18 Mar How To Give Your Audience a Better Online Experience

Brand loyalty… why does it occur? Typically because we have had a positive experience with a business, and, in turn we choose to spend our money with them again.

Convince and Convert recently shared that, just like in the retail world, brand experience and engagement are the strongest drivers of loyalty in digital world as well. Design, atmosphere, speed, and problem resolution are all pillars of a great consumer experience, and these same concepts contribute to your audience’s online experience.

What constitutes a good online experience? Your visitors must find everything they’re looking for with ease and speed. Secondary to that is content that keeps your customers engaged and returning for more.

Let’s look at some of these individually. Why is speed important? Because every second a visitor waits for your site to load, their frustration grows—and that frustration is aimed at your brand. Most often images account for a significant portion of load time. You must optimize these images to ensure this does not happen, as well as have a system in place that will cache parts of your site so visitors don’t need to download anything more than the first time.

Speaking of images, the use of stock photos is quickly falling to the wayside. Users have become savvy to these and, unfortunately, the overuse of stock images devalues your website in visitors’ eyes. People are craving authenticity and transparency; this is one of the side effects of the digital age. Try using photos of your actual team or office space to make your brand “real.”

Now on to your message… does your website instantly tell users what your business does in a clear, concise way? Making someone navigate through your entire site to figure out what your business does will hurt your brand. Visitors should be able to understand what you do within a couple seconds of landing on your homepage. It’s that simple. And don’t forget a call-to-action! Tests have shown that a call-to-action button performs best at the point in the page where the visitor also finds the information they need and is prepared to make a decision.

How does your website measure up? Are you giving your audience a great online experience? Share by commenting below or posting to our Facebook page!

image courtesy of freedigitalimages.net