Is it enough to sell your product irrespective of how the user experience (UX) is? Of course not. Unless the robots have taken over the human race and the end user is a robot, we are still making products for people.
Traditionally, marketing has been all about selling a particular product; it’s an act of persuasion, seduction, and manipulation. However, today the marketing landscape has altered drastically, and most marketing teams strive to put the customer first. Rather than looking at a product from a purely business-driven standpoint, thousands of marketers today safeguarded themselves from all the frustration and wasted time and effort by considering user experience at the very beginning.
We have entered a new era- The age of customers. The rise of digital channels and social media has dramatically transformed the way buyers choose to purchase which has led to mass digital disruption and dissolution of traditional industry boundaries to an incredible degree and has empowered consumers like never before.
Modern marketers are aware that a customer-centric strategy is essential to surviving today’s complex business environment as customers are no longer loyal to brands but the experience. Although in the past, user experience and marketing have been two separate fields of study, today, a website or app is the strongest marketing asset a company has. With this paradigm shift, UX has become a tool for change – capable of transforming the way companies do business and build their brand story.
This increasing fixation on user experience as a modern marketing map is not just cool for start-ups. It has been reported that 79% of mobile customers search for another site if the one they have landed doesn’t have a great user experience. In fact, a whopping 95 percent of customers agree with this statement: “Good user experience just makes sense.”
Many purists still deny the convergence of marketing and UX, but what they fail to recognize is that great advertising and UX both are derived from a common principle: empathy. Good UX is the key to facilitating conversions in a full and oversaturated digital world, and single most important element required for businesses to survive and stay relevant.
User-friendly and responsive websites are no longer just buzzwords. A recent stats reveals that, 48 percent of users become annoyed and frustrated when sites are poorly optimized for mobile devices and that 52 percent say a bad mobile experience makes them less likely to engage with the company in the future. An ideal online journey takes place when a website features seamless navigation; dynamic and digestible content; a clean cut purchasing journey; top-notch customer support and mobile device compatibility. By blending these elements, a business can make real connections with their clients and create a brand story which isn’t easily forgotten.
Irrespective of the fact whether you’re developing a website or application, UX directly impacts your target market’s perceptions about your product. A good UX has the potential to delight your customers, which in turn, makes it more likely that they will not only endorse your brand but also spread positive opinions about your product. So in essence, UX directly affects word-of-mouth marketing efforts. It creates authentic user experiences and builds customer loyalty by forging a positive long-term relationship between a brand and its clients.
There is a flip side to this which is equally valid. A bad user experience will not only make you lose a potential customer but also have an adverse impact on your brand image. And in most cases, customers are more likely to share a bad experience than a positive one.
The single biggest misconception about UX that it is just about creating beautiful interfaces, when in fact; UX is a much larger concept. But if you think UX has zero impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), then you’re dead wrong. Google, the search engine giant, always pays emphasis on its UX; hence it evidently cares about the UX of the websites which it serves to its users.
In the ongoing scramble to reach to the top, Google is paying more attention to your site’s user experience than you think. In fact, “landing page experience” has long been a key factor for ranking ads in AdWords. It also considers aspects such as page load time, button size on a mobile screen and ad cluttering in ranking your page. This simply boils down to the fact that a great UX will automatically catapult your website to the top which will lead to more traffic, returning visits and more conversion.
In this age of customer-centric marketing, giving UX its due attention is no longer optional. Customers invariably expect personalization and customization, and unless it is provided, they will only move on to your competitor. Tapping into the power of UX, your business can become that glistening needle in a giant digital haystack.
