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On Thursday 25th January, The Marketing Social hosted its first event of the year at Love Lane Brewery in Liverpool with over 40 attendees. Held every three months, the popular event brings together Liverpool marketers, entrepreneurs and local businesses so they can learn, share knowledge and network.
We headed down to this month’s event as our Head of Marketing and Performance Matt Tilling was invited to speak about optimising website UX and how to do it effectively.
Here’s a quick recap of Matt’s talk, including his top UX tips.
‘How to Become a Mini Optimiser’ – Matt Tilling at Reckless
Matt’s biggest UX tip from the night was to audit your website using The Lift Framework. This makes it a lot easier for you to identify problems, conversion barriers and areas of opportunity.
To conduct your UX audit using The Lift Framework, consider these six factors:
Friction
The main indicators of friction are increased length of task, high difficulty and anything that makes the user question the experience.
Tip: To identify friction on your website, use ‘The BS Test’ to find areas that are completely broken or slow. To check if something is broken, use GA4 to see the devices and resolutions that convert poorly, and then make adjustments to improve the user journey. To check if your website loads too slowly, use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to see your LightHouse Score. If you’re not in the green (90-100), your site needs speeding up.
Distraction
Are there elements on your page that divert users away from the goal?
Tip: Use the ‘Squint Test’ to check if visitors are being distracted. This test is exactly what it says on the tin; open your web page and squint your eyes to see areas of high and low contrast. The theory is that areas with high contrast are where your audience looks first, so if this area isn’t clear, focus on improving your visual hierarchy.
Value proposition
Clearly communicate what makes you different and why your visitors should choose you over your competitors.
Tip: The only way to provide real value is to understand your users wants, needs and motivations inside and out. So, conduct customer research to discover valuable audience insights. Research may seem daunting at first so to start, speak to a sample of five customers. This makes it manageable and you can gain a lot of valuable information from just a few conversations. Then, clearly communicate your value proposition on your website in a way that resonates with your audience.
Relevancy
Does the experience match the users’ expectation of what they thought they were going to see?
Tip: The experience users have on other websites shapes what they expect to see on yours, so research your competitor landscape. If your website doesn’t match or exceed the experience they’ve had previously, it results in cognitive dissonance; that’s the difference between held beliefs and lived experience. If this happens, users have to put in more effort to get what they want. More effort = less likely to complete the task they set out to do.
Clarity
Does your web page clearly articulate your value proposition and call-to-action?
Tip: Take a reductionist approach to the content on your site. Start with what you need and keep things simple. Use concise copy, clear formatting and only the most important components.
Of course, some products and services are complex by nature, and if you try to simplify these too much it can lead to further obscurity. In these situations, think about using a technique such as movement and animation to guide the user through the process.
Motivation and Urgency
How can we motivate the user to act, now?
Tip: There are lots of methods you can use to motivate users, but one of the most notable is scarcity. Scarcity is used to illicit the fear of missing out, typically through social proofing and limited resources. This is a common marketing tactic you’ll see all the time. Here’s a screenshot from Booking.com for example, which regularly uses scarcity to drive sales:
But how effective is this method going forward? Too many brands use ‘fake scarcity’ and consumers are more educated on its use as a marketing tactic, so use it in a way that feels authentic. How brands leverage this technique in the near future is definitely one to watch.
Matt ended his talk at The Marketing Social in Liverpool with this reminder: “While something may work for one website, doesn’t mean it will for yours. It may be tempting to copy and ‘find inspiration’ from competitors, but do it with caution because ultimately, they might not know what they’re doing either.”
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As a digital agency in Liverpool, we’re giving away some free UX audits to brands that want to improve their website. If you’d like us to take a look at your site, simply e-mail us [email protected].
