Which of these attributes would you associate with a website user of today?
OPTION 1: Relaxed and easy going, Tolerant, Browses on desktop, Text driven, Less demanding, Long attention span, Has all the time in the world.
OPTION 2: Fast paced – Always on the move, Easily bored, Browses more on mobile devices than desktop, increasingly drawn to visual content than texts, Demanding – Looking for clear concise answers; Values intuitiveness, speed and remarkable user experience (UX).
I’m sure you went for Option 2. Yes, Easy-peasy… ‘A no-brainer!’ right?
But how often do we consider these ‘customer traits’ when designing our web pages?
HOW OFTEN DO WE PUT OURSELVES IN THE USERS’ SHOES?
Let’s have a think:
- Are we being ‘too self-centered’ in offering our products and services?
- Do we have COMPELLING content or is it just about interesting designs and fluffmaterial?
- Is our content SMART and INTUITIVE enough to convert leads into customers?
- How EXCEPTIONAL is the user experience (UX)
Here are 3 Food-for-thoughts to find answers to these questions and help you create your dream sites:
1. Growth-Driven Design (GDD)
In a traditional approach to website building, the site is built and launched on the basis of available market researches and other assumptions derived about the needs and expectations of the audiences.
The developers, designers and content writers jump right into crafting the best possible site for their brand with the latest available design-technology and industry practices; based on these assumptions – and hope these sites will perform. However, that’s usually not the case. The assumptions don’t match and ‘user behaviour'’, consumption trends and web environment; keeps changing.
The solution, as the guys at Kuno Creative profess; is to go with the Growth-Driven Design (GDD) - An approach that delivers high performing websites.
Contrary to traditional approaches, where developers launch a finished, rigid product; with GDD:
- Adaptive and flexible websites are built and launched, with the best assumptions obtained on users’ needs and preferences.
- Then the users’ responses and impact are closely observed to validate the assumptions, and websites are updated and tweaked as per these validations.
- This process continues until all elements of the website truly align with the user's preferences – to give optimum results.
The process is divided into two phases: Phase 1 (Discovery & Launch Pad Development – up to 6 Months) and Phase 2 (Optimisation & Ongoing Development –Ongoing phase)
The approach is effective in - alleviating the pain points of a traditional website redesign; and supporting the marketing goals during and after the redesign process.
2. The INBOUND Game
The goal of any website is to basically establish a ‘brand’ presence and aid in building ‘customer base’ to boost sales and brand loyalty. It is this latter part of the game where INBOUND Marketing plays a crucial role.
Inbound Marketing deals with creating, distributing and personalising content to attract various user personas to the website – the visitors, then are driven through various stages of the Sales Funnel, and hopefully converted to ‘satisfied customers.’
It is crucial that we understand - Website designing and implementation of Inbound Marketing Strategy goes hand-in-hand, and should not be tackled one after another.
Here’s an example from HubSpot to illustrate the point:
“As you're walking down the street, you notice a cake in the window display of a cake shop. You walk into the shop because you want the delicious looking cake. When you get into the shop, you see the cake immediately, a sign with a price, and an eager shop assistant with a large "Pay Here" sign. You leave the shop with the cake in hand, ready to indulge, and vowing to return again soon.
Now imagine the same situation, but when you walk in you can't find the cake you saw in the window. When you eventually find it, there's no information about how much it cost; you have to ask a shop assistant for that information. And when you're ready to pay, you can't find a register or shop assistant. So you just leave and go to the shop down the road.”
Here, the goal of the first shop was to get the cake out of the door to the customers. And it did just that. Websites need to be designed like the first cake shop. When designing a site we have to ensure that our purposes are clear right from the start.
And an Inbound Strategy is building an enticing and comfortable journey for the customers to reach to that cake - a ‘preference’ for the customer and ‘sales goal’ for us. However, if we try to patch up those goals onto the website after it has been designed, we could end up like the cake shop number two.
As an Inbound Marketing Strategy, the content in the shape of: Blogposts, eBooks, white papers, videos, ‘call to action’ banners and ‘pop ups’, podcasts, webinars, trial offers, etc. are crafted within the web pages during the design, to address the need of users at various stages of the funnel, which helps to: educate the users and provide solutions to their queries, build users’ trust with the brand, engage and nurture leads and finally helps the leads to make that ‘purchase decision’.
3. Aesthetics, Usability & Optimization
It goes without saying that a website needs to – Look Good! People are instantly drawn to images, pictures and colours – prior to texts. It is important that the images, graphics, layout, buttons, logos, spaces, banners, pop-ups, color combination and every other design features are created and carefully structured n the web pages to give an aesthetically pleasing sensation to the visitors – After all, this is the very first impression any user gets, before s/he decides to look further into the site.
As being pleasing to the eyes, the site should equally be easily usable – meaning the users should be able to smoothly glide along the website’s interface. A clear navigation, logical structure and easy-to-follow site hierarchy are key to keep the users glued to the site.
When we talk about Optimisation – mobile friendly, mobile optimised and responsive web sites surface to the top. With increasing population turning to mobile devices to surf the internet, It is important to make sure that your visitors receive a ‘flawless’ navigation within your website and landing pages and a satisfying ‘user experience’ regardless of the mobile device they’re holding, or the context they’re in.
Remember, your website is the first thing, this fast-paced world will discover about you. To have a website is not a choice anymore but an imperative - for any business to survive or succeed, in this digital world of internet and exponentially advancing mobile technologies.
If you would like to know more or would like to contribute to this article I want to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249-5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Website is element7digital.com.au
