[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Menu – global” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#fce1c1″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” next_background_color=”#000000″ custom_padding_tablet=”50px|0|50px|0″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”3.8″ global_module=”549″][et_pb_fullwidth_post_title admin_label=”It’s Time to Treat Content as Part of Your User Experience” global_parent=”549″ _builder_version=”3.8″ meta=”off” date=”off” background_image=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/bigstock-Orange-Background-58266.jpg” text_orientation=”center” text_shadow_style=”preset4″ text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0.28em” text_shadow_vertical_length=”0.56em” text_shadow_color=”rgba(201,211,178,0.4)” title_font=”Amiko||||||||” title_text_align=”center” title_font_size=”79px” title_letter_spacing=”17px” title_line_height=”1.2em” title_text_color=”#fdf3e7″ meta_font_size=”6″ /][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#fce1c1″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ custom_padding_tablet=”50px|0|50px|0″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text text_font=”Trebuchet||||” text_text_color=”#1f041e” background_color=”#fce1c1″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.8″]
Any business must pay attention to the user experience it delivers. Whether visitors will keep browsing a website or bounce off depends on many important factors such as website design, ease of navigation, mobile version, loading time, etc. But there’s a crucial element often dissociated from the user experience, even though it’s part of it: content. If you think about it, any website has content on it, whether written, spoken, or shown.
Content marketing has asserted itself as indispensable for businesses looking to build an online presence. But how can you merge it seamlessly with user experience to maximize engagement?
This article will focus on 10 content marketing tips you can implement to take your user experience to the next level in 2019 and beyond.
Content Is Part of the User Experience
It’s a well-known fact that user experience affects how existing and potential customers perceive and respond to a business’s online platform. Likewise, content elicits a positive or negative reaction depending on how it was created. When visitors have a hard time making sense of the content in front of them, or can’t find content that answers their questions, it means they are having a poor experience.
Content goes beyond the blog section and takes many forms:
Website pages (About, services, contact, FAQ…)
Videos
Images
Podcasts
Infographics
Product descriptions
Instead of treating content as an afterthought, companies should think of it as the lifeblood of their overall marketing message, and a key component of user experience.
10 Content Marketing Tips to Improve User Experience
1. Fix Content Formatting
How content is presented affects the audience’s experience audience with it. The first step to take here is to see if you need to increase font size and line spacing. Next, make sure there is a high contrast between the font color (usually black or dark grey) and the background (you can’t go wrong with white). These simple changes can greatly enhance the visitors’ interactions with your website.
2. Hone Your Writing Tone
Heavy jargon or redundant sentences bore readers. Remove fluff and excessive verbiage, and shorten your paragraphs and sentences. Write your ideas as clearly as possible. Use bullet points when appropriate and address your reader directly. Content that is to the point and flows well performs great.
3. Strike a Balance Between Informational and Promotional Content
Promotional content conveys a clear sales pitch, whereas informational content focuses more on answering questions and solving problems. Use too much of the former and you end up driving away potential customers. On the other hand, relying heavily on the latter can result in good engagement but little conversions.
To make the most of both, learn to split your content marketing efforts between them, especially on social media.
On your website, instead of counting on visitors to explore the blog section on their own, link to blog posts whenever an opportunity presents itself, like in the About page or FAQ page. By reading blog posts, visitors warm up to your offer and are more likely to respond to your calls to action.
4. Link to Relevant Outside Sources
While discussing a topic in a piece of content, you may end up recommending an online tool that will help solve the audience’s need. It could an email provider like MailChimp or an SEO tool like SEMRush.
Provided that the companies offering these products and services are not direct competitors, you will save your audience time and effort by including links to their platforms. It shows that you care about making things convenient for your audience, instead of letting them do the research on their own.
5. Make Content More Searchable
Help your website visitors find what they want as effortlessly as possible. Make the search bar noticeable and highlight the search query words in the results. Find out what content is most searched for and put it up-front. Also, use tags to help visitors find content with similar topics.
6. Replace Bland Pictures with New, Relevant Ones
Images are part of content marketing. Let go of stock photos depicting people in suits smiling – often made fun of in memes – and use high-quality pictures that are more relevant to your line of business. It can be a picture of your product, your team, or some sort of inspirational background. Just make sure there is a connection between the picture used and the message conveyed. This is all the more crucial when it comes to your homepage.
7. Optimize Content for Mobile
Taking mobile navigation into account is an important aspect of designing user experience. Naturally, content has to follow suit. Keep paragraphs concise. Use short, simple words and expressions to get your point across. Use subheaders and summaries to make content scannable.
8. Diversify Content Formats
If you have released a new podcast, make sure to transcribe it for those who prefer reading. As you prepare to publish a blog post, offer a downloadable PDF version of it. This diversity of options allows every person to consume your content in the way she is most comfortable with.
9. Create New Content
The idea here is not to include content for content’s sake, but to deliver the information your target audience is interested in but can’t find yet. For example, if you provide an online platform that has users, you can create how-to guides or videos to help them understand and use that platform effectively.
10. Test and Measure the Evolution of Engagement
Want to know the impact of all these changes? Choose a set of metrics and track the response of your audience over time. Key metrics related to content include behavior flow, bounce rates, and conversions. Understand what changes performed well and keep optimizing.
Follow these content marketing guidelines and you’ll probably find changes that need to be made. Optimizing content to be easier to understand and navigate will lead to longer time spent on the website, better SEO rankings, and higher conversion rates.
If you are not sure how to implement content seamlessly into your user experience, our team at Iris Content can help. Our content writers will create user-friendly and relevant content that helps customers have an engaging experience.
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When it comes time to pick a content provider, a bargain isn’t always the best way to go. Content is more than filler; it’s what draws visitors to your site, but inspired content keeps them there. It keeps them coming back. Content is a relationship. It’s your brand. We get it. Furthermore, we can deliver it. Contact us today for a quote.
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