• By michelle
• In Content Marketing, Copywriting

User Experience: How to Improve Website Copy

User experience—you might have heard this term tossed around on a number of small business and content marketing blogs. If you think it only has to do with the design and functionality of your website, think again.

User experience, commonly referred to as UX, is an umbrella term that describes how your website traffic, blog readers, and prospective customers engage with your content.

As the demarcation line that separates increased website engagement and sales from high bounce rates and lost revenue, user experience is the chief reason prospects become brand loyalists.

Before our website copywriters begin crafting content, the user experience is factored into every syllable we write. Over the years, we’ve learned how to write impactful website copy that creates the experience necessary to generate quality leads, create audience engagement, and increase sales.

Because we love you that much, dear Reader, we’re spilling the beans on how to do exactly that.

If you’re scratching your head about how to create a successful user experience, simply take the following steps.

Create a navigable website.

Easy.

That’s one adjective prospects should use when describing their experience on your website.

In more distinct terms, make it easy for visitors to locate the information they need. And fast.

If your website navigation feels disjointed or complicated, or if there are too many options, even motivated prospects won’t search for what they need. They’ll hit the back button or close the browser, never to return again.

Through enhanced search features and simple menu navigation, users find their destination easier. Effortless browsing means website traffic is more likely to download lead magnets, read blogs, buy products, etc.

In the example from Digital Marketer below, see how the website navigation lends itself to the compelling desires of website traffic. Because Digital Marketer knows their audience—i.e. what they want to learn—the navigation creates a friendlier user experience.

The takeaway: positive user experience happens when prospects find what they need, when they need it. Effortless navigation enables that quality.

Provide your audience with relevant content.

Your content is the bedrock of positive user experience.

But content for the sake of having content won’t do much to increase audience engagement on your website. Relevant content that pertains to the precise needs and interests of your target market creates the ideal user experience.

The question is, how do you ensure your content is relevant to your audience?

Here’s a brief checklist:

• Keep your content current to industry trends, especially if you work in the B2B arena.

• Showcase storytelling that piques curiosity, captivates interest, and provides the reader with a sense of empathy.

• Update your website and blog content frequently, so that your organic search traffic becomes returning visitors.

• Be brutally honest about the situation your audience faces, as audiences want to work with some who understands their struggles and desires.

And most important…

• Know exactly who your audience is—who he is, what she wants, how your solutions help them.

We highly doubt your customer avatar is represented in the example photo below, but notice how WikiHow gives a pigeonholed audience very specific content.

Cultivate emotional understanding.

In describing what constitutes relevant content that improves UX, we briefly touched on the emotional elements of your content. To effectively make an emotional connection, you must have a firm grasp on what empathy means in terms of digital marketing.

Your customers come to you out of struggle. They are looking to your company to solve a pain or prevent a future pain or struggle from occurring. This fact spans the gamut of most industries—from artisan and product-based businesses to high-level corporate consulting.

Your prospects seek you out because they want to bypass a struggle, so it’s important to “grind the pain.” This doesn’t mean to exploit a bad situation as much as it entails cultivating a feeling of understanding and helpfulness.

Show that you understand what it’s like to worry, feel anxious, or not know what to do. The empathy factor leaves you teetering on a tight wire—you want to show your audience you understand and that you care, but you don’t want to take a cheap shot.

There is a huge difference between emotional expression and exploitation.

Below is an example of content we created that helps pet owners who have sick dogs and cats. Keep in mind that the audience is in a terrible situation of confusion, sadness, and desperation. But instead of playing on the vulnerability, the following content offers relief from the struggle.

If your cat or dog has recently been diagnosed with cancer, renal failure, or obesity-related diseases and you’re looking for options…  

I’m here to help you add years to your pet’s life and take away discomfort caused by these sicknesses.

This example sheds light where there is darkness, offers hope when there is no way out, and shows the reader that the business owner cares.

These identifiers cultivate a sense of emotional understanding, and by extension, ensure a positive user experience.

Implement variety into your content presentation. 

Imagine eating the same dinner every evening.

Imagine listening to the same album every day.

Imagine watching the same movie over and over again.

Imagine each day having the same conversation, wearing the same clothes, drinking the same soda, reading the same article…

You’d get really bored. Really, really bored.

And if your content is uniform, your website traffic will have the same boring user experience. The way to overcome this is to integrate a little variety into your content presentation.

Have a variety of content goodies—videos, long articles, short blog posts, downloadable checklists, and even audio files. This ensures your audience attains what they need from you, and never feels bored by it.

Where do you go from here?

These strategies give you the nuts and bolts of creating a conversion-friendly user experience.

Ready to take your website traffic on a journey?

Good, because we have a free and actionable guide that ensures your audience engages with your content.

Download: 10 Call to Action DOs and DON’Ts That Increase Your Conversion Rate