Agencies Should Consider the User Experience
As Ray Access has written previously, a business website should turn visitors into customers. That’s its job. To get to that point, however, you have to follow a process — steps that do all the right things to encourage visitors to engage. But that process is more of a varying checklist than a straightforward procedure. Every website’s a little different.
You know when you get it right. As a developer, designer or marketer, your clients love you when their websites work. All businesses love to hear, “I found you online.” To them, it means that the investment in a website is paying off.
A Tall Order for UX
While the rewards of creating that perfect website are profitable and fulfilling, it sometimes feels like hit-or-miss. It’s all about the user experience, known in the industry as UX. A positive online user experience is more likely to gain leads, get referrals and make sales. The websites you build for your clients have many jobs to do; they must:
- Welcome new visitors and returning customers
- Have a pleasing design that inspires longer visits
- Provide clear navigation to pertinent information
- Establish your client’s expertise in their field
- Define exactly who your client’s target audience is
- Announce their unique value proposition to that audience
- Generate trust in every visitor
- Answer questions about your client’s industry, company, products or services
Why Your Clients Want a New Website
Unless you’re a small business that targets startup companies, most of your clients already have a website. They’ve likely invested thousands of dollars for the design and development of their site. Part of your sales process is to sell them on the idea of upgrading and updating their website. Is it part of a larger rebranding effort? Is it time to update so the company doesn’t look dated? These are issues you may deal with every day.
Ultimately, every business decision has to benefit the business. Companies don’t spend money on a new website if they don’t think it has any value. They want their website to build their brand awareness and contribute to their bottom line. In other words, a new website has to show a return on investment.
How UX Solves These Issues
User experience increases the odds that a new website is successful. By considering UX in every website project, your agency will check off every one of the items in the list above. Your clients are more likely to see the return on investment (ROI) on their new website if it’s been optimized for the user experience. That translates into more referrals for your business.
When it comes to building and designing your clients’ websites, you know you have to satisfy their visitors and customers. You always have to consider the human elements and interactions. People make your clients’ websites successful, not code or backlinks. Ultimately, a business website isn’t even about the business. Instead, a business website is a service for readers, visitors and customers — the people who buy from your clients.
Where to Find UX Services
User experience isn’t exactly a new field. It used to be called “human-computer interaction” and “user interface design.” In some circles, it still is. Ray Access offers a service to provide a UX review called website assessments. A website assessment is a page-by-page review of a business website from the point of view of a visitor. It’s human factor testing on a human scale.
You can use Ray Access as a beta tester for a new website or even a new website design. Get a website assessment report even before your client sees it. Make it part of your process. It’s an affordable service that you can pass on to your clients without raising an eyebrow. It can fit neatly in your package costs. User experience testing can become part of your sales kit, especially since it’s a service few of your competitors may offer.
What Ray Access Brings to the Table
As content providers and content marketers, the Ray Access writers and editors review websites all day every day. The user advocates at Ray Access understand how people look at websites — they know what visitors look for and what drives them away. And they’ve developed a critical eye for what makes a business website successful.
A website assessment report doesn’t roll over the work you’ve already done on a website project. Instead, it:
- Identifies missed opportunities — either prominent information or needed pages
- Highlights what works well — design- and content-related
- Identifies issues with the navigation — how easy it is to find information
The report shows how, with a minimum of effort, you can improve the website exponentially. A website assessment — performed as part of your beta testing, before the site is brought online — happens at a time when you still have your resources devoted to the project, so changes can be made relatively quickly and painlessly. Contact us today to find out more about website assessments.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.