experience.
Defining User Experience
User experience, referred to simply as UX amongst SEO pros, is a focus on a user’s perceptions and responses while using a website, and requires having a developed understanding of who one’s users are, what those users needs, and what a user’s values and abilities are. Whether or not a user (potential customer!) has a positive or negative user experience depends on a number of different website criteria, including:
- Usability;
- Usefulness;
- Credibility;
- Accessibility;
- Findability; and
- Desirability.
In addition to the above, things like website layout and visual design have a huge impact on user experience, too. So does mobile-friendliness; if your website cannot be easily navigated on a smartphone or other handheld device, experience for these users will be poor.
Why User Experience Matters
User experience is incredibly important, both for building long-term relationships with your customers and for some more immediate, practical reasons (i.e. if your potential customer cannot navigate your site, they’ll likely get frustrated and leave well before ever becoming a sale). CrazyEgg emphasizes that user experience is important because it affects:
- Customer loyalty;
- Conversion rates;
- Return on investment;
- Efficiency and productivity; and
- Customer satisfaction.
So How Can I Improve UX?
If you want to improve UX, the first thing that you need to do is start understanding your customer. Who is your customer? Where do they live? What do they want? What do they value? How can your product or service meet their needs?
Once you understand your customer, the next step is understanding online marketing and some basic musts that your marketing strategy should incorporate, such as a blog, social media usage, and mobile-friendly platform. From there, some proven strategies for enhancing UX include:
- Testing different approaches;
- Trying out responsive web design;
- Providing good–but not overwhelming–information (i.e. keep it simple);
- Using customer surveys; and
- Reworking your calls-to-action.
Working with an Online Marketing Company Can Help
If you’re not an online marketing specialist and are worried about successfully running your own operation, the last thing you want to concern yourself with is creating a website that rocks. Luckily, our team at NUVEW is here to do that for you. We specialize in various elements of online marketing, including social media marketing, SEO, website design, and yes, user experience!
For a consultation with our team about how you can improve your website and connect with more customers today, please call us at 219-323-3343 or send us a message directly.
