These days, getting a website up and running isn’t rocket science. Virtually every small business on the planet has a website. However, there is one thing most websites lack. It’s user engagement. In particular, emotional user engagement is especially lacking. If you’re not able to make that kind of connection with visitors, you can forget about converting them into paying customers. With that in mind, below are a few different ways you can make your website more emotionally engaging.
Speak Directly to the User
One way to spark meaningful emotional engagement with a customer is to make them feel like they are being directly spoken to. One way to do this is with website content that is fine tuned directly to the needs and preferences of a target audience. However, the content should not come off as a sales pitch. Instead, the content should cover things that research has shown the target demo cares about in ways that are engaging but not pushy. For example, a Miami online marketing agency can produce news articles relevant to the Miami area that tie in with the products being marketed. This will hook in users and helpfully produce conversions.
Another strategy is to take speaking directly to the user more literally. One excellent way to sell products through a website is to have actual human beings on hand that can chat with visitors in real time through an instant messaging application that is launched through the site. Lawyers, for example, commonly use this method to obtain new clients. It, however, can be applied to nearly any industry.
Offer Exclusive Content
If there’s one thing that’s true about the human psyche, it’s that everyone needs to receive individual attention to feel good. You can address this emotional need through the content provided on your website. Most websites have things that can be found nearly anywhere online. Few, however, offer exclusive content that can be found nowhere else. If you want customers to visit your website and keep coming back, offer them something they won’t find somewhere else.
For many companies, this may come in the way of offers exclusive to the website. For other sites, they may offer exclusive downloads, videos and images. One good choice is offering computer games that must be loaded exclusively through the website. These games can tie in with your products or services and act as a powerful marketing opportunity. Overall, visitors must feel like they actually receive value from your site.
An Inviting Website Design Philosophy
In the past, the trends for web design all revolved around creating sleek looking aerodynamic designs. While these websites may have been impressive on a purely aesthetic level, this kind of web design tends to create a muted emotional response at best. Similarly, while many subway stations have sound architectural designs, they tend to leave people feeling cold or uneasy.
If you want emotional engagement, this is not what you should be aiming for. Instead, you should aim for something that puts users at ease. A website can indeed have a warm and cozy feel to it. You can accomplish this by using a warmer color palette and avoiding the more muted grays, whites and blacks many websites are known for. Design the interface in a way that is inviting and intuitive as opposed to intimidating. Overall, the website should invoke a sense of cheerfulness, positivity, warmth or nostalgia. It shouldn’t invoke the aesthetic of soulless streamlined technology.
Use Humor
While the trend has been towards websites that are rather humorless and completely business like in approach, this doesn’t really invoke an emotional response. While business like aesthetics produce a generic sense of professionalism, this is not the same as having an emotional connection. With that in mind, adding some humor and whimsy to your website can go a long way to humanizing your brand and company. The ability to laugh together is always one way to break the ice in a relationship. This indeed extends all the way to a website and its user base.
However, implementing humor on a website tactfully is a balancing act. If you go overboard, it can seem unprofessional. If your sense of humor is too on the nose, it can be cringe inducing. In some cases, you may offend some of your audience. So try to keep it simple. Use jokes that will likely go over well with your intended audience. Also design some whimsy into your website’s design elements. One example is using your corporate mascot in amusing ways throughout your website’s content.
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