Some Website Marketing Blunders You Can Come Back From. These 3 Will Cost You Customers.

Welcome to my LinkedIn newsletter! In each issue of Making Ideas Work, I'll be tackling the biggest trends and issues in WebOps. Subscribe here to get the latest analysis on the intersections between tech and society.

I recently ordered furniture from a well-known, not-to-be-named home decor brand. My wife and I liked their aesthetic, and we were excited to receive our order. Admittedly, hitting the submit button felt like taking a bit of a gamble. The site was just finicky enough to leave doubts in my mind, and sure enough, several pieces showed up broken, and some didn’t come at all. Fortunately, the company was easy to deal with and promptly resolved the issue, saving the day – and my loyalty. Despite these hiccups, I will shop there again. 

When it comes to the digital customer journey, the reality is most websites fail to deliver a truly satisfying experience. Research has shown that a quarter of all URLs have at least one website issue – most often broken or slow-loading pages – and more than a third of these issues are critical.  

Consumers have come to expect bad web experiences, and recent studies back that up. Research shows that 90% of respondents have had negative digital experiences that include everything from email spam, to unhelpful customer service to data breaches and identity theft. The good news? Customers are pretty forgiving about the minor annoyances – 81% are willing to give the brand a second chance. 

But there is a hard line on website blunders that customers won’t forgive and forget. If they’re treated poorly or feel exploited, they will break up with a brand for good. Knowing the difference between what’s forgivable and what isn’t is critical. Here’s where to start.

1) Optimize the digital experience, but don’t overcomplicate it

We all know a good digital experience when we see one. It’s compelling and engaging, like an email that captures how we feel, or a product page with just the specs we need. Often this experience results in an action, like a purchase, a referral or a link share. It can even help to build brand loyalty. 

But we can probably all recall a slew of bad digital experiences, too – applying for health insurance comes to mind for me. These misadventures are often the result of complicated or frustrating websites where functions don’t work or wayfinding isn’t clear. Sometimes it seems the site owner doesn’t care about its visitors at all. But they should: consumers want their digital experience to be effortless – and 64% will go to a competitor if it’s not. 

When your core digital experience is as challenging to navigate as a maze with no signs, you are saying to your customer ‘I don’t care about your experience,’ which many customers interpret as “I don't care about you.” You simply can’t come back from that.

The brands with the best digital experiences start with a solid understanding of customer needs. But beware of abstracting those needs as a set of funnel metrics to be optimized. People can perceive when they are treated as a metric, and it doesn't feel authentic. The best experiences level up by building a bond of empathy and treating their customers as they would a friend or family member. 

The pitfall in overthinking all this results in website projects that become only about technology or optimization. We need to keep the most important objectives front and center – making it easy and quick for people to navigate your site, giving them compelling content, and being there to help when needed. 

2) Collect the data you need, but don’t ever exploit it 

Most brands need to collect personal data – and customers expect it, but they also bank on it being handled with care, given the increasing frequency of data breaches. If customers suspect you’re not doing everything you can to protect their information, that’s almost a guaranteed dealbreaker. 

According to our research, although nearly half of respondents said they were willing to share personal information, two-thirds were concerned a brand might sell their data, be unable to protect against data threats or leave them a victim of identity theft. And only 17% were willing to forgive such outcomes. 

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons 60% of small businesses fold within six months of a data breach. Data privacy and protection should always be a paramount priority. 

3) Don’t save website improvements for a relaunch. Iterate continuously

Whenever I meet with a CMO and ask about their website, it’s not uncommon that they cringe. The fact is, many of us are embarrassed about our ‘internet storefront’ – we know it should be better. But dealing with it can result in a negative feedback loop that can be debilitating.

If you don’t know where to even start improving the digital experience, it’s often easier to defer all changes to a future website relaunch that will happen someday when there’s budget for it. But this can be very dangerous for two reasons: even if you get the budget to do the website relaunch, it very rarely leads to the results you want, and while you’re waiting, your competitors are continuously improving their sites as you fall further behind. 

Improving a site that hasn’t changed in years is overwhelming. A relaunch involving multiple stakeholder groups can literally take years. But this is exactly why successful digital brands adopt an iterative approach and tackle website issues in smaller chunks! 

If you’ve already disappointed your digital customers, fear not. One thing that’s easy to lose sight of is the fact that our customers want us to succeed. We *do* have the opportunity to fix the problem and improve their experience. Treating problems as feedback that can be resolved creates a path of continuous improvement which eventually becomes a muscle. And the success becomes self-reinforcing.

Most websites aren’t perfect, and that’s usually okay. But the odds are pretty good that when we show our customers a good time online, they will come back for more. 

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you’re seeing in your own industry, so feel free to pop into the comments below. For more news and ideas around WebOps and the intersection of tech and society, be sure to subscribe.