Are you using UI and UX to their full potential?
One of the best ways to build customer retention is keep them coming back for more. In today's digital filled world, a few seconds on the website is all consumers need to make a decision. That being said, those few seconds are what make or break your consumer's decision to explore or leave.
Landing Pages
This is where Landing Pages are vital in providing the upmost experience for potential customers. The landing page is, in a sense, how you welcome someone into your space. Imagine being welcomed into a home with no greeting and completely cluttered. That's what entering onto a website is like, and if it doesn't have a clean, simple, and creative touch to it, no one is going to want to be invited to your house.
So what are some good ground rules to follow for a fabulous looking landing page?
As the digital platform, HubSpot teaches, there a some good steps to create the foundation for a well-organized site.
Define a Page Goal:
The most important thing is making sure people know why they are coming to your website. That should be made absolutely clear the moment they click your website, or else uninterested consumers will not spend time searching if there is no reason to. The way to achieve this efficiently is ask yourself what do I want my users to experience immediately?
A good rule of thumb is to also have one goal per page. This allows for less information to be thrown at a consumer and more time to focus on the important aspects of attracting them. Thinking about your company and the goal it has in mind, use that to figure out the conversion goal.
The Blink Test
If you find that your company is struggling to attract people still, use the Blink Test as reference. Within the first ten seconds of being on a site, you should be able to decide if you want to stay on or leave. Those few seconds are the most important so make them count. Sometimes adding a video or image that is captivating, and relays the message of the company can draw a consumer in. However, make sure that these are less than 90 seconds because attention spans are not very long, especially when visiting a site for the first time. If you are able to capture this, then also guide the consumers through the website by making it easy to navigate.
Once the website has tackled the big step, then you only need to worry about these next three steps:
- Create a navigation menu
- Place a Call-to-Action towards the top of the page, or include a chat interaction with them
- Use logical URLs and page titles
The Call-to-Action is one of the most important parts of the website. This is where conversions will come from. If the website isn't putting this in a noticeable place for the consumer to see, then they aren't going to feel inclined to interact. Make this a big part of the landing page, but also not in an obnoxious way that takes away from the website's content. Also, when using URLs and page titles, don't use inconsistent formats or confusing URLs. Make them simple so people can use them without too much effort.
Looking for a good example, check out Lyft's landing page!
The website does an excellent job of intriguing people with the Call-to-Action: Apply Now. Even the image and the blurb next to it shows: Make up to $35/hr Driving Your Car. The actions are so simple and the page is clean and easy to read. All of the navigation panels are at the top and easily accessible.
Now that we can attract consumer's with our website platforms, its also critical to understand the user experience and user interface. For many, the two are confused together and they are both very different concepts. However, one cannot function without the other to create a successful message.
User Experience (UX)
After reading about both from CareerFoundry, they managed to offer great definitions of both UX and UI.
User Experience Design focuses on measuring and optimizing against input for supporting life functions. This is more of the analytical and technical parts of the experience. This is useful for businesses to know because it enhances the customer's satisfaction and loyalty by making their functionality more simple.
Its also very important to know that UX doesn't limit itself on any platforms, so it encompasses any and all interactions between active and potential customers with the business. Overall, the best thing you can take away from UX is that it remains very hands on with research processes, testing, development, content, and prototyping to test for quality results.
User Interface (UI)
User Interface, on the other hand, has been around much longer and is a practiced field. This focuses on being a compliment that encompasses the look and feel, presentation and interactivity of a product. The process of a product or service being created and transferred to an experience for customers is the big role that UI plays. Computer systems, software and other input devices are what help this experience occur between businesses and consumers.
An important thing to remember about UI is that even though the brand the UI's responsibility, the translation of the product is. The biggest difference between UI and UX is that UI is the more digital side of things that focuses on coding and designing products to offer a visually appealing experience to consumers.
After learning about UX and UI and Landing Pages, it seems like there is a gap between some skills. If you're a marketer, it doesn't help to only know one aspect of marketing like User Experience, but not be able to code an intriguing landing page. This concept is what T-Shaped Marketers achieve.
What is T-Shaped Marketing?
The big picture of T-Shaped Marketing is pretty simple. Its an approach to marketing that utilizes a range of skills. If a marketer can have broad knowledge about the various aspects of the industry, then they can help in many ways than one and maybe specialize in one or two areas.
Some reasons that this is really beneficial include:
- Organizational Integration: Bring digital channels together
- Know your Audience: Acquire a wide skill-set in order to reach all potential audiences.
- Technical Marketing: These are necessary to have the technical skills that benefit resources such as websites and other platforms.
- Digital Knowledge: Key attributes of wealth and breadth of knowledge across digital tactics
- Think and Act like a Start Up: The learning never ends. Always be on the lookout for new ideas, digital trends and tactics.
The integration of industries and tactics in marketing is especially important. If the work is meant to happen collaboratively, it is helpful to know coding or analytics to understand technical information relayed from other teams in the business.
My question to all the businesses is:
Are you thinking about T-Shaped Marketers? How can your business be better integrated with its UX and UI designs?