The biggest reason that user experience (UX) should be important to your brand is that it’s important to your customers. Modern consumers want — and frankly, expect — a pleasant experience when interacting with brands online. Focusing on UX can help your brand attract new customers, engage and retain existing customers, and boost revenue.
UX includes the experience customers have when visiting your website, using your applications, and engaging with your content and messages on social media.
Delivering a smooth user experience not only reduces the likelihood that customers will abandon your brand, but it can also motivate customers to keep coming back and to refer new business.
Here are 6 reasons why UX is important for building your brand reputation.
1. UX Creates Consistency Across Platforms
Designing for UX across your digital platforms helps to provide a consistent experience for consumers, no matter where they interact with your brand. In the modern era, consumers expect to be able to transition from desktop to mobile device or tablet without an interruption in their experience. They also expect that your brand’s website, social media accounts, and digital content will share the same look and feel.
Good UX design represents your brand’s personality and aesthetic across devices and digital channels, so when consumers see your Facebook post, it feels like it came from the same source as your Instagram story, your website, and your recent email newsletter. This promotes a feeling of authenticity, which helps to build trust with your audience.
2. UX Increases Conversions
Good UX design can increase conversions on your website, digital ads, and marketing campaigns. UX design includes making it easy for customers to navigate through your website and find what they’re looking for. UX also includes creating a seamless experience from clicking on a digital ad to visiting your brand’s landing page where a consumer can make a purchase.
With well-designed UX, consumers will find it easy to search for products, browse your brand’s offerings, and find the information they’re looking for — all of which lead to an increased likelihood of converting.
Websites that are difficult to navigate, or marketing campaigns that feel disjointed, can turn customers away to seek an easier, smoother experience elsewhere.
3. UX Attracts New Customers
Good UX makes it easy to find your website and your brand’s content online. This means that when potential new customers are searching for information or researching purchase decisions, your brand can stand out from the crowd by providing a pleasant user experience.
The right approach to UX design on your website can improve your SEO, helping your brand show up in relevant online searches. When new visitors land at your website, they’re more likely to stick around if they can easily find the information they’re looking for. UX can also help encourage website visitors to explore more pages of your site and browse more of your brand’s offerings.
UX design in your social media and digital advertising can also help to attract new eyes to your brand, raise awareness of your brand name, and drive users to land on your website. By increasing your web traffic, you will improve your chances of converting new customers.
4. Improves Customer Retention
It stands that if it feels easy and convenient to use your website or applications, consumers will want to continue using them. UX design involves tweaking and adjusting your website, applications, and digital content to continue making it easier for people to find what they’re looking for and take action online.
When consumers are researching information or ready to make a purchase, they will look for the easiest route possible. If they remember your website as easy to navigate and understand, they are more likely to come back to your brand again and again for a pleasant experience. If there are pain points in your UX, such as confusing user interface or disorganized site navigation, you may push consumers to look for alternatives the next time they are making a purchase.
5. UX Helps You Earn Word-of-Mouth Referrals
When customers do have a good experience, they want to tell their friends and family about it. A pleasant, seamless, or delightful user experience can increase word-of-mouth referrals for your brand.
Word-of-mouth marketing is still one of the most powerful forms of marketing, as people trust the recommendations of their friends and family far more than advertisements. By creating a memorable and convenient experience, you can increase the likelihood that satisfied customers will pass your brand’s name along to their networks.
6. UX Contributes to the Customer Experience
User experience plays a major role in the overall customer experience (link this phrase to the recent blog post about Customer Experience), which includes all touchpoints that a buyer has with your brand — from the awareness stage all the way through conversion into ongoing engagement.
Delivering a strong customer experience helps to establish a positive relationship between your brand and your audience. With more research, entertainment, and shopping being conducted online, the user experience that you deliver across your website, digital channels, and applications play a significant role in the overarching experience that a customer has with your brand.
