In a marketing-saturated world, user experience matters: it’s a sure-fire way to stand out and win the approval of your audience; however, the idea of “good UX in marketing” goes way beyond having a great web design.

In this article, we’ll paint a complete picture of how UX fits in digital marketing, along with the core marketing efforts that apply.

So, where do we start?

The Definition of UX in Marketing and Why It Matters

From a marketer’s perspective, UX refers to the overall customer experience delivered through different channels, including landing pages, emails, and other touchpoints. This “experience” encompasses elements such as visual design, convenience/ease, and the functionality of what’s being offered.

The goal is to aim for that sweet spot in every marketing campaign and permanent channels – a way that delivers value, but in a memorable and impactful way, as illustrated:

By delivering a great UX, you could pave the way for brand loyalty, carve out a reputation for yourself, and leave a positive impact on your bottom line.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the different elements that matter in this context:

1. Usability/Functionality

If there’s one thing that matters more than anything, it’s usability.

This could include marketing tasks such as:

• Making sure that the call-to-action buttons on your website are working.
• Ensuring that no in-text internal link on your website is broken, so that users can easily navigate between pages.
• Ensuring that your website works properly across all devices (especially mobile devices, since people who have a negative experience on mobile are 62% less likely to ever shop from your store again).
• If you have an actual product, such as an app, make sure that the user interface/product design is user-friendly and comfortable.

Lululemon offers multiple shopping options on their hero image along with seasonally-relevant suggestions

There could be other elements that also apply here, but the examples above should be enough to give you an idea of what it all means.

2. Aesthetics

Aesthetics and visuals are the other important aspects of user-experience.

The way you build and present your brand to the whole world says a lot about your values and priorities.

A study found that 94% of users will form an impression of your brand just by looking at the design of your website.

If you fail to deliver that “wow” factor, you might not be able to position yourself how you’d like.

Ritual uses bold colors and packs a punch with their hero imagery

3. Convenience

Finally, the way your customers discover and engage with your business also matters.

There are a lot of ways you can deliver this “convenience.”

For instance, you could start with something as simple as creating a Google My Business listing to potentially rise in local rankings.

Furthermore, you could also use the appropriate ad formats when you’re doing paid marketing on social media (if you’re selling clothing items, a “collection ad” on Facebook is the best option).

Figure out new ways to make the overall customer journey as convenient as possible.

UX and Marketing: Different Perspectives

As highlighted earlier, different marketing specialists and UX teams will give you a different take on what it means to deliver a good user experience.

Let’s discuss everything from the different viewpoints of the 3 major umbrellas of digital marketing:

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

If you think about it, a UX designer and a CRO specialist share the same ultimate goal – to create something that pushes users to take desirable actions.

Considering that, there’s no doubt that CRO and UX are closely-related.

In this context, delivering a positive user-experience boils down to:

• Creating the Ideal Web Design – CRO can play a critical role in web UX. This involves figuring out the best design and copy that elicits a desirable response from your users (such as clicking on a CTA button or spending X amount of time on a certain section). An A/B test could help with that.
  
• Testing Copy – everyone will respond differently to your ads. To find out which ad copy and/or design performs the best and delivers a positive experience, a CRO specialist could run a split test and use those findings as a reference for future paid efforts.

Of course, there’s more to CRO than the two areas discussed above, but they’re enough to highlight the role of UX in this context.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO – at its core – is all about understanding how you can “optimize” your online presence with a user-centric approach.

Ultimately, if you get on the good side of users, you’ll get on the good side of the search engines.

Here are a few tips to help with that:

• Improve Website Speed – a sluggish website will drive your users away, resulting in a high bounce rate, which will negatively impact your rankings in the SERPs. Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to see where you currently stand (and what you can do).
• Target Search Intent – make sure that the content you publish on your website is centered on a clear search intent.
• Use Links Properly – don’t place internal and external links just for the sake of it. Only link to pages that are relevant and would really help the user.

Content Marketing

Last, but not least, an effective content strategy is designed to engage and deliver a positive, memorable experience.

This involves:

• Engaging Prospects on Different Stages – make sure that you’re engaging your prospects in different levels of the funnel the right way. The goal is to truly help your audience extract value from your content. This will ensure a smoother transition and more qualified customers.
  

  

• Prioritizing Design – content marketing isn’t only about written content. In fact, the way you present your content plays a major role in getting the message across. This goes back to what we discussed about the aesthetics.

Main Takeaway

Considering everything discussed above, it’s safe to conclude that UX and marketing go hand-in-hand. Creating your marketing strategy with user-experience playing a major role can go a long way.