How to Connect with Customers Using Web Design
As a business, connecting with your customers and converting them is always the goal. You should aim to build solid relationships with every site visitor, and it’s possible to do so through the use of effective web design tactics. Everything in web design plays a role: the language you use, your typography, colors, and navigation. No detail should go unnoticed, because even when it feels small, those little aspects of your site play a role to your site visitors — even if subconsciously. Here are a few ways to connect with customers using web design:
Use Humor
One of the best ways to connect with your current and potential customers is through the use of humor. Whether you realize it or not, there is a place for humor in web design. This doesn’t mean that your site as to be dedicated to humor, but light use of it throughout will likely make a difference.
Thales Teixeira, a Harvard Business School professor, conducted many research studies on how consumers make purchasing decisions, and found that roughly 90% of viral videos fall within the humor category. Another study found that when you use humor in website design and content, it allows for greater brand recall, and slows the reader down in a healthy way, where they can better process information. This is why it’s such a popular path for advertisers, and why it can be effectively translated into web design.
Websites like Mailchimp are known for incorporating humor into their website design. Mailchimp’s “Freddie the Chimp” greets users with a fun message when they log onto the site, and this creates a friendly interaction that makes the visitor chuckle. There’s also a hefty volume of web designers that use humor in their 404 error pages. Take a look at how those 404 pages ignite laughter, and use it to inspire you with your own pages.
According to a Nashville web design company,” Adding humor to your website not only reduces your bounce rate but actively increases your conversion rates. You may also start getting more clients that are fun to work with. For example, we added the text ‘Basically we’re the bomb’ at the top of our About Us page. Shortly after we started getting phone calls from new leads that converted into customers saying they chose us because they went to that page and fell in love with our attitude. That set the tone for the rest of their experience on the site and was ultimately the reason they signed up with us.”
Have a Blog — And Be Transparent
Using your blog to encourage transparency with your business speaks volumes for your principles. Customers (and investors) appreciate when a company is transparent with their products and inner-workings. Not only does it improve the customer-business relationship, but it can also increase SEO and help establish you as a thought leader in your industry.
There are several corporate blogs that have been successful because they provide value to a different type of audience. Zappos is a great example of this. The online shoe retailer has several blogs, and they focus on different areas of the business, such as products and general corporate news and press releases. However, they also have a blog called Zappos Insights that details how they do business, their corporate culture, and what it takes to run an ecommerce store. It’s this transparency that has helped them build trust over the years.
Pagely is another example of how businesses can use transparency to cultivate new business relationships and demonstrate thought leadership. One blog post went into detail on how they turned the company from a two-person team trying to figure the business out, to a multi-million dollar business with clients like Visa and Disney. Another post described the awkward encounter co-founder Sally Strebel felt when meeting Steve Wozniak for the first time.
Personalize Your Customer Support
Customer support is critical for businesses in today’s online landscape. If a customer has a great customer service experience, they’re more likely to return. And it’s a well-known fact in the business world that selling to an existing customer is much easier than acquiring a new one. Furthermore, dissatisfied customers who leave reviews and/or give your business a bad recommendation can hurt your bottom line. For that reason, losing even a single customer can be costly.
You can tip the odds in your favor by offering personalized customer service, as opposed to generic customer service. Forget about using robots to cater to your customers, or sending auto-replies that only end up frustrating them more. Use Help Desk software to better manage your customer relationships, ensure each customer query is sent to the right specialist, and gets the personal attention they deserve. Using Help Desk or customer relationship management software helps you manage requests, elevate high-priority support questions, and add appropriate filters.
