The user experience encompasses a vast array of important details that are required if you want your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, buy your product, or consume your content.
That’s easy to accomplish with the following tips:
#1. Utilize sorting and filtering for ecommerce sites
Sorting and filtering options for your products helps users find exactly what they’re looking for quickly. When these features are efficient, conversions increase.
Always filter within your categories
It’s not enough to provide only main categories. You need to consider what detailed criteria your users might want to filter out to narrow down their search results. For example, if you sell computers, your “laptop” category should let users filter products by screen size, brand, processor speed, price, and hard drive specs. If you sell clothing, your categories should let users filter products by size, color, material, season, and any other criteria specific to the category.
According to this guide on Webcredible.com, due to past experiences with poor search results, “users are sometimes wary of site searches and will often browse through ecommerce sites to find a product. They’ll then use the search function only if they can’t find what they’re looking for. For users that are browsing in order to find a product, filtering within a category is crucial to enhance product findability.”
You can also use filtering to influence a purchase. Adding filter criteria like “who it’s for” (men, women, work colleague, groom, bride) can influence people who are buying a gift.
How many emails do you get from visitors asking where they can find content on your website? Do you ever wonder why visitors can’t find your content when you know exactly where it is?
Keep in mind that you’re always going to be more familiar with your own website than your visitors will be. Your visitors might be having a hard time finding your content because your navigational structure isn’t intuitive to them.
Intuitive navigation requires more than just putting similar links together in a drop-down menu. Creating menu navigation is an art form, and it’s not as easy as it looks.
Look at this menu for kids lip gloss as an example of concise organization. They’ve separated their drop-down content into three simple categories: brand, type, and category. This separation creates an intuitive experience for the user so they can search according to the category that’s important to them. Their products have been assigned multiple categories, so no matter which category you select, you’ll see the appropriate products.
When using a drop-down menu, don’t be afraid to link to the same content under different main categories. However, limit your menu items to what’s necessary. Don’t get lost in the mega menu fad and overwhelm your visitors. You don’t need to link all of your pages from your main menu. Instead, create sub-menus for your category pages once people click on your main categories.
#3. Who are your users? Who is your target market?
Many new business owners misunderstand the concept of defining a target market. You can decide who you want your users to be, but only the market for your products and services can determine this accurately.
Understand that your view of who you think your market is will be limited by your life experiences, beliefs, perception, and culture. One of the biggest reasons businesses reach a plateau is because they’ve been targeting the wrong market.
Market research is vital if you want to reach your optimal market. It’s possible to achieve success for years by targeting the wrong market, but at some point, conversions will slow down and you’ll plateau. When this happens, it’s time to dive back into market research and find out who your target market really is.
#4. Laser focus on your target market
Your website is the equivalent to a sales conversation. The only difference is you’re not there to engage your visitors personally, so your content has to do it for you.
Imagine, for a moment, that your business sells socks. Everyone needs socks, so you might think your target market is “everyone.” This is perfectly logical, and technically your market is everyone, but targeting “everyone” isn’t conducive to effective marketing.
Effective marketing requires that your message reaches into people’s psyche to convince them they absolutely need your product. You can’t do that with a general message for a general market.
To better understand, read this guide on how Facebook ad targeting works. Once you understand the criteria marketers are using to target you with ads, it will make more sense.
#5. Understand why specific messages are more effective
Let’s say you run a PPC ad for socks. If “everyone” is your target market, your message is limited to something like, “our socks are durable, lightweight, and wick sweat away to keep your feet dry all day.” This sounds great but it doesn’t give anyone a reason to buy your socks.
By narrowing down your target market to a specific demographic, you increase your ability to effectively market to them. The more specific your target market is, the more specific your marketing messages can be. This is why you need to define a specific target market. It’s not because other people won’t be interested in your socks. It’s purely because an effective marketing message needs to be anchored to the personal details of who your market is.
For instance, if you narrowed down your target market for your socks to athletes between the ages of 22-40, you can craft a marketing message to capture that specific demographic. Your PPC ad might feature a 30-year-old athlete, perhaps running track. Your message could be crafted to address a specific problem athletes face, and you could hail your socks as the solution. This message is more enticing than the general message.
Keep adjusting your strategy
Always be open to adjusting your content to match your market when you’re presented with new information. Market research should be continual, so expect to make changes along the way. These tips are designed to help you increase conversions by providing a better user experience for your visitors. No matter how great your product is, your user experience will always drive sales.
