Imagine you’re in the market for a new email marketing platform. You’ve narrowed it down to two contenders.
Both have virtually the same features‚ the price difference is negligible — you have no idea how you’re going to choose.
Then‚ by some strange quirk of the universe‚ you’re chatting to another founder. They tell you they’ve been using one of the platforms you’ve been looking at.
They love it. It’s a joy to use. It’s efficient‚ it’s practical‚ and it’s everything they need in an email marketing platform.
Chances are‚ you’re going to choose that product. Why?
A great user experience.
Your brand’s best marketing is free
Now‚ maybe the other platform was actually a better product. But you’d never know.
That’s the power of word of mouth. 92% of people trust recommendations from people they know over any other form of marketing or advertising.
Does that mean all your marketing efforts are a waste of time? Absolutely not. Does it mean you should maybe focus on building your brand through word of mouth? Absolutely.
Not only is word of mouth marketing the most effective way for you to drive sales and increase revenue‚ it’s also free. Your customers will recommend your app to friends and they won’t expect a single thing in return.
So‚ how do you go about encouraging your customers to share the word?
Give them a digital product with an easy‚ enjoyable and seamless user experience.
Why user experience is such a big deal
User experience (UX) is one of the biggest factors that contributes to the success of any app or digital product.
You only need to take a look at some of the biggest names — Slack‚ Drift‚ Mailchimp — to see that providing a great user experience is necessary to success.
In fact‚ it’s not only necessary‚ it’s expected.
These days we all have so much choice when it comes to software. For every Mailchimp‚ there’s another dozen or so email platforms that can rival it in terms of features.
If the product we’re using provides no reason for us to stay‚ then we’re going to start looking elsewhere.
According to GrooveHQ‚ these are the most common causes of churn:
-
Bad customer service
-
Bad onboarding
-
Lack of customer success
-
Natural causes (going out of business‚ outgrowing your product‚ etc.)
Notice how 3 out of those 4 are about the user experience.
There’s nothing there about your price‚ or your features. Clearly they’re important‚ but apparently not as important as you think when it comes to customer retention.
It’s all about the user experience.
3 companies that succeeded because of great user experiences
We don’t like to exaggerate‚ so we’re going to put our money where our mouth is and show you 3 real-world examples. Each of these shows you just how important a great user experience is…
Amazon increases sales by $300 million
Before Amazon became the behemoth we know today‚ they had more than a few teething issues.
One of these was that customers were forced to register an Amazon account before checking out their purchase.
Along comes Jared M. Spool‚ a UX designer‚ who simply changed a button.
The “Register” button was replaced with “Continue”‚ and creating an account was made optional.
Sales soared overnight.
McAfee’s new product reduced support load by 90%
When McAfee launched a new product called ProtectionPilot‚ the team braced themselves for battle.
Any new product launch brings with it a storm of support calls and queries.
But‚ the launch came and went‚ and the storm never came.
That’s because the folks at McAfee spent a long‚ long time labouring over the design of the new product.
They designed it with the user’s experience in mind.
As a result‚ people started using the product‚ and didn’t really need much support at all.
Airbnb doubles their revenue overnight
It might surprise you to learn that once upon a time Airbnb was at death’s door.
Revenue was stuck at around $200 a week‚ split between the 3 founders.
They realised that the main reason was that the photos of the apartments were blurry and pixelated‚ taken on smartphones.
They decided to improve the user experience by visiting the apartments and taking high-quality photos.
As a result‚ that $200 doubled virtually overnight‚ and paved the way for AirBnb’s gargantuan success.
Invest in your user experience
Your user experience can make or break your product. Get it right‚ and you’ll encourage word of mouth‚ retain your existing customers‚ and essentially drive your sales and revenue.
Every $1 spent on improving your user experience yields a return of $2 to $100.
In other words‚ you’re likely to at least double the money you invest in making those improvements.
Given the fact that barely half of all companies are actually implementing any user experience testing‚ this is a great opportunity to stand out from your competitors.
If you want your app designed with the best user experience possible‚ then we’re here to help.
