Should UX be taken into consideration in a digital marketing strategy?

The process through which design teams build products that give consumers meaningful and relevant experiences is known as user experience (UX) design. This includes features of branding, design, usability, function and the entire process of obtaining and integrating the product. 

While UX is a top priority for many web development agencies, is it always relevant to a wider digital marketing strategy? Well, let’s see. 

First of all, let’s take a deeper look into the term “user experience”; this is precisely how people interact when using a product. The design of the product, including the colour and material, may impact the way a consumer feels regarding the interaction either positively or negatively. Specifically, the overall interaction of a user is impacted when they interact with digital products or services or online tools such as websites. 

User experience is all about how people feel and what they are led to believe about a product, service or online tool. Humans are both rational and emotional beings, and both sides influence how customers perceive a product. The real question now is, should UX be considered in a digital marketing strategy? It all depends on several factors, such as weighing up the pros and cons and seeing if this will work for your business and your budget; let’s start with the positives first.

Many pros come with using UX: it makes the product or tool easier to use for the user. A user-friendly website, for example, offers an easy and straightforward customer journey and better customer experience. If the navigation is straightforward, then the information is clear.

When a business implements an excellent UX design, this can lead to a higher conversion rate of website visitors, which would result in more revenue and profit.  A good UX will allow visitors to quickly find out all the information they need to make a buying decision. Lastly, it will be straightforward for users to book a call and give their business to this company. In that case, this will attract a potential customer/ user and encourage the individual to continue to stay on the website and eventually lead to a conversion. 

A well put together UX can also lead to customer retention, especially if a customer finds the overall experience flawless. Having a good experience makes it simple and easy for visitors, encouraging them to return and ultimately increasing customer retention on the website. 

UX helps to do this with prototyping which helps to make precise design decisions. If the website is not achieving the goals and objectives you are aiming to accomplish, then it is important to redefine it, and the visitors must like what they see when they are on the website. 

On the other hand, let’s look into the cons of UX. A lot of time needs to be allocated to developing a strong UX. To nail down a good UX for a website, time and work such as data analysis, web development and more are required. If you already have a lot to focus on in your marketing strategy and other issues in your business, this may be a considerable task. Due to the time investment that a UX project would require, this may be held off or rushed and not done to the best of your ability. Therefore, it is essential to consider this and plan accordingly to implement UX in your digital marketing strategy. 

This goes hand in hand with the next con; a good UX requires constant work and changes. To have a successful UX, it is vital to constantly improve it based on how customers interact with the tool, product or website. Similar to the previous point, this will most likely require more time, which would require additional costs for staff or agencies to undergo optimisations. If this is neglected, your UX will be out of date and not as successful as it will not focus on the customer’s recent interactions, which can constantly change. 

To conclude, after going into detail about UX and analysing the pros and cons that come with it, you should understand what UX applies to in particular and why it should be considered alongside your marketing efforts. However, every company has different needs depending on industry, service and target audience. Therefore the decision lays in the hands of these companies on whether or not UX would be beneficial to their digital product or service success.