Meeting the wants and needs of your customers is one of the basic foundations of creating a successful business. It is much simpler to attract potential customers in the real world when you develop solid connections and build trusting, long-lasting relationships. But, digital will continue to change these concepts fundamentally as customers behave and interact in very different ways. Adjusting your marketing techniques in accordance with user behaviors and preferences is a surefire way to help yourself better capitalize on your digital presence.
What is User Behavior?
A website visitor’s actions are considered part of user behavior, including where and what they click, how they scroll, where they get stuck, and where they eventually bounce. Understanding what your site visitors do and how they consume your online material is as important as personalizing messages and experiences to the right audience member at the right time – this can really only be done by knowing your users’ behavior. In doing so, not only will users’ overall experience improve, it will boost SEO, increase conversion rates, and attract more traffic to your site.
Breaking Down User Behaviors
By visualizing user behavior using heat maps (see image below) and other analytics tools, we can get a better understanding of what is going on. There are three main factors to break it down:
- The Drivers that bring users to your website.
- The Barriers that might stop users or make them leave.
- The Hooks that persuade them to convert.
The Drivers
It’s essential to determine the drivers or triggers that prompt consumers to visit your website in the first place. To identify drivers try doing the following:
- Session recordings. These will provide you with renderings of real actions your customers take on your website including clicks, taps, and scrolling.
- Heat maps. Heatmaps will become your best friend if you aren’t sure where users spend most of their time engaging with Calls-To-Action (CTAs), videos, and other clickable assets.
- Funnel analysis. It tracks users, page by page, until they complete their goals. This will help you optimize the biggest barriers when it comes down to conversion.
- On-site surveys. Although some users do find these tedious, the ones who do fill them out will help you gain an understanding of specific users and what they think is working and not.
- Feedback widgets. These help by providing visual feedback on specific pages.
Once you understand what drives users to your site, you can prioritize these and tailor experiences to be more satisfactory.
The Barriers
There are obstacles that prevent consumers from becoming customers. Anything from product description to page load time would fall under this category. Studying your user behaviors will come to the rescue of overcoming these obstacles. Here are common barriers and solutions:
Lack Of Clarity
A big deterrent for users is having clusters of information. When users visit a new site, it’s a big turn-off when the screen requires their attention to be strained in a few directions. Further, if they don’t know the purpose of your product/service within a few seconds of being there, they won’t convert.
Solution:
- Keep the language simple, direct, and understandable.
- Don’t clutter your Homepage with meaningless content. A few persuasive sentences about the company should do the trick.
Poor Navigation & Unreachable Pages
Poor website navigation is bad for users and search engines. Users should have a seamless experience that allows them to get to a certain page in fewer than 3–4 clicks unless your site has thousands of pages. Important pages on the website may unintentionally become hidden by poor navigation. Therefore, users are inclined to go for information elsewhere if they can’t find the information they’re looking for.
Solution:
- Consider the users: where would they click to access their desired page first?
- Keep your navigation simple and straightforward.
Site Speed
One of the most frequent problems that customers encounter on a regular basis is slow websites. Although it’s not always the web developer’s responsibility, if the site doesn’t load in 3–4 seconds, users are likely to end their session earlier than preferred. This may potentially have more severe repercussions, such as a drop in traffic, conversions, and rankings. Furthermore, Google has previously stated that, of the 200 factors that affect a site’s ranking, website performance is a significant one. In short, make sure that your site loads quickly.
Solution:
You can quickly enhance the functionality of your website by following the best practices, such as:
- Choose reliable and fast web hosting
- Compress and resize images (The most common cause of the site delay)
- Minimize and combine CSS & JavaScript files
- Activate page and database caching
- Implement CDN (Content Delivery Network)
- Clean and optimize your database
The Hooks
One of the most overlooked factors in user behavior is simply looking at what happens when consumers do convert on your site. When examining user behaviors, these are a few strategies that will “hook them”:
Highlighting Value Proposition
Your value proposition explains why a user should choose your product/service over competitors. The first step in getting visitors to convert is to make it clear to them what makes you unique and superior to competition. You can work wonders for your conversion rate by stating and reiterating your value proposition through various site elements. Your headlines, images, and copy should convey your value proposition, which should primarily highlight your unique selling point, your competitive advantage, or your differentiation in the marketplace.
Building Trust with Reviews and Testimonials
Potential customers will not convert if they do not trust you. Consider displaying customer reviews and testimonials to boost your business’s credibility.
Simple and Seamless Site Navigation
This is the main point: Visitors come to your website for a reason, therefore it’s your responsibility to make it as simple as possible for them to find what they’re searching for. To boost your website’s usability and encourage visitors to convert, make your navigation simple and easy to use. You want to make it easy for visitors to understand how to convert right away, whether it’s by making a purchase or booking a meeting. Eliminating all user experience friction will help your CTA’s succeed.
In Conclusion
Knowing your user’s behaviors will strengthen your site’s existing traffic, leading to more visitors you convert. Chat with our team at Big Drop to determine what drives, triggers, and hooks your users.