If you’ve spent any time in the world of marketing, you may have seen the abbreviation UX floating around. But what does it stand for, and why does it matter for your business? UX actually stands for user experience. It’s the way people who visit your website perceive interacting with the design. So how does user experience fit into marketing and why do you need a strategy for it? We dive into these questions and more when we talk about UX strategy below!
What is UX strategy?
The strategy of user experience is a detailed plan of how to keep a user’s encounter with your website in line with your business’s overall goals and objectives. You want to outline what the current experience for users is like, what you are aiming for it to be like, and how to achieve this goal.
There are several components that you should keep in mind when creating a UX strategy, like:
- A complete understanding of your user, including their behaviors, expectations, and needs
- Knowledge of industry trends and what competitors are doing
- Understand how your company and products are performing compared to where you want to be
- A list of tasks that need to be completed to meet these goals
Why do you need a UX strategy?
It is beneficial for the user, your team, and your overall business to implement a UX strategy. Without this type of plan, you’ll have no clear direction of how you want to grow.
Of course, the most important reason to create a strategy is to keep your focus on the user. With a positive interaction with a business, users can turn into loyal customers, increasing your profits and strengthening your reputation.
A strategy for user experience also gives you a sense of direction. Although it would be ideal, you can’t solve every single user problem, and you also can’t implement every idea you have. With this type of plan, you have a clear direction of what takes priority for the UX.
Another huge benefit of implementing this strategy is keeping your entire company on board. Whether you have less than 10 or more than 100 people working for you, you want everyone to be on the same page.
How to Create a UX Strategy
So you know what UX strategy is and why you should implement it. But what exactly do you do? We break it down for you below.
Conduct Research
The first step of creating a strategy for UX is research. You will need to speak with current users to understand where you could improve, industry data to understand user behaviors, and users of competing products to know where you stand.
Not only do you want to know what the users want and need, you also need to know what the business goals are. If you’re a small company, that may just be checking in with yourself or a handful of people. In larger companies, you may need to speak with stakeholders in the company for a better understanding of what they expect.
Define the Vision
After your research, you know what the company and users need and want. To marry these two ideas together, you need a vision. This is a definition of where you want to go and why. An easy way to think about it is with this formula:
Our company wants to provide [type of experience] for [target users].
Break Down Goals
Your vision is defined, but now you need to break it down into manageable goals. A good rule of thumb is to take each goal and answer these questions: What does the business get out of it and what does the user get out of it?
Once your goals are defined, you’ll want to measure the success of each one by assigning it a key metric. A key metric can be measured by a number. For example, if you have a goal of getting customers to complete checkout (user goal) and reduce abandoned carts (business goal), you may aim for a key metric of 55% reduction in abandoned carts.
Create a Plan
After coming up with the goals to implement your vision, you’re ready to create a tangible plan to execute. This will include the actual steps and actions you’ll take to achieve your goals. You can even create a timeline for your business (every month, quarter, etc.), but don’t get too caught up in strictly sticking to the timeline. Sometimes you’ll need to fine tune your plan as you go, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
You now know what a UX strategy is, why you would need one, and how to create it. The next step is to actually write it down and start working towards your goals! Larger companies have entire teams dedicated to designing websites, but if you’re a small to medium business that doesn’t have access to this kind of team, you may not know where to start. Our website design team creates aesthetic websites while keeping UX and your goals in mind. Reach out to our web design experts to learn more about working with us!
