Great User Experience Helps Turn Visitors Into Brand Advocates

Did you noticed that as businesses become more consumer-oriented, competition is also growing fiercer? Recent research has shown that the costs of advertising are rising five times faster than United States’ very own inflation rates! That’s why hundreds, if not, thousands of global companies are struggling daily to gain or maintain substantial market share and/or to win over new consumers. Blinded by potential profits, it is easy to forget that you should also engage with existing users. Yes, finding new customers is not the only solution you have on your hands! The cost of retaining an existing customer is significantly cheaper than acquiring a new one. It is about time you learn about converting faithful users into brand advocates. Well, offering great user experience can give you the leverage you need!

What are Brand Advocates?

You can think of them as individuals who feel so great about a brand that they are eager to recommend it to others. Another way to see a brand advocate is them being a volunteer marketer. Why? Because they pass on positive word-of-mouth messages about one’s brand to other people, via online and offline mediums. Best of all, brand advocates “pass on the message” organically. Hence, money is not the main reason why they are willing to promote a product or brand. They promote something because they truly believe in the company or brand!

Which Type of Visitors Have the Potential to Become Brand Advocates?

Now, that you are aware that one’s existing customers are the most apparent brand advocates, let’s break them down into several groups for greater clarity:

• Critics: These people leave feedback about your service or product.
• Social sharers: These are individuals who regularly share your content on social media sites.
• Repeat visitors: They are highly interested and engaged with the content you roll out.
• Referrers: Existing clients who refer new users to your service or product.
• Promoters: These are people who most likely answers 9 or 10 in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey.

Apart from your customers, it is useful to note that one’s employees are the next best brand advocates as well. Keep that in mind!

Aim to Offer a Delightful User Experience

Apart from making a product usable, designing for user experience or UX also involves generating a certain positive emotional effect while they use it. After all, UX is about how users feel when they interact with a service or product. Humans often establish some sort of an emotional connection with most of the products they utilize. Walk the unapologetic road to adding elements that generate positive emotions at strategic points along the product usage journey. The rewards of successfully connecting with one’s customers’ emotions can be substantial. If you make your customers happy, they will love to talk about it.

When you want to encourage advocacy, you need to so within organic means. That means no forcing of visitors. If there’s solid reason or any other viable conditions to become one, they won’t. So, next time you need to promote or sell a product or service through a website, make sure it’s designed with user experience in mind. Good luck!