The average American smartphone owner spends 87 hours per month browsing on their devices. This massive time allocation means that most Smartphone owners have become pretty familiar with the qualities that make a good site: speed, navigation, useful information, and engagement. Yes, in today’s saturated digital climate, how well your brand engages visitors when they’re browsing is just as integral as the technical aspects of your website. If you don’t develop enticing interactions, your website won’t be memorable to first-time visitors. With so much time spent looking at websites, it’s become increasingly difficult for companies to make their sites stand out from the pack.
Educate
Sure, the primary intention behind your site may be to sell products or drive sign-ups, but today’s audiences expect more. They want to be inspired and educated by your content. Let’s say your brand sells blenders. Most likely, a customer who visits your site and purchases a model is also on the hunt for healthy recipes, and you’re missing out on key relationship-building opportunities if you fail to provide them with that extra value. One of my favorite interactive sites is Hairfinity, who consistently provides its audience with helpful styling tricks and inspiration while also roping in content driven contests and surveys.
The main intention driving the content on the blog is not necessarily to increase sales, but to help their community feel more confident in their styling abilities and overall appearances.
Get Playful
If Buzzfeed has taught us anything it’s that web users love taking quizzes. So why not incorporate a few games onto your own site? Quizzes, polls, and surveys are popular options for convincing customers to participate with the content on your site. As indicated by Jodi Harris of Content Marketing Institute, games and interactive features allow users to see themselves in a brand’s content, which subsequently encourages users to continue exploring the company’s offerings. There’s also no right way to encourage user participation – the sky’s the limit; you could run a quiz about a recent content or social media series, or start a survey asking customer to leave feedback on product collections they’d like to see in the future. Gamifying your site experience reverses customer passivity and delivers more engaging and satisfying experiences that will entice customers to return.
Add Some Life To Your Site
Videos continue to be a priority for brand marketers because they’re inherently engaging. Consumers don’t necessarily want to spend the time reading long blocks of text when they can watch a more entertaining video. Additionally, videos have moved beyond just sources of entertainment; today they’re seen viable product education resources. According to Hubspot, 90% of users say that product videos are helpful in their decision process. Videos also help customers with recall; they’re more likely to remember information they saw in a video versus information they read in a consumer report. Furthermore, high-quality videos also encourage social shares; Insivia’s 2016 video marketing roundup found that 92% of consumers share videos with others in their network. While the production cost of a video might outweigh that of a blog post, the value that a video can generate is also higher.
Include a Live Chat Option
Through Live Chat services like Zendesk, you can also increase your customer service interactions. Web users today don’t want to go through the hassle of dialing a customer service number or sending an email, so when they have questions they often let them slip away. Through live Chat you can provide your customers with an easy portal to learn more about products and promotions in real time. According to Kissmetrics, Live Chat options are not only helpful for users, but they can also increase site conversions. Think about it: if a customer is on the fence about a product purchase, and is able to have all of their questions answered on the spot, they’re more likely to convert in that moment.
You simply can’t afford to run a boring site in today’s engagement-focused landscape. If your site has zero audience interaction initiatives, then your visitors will just passively browse through your pages. When audiences are promoted to participate, it enhances the overall experience and tells audiences that your brand is committed to offering extra value to their lives.
