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.

Your website is an invaluable marketing tool that can generate high-quality leads while lowering your costs of getting new customers. However, while generating leads, and reducing your costs of customer acquisition, are definite selling points, the biggest selling point includes increasing customer retention; keeping more customers is far less expensive than searching for new ones.

None of these aforementioned benefits occur if your website is outdated. In fact, an out-of-date website can cost your company customer relationships and valuable market share. So, to help, here are some questions to ask yourself about whether or not your website needs a redesign.

Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

Your marketing message needs to reach your customers no matter where they are or what they’re doing. This means having a website that adjusts to any screen size. Having a mobile-friendly website means users can navigate your website up and down or side-to-side on their smartphones using only their thumbs.

It means having right-sized video and images so that users aren’t frustrated because they have to pinch and zoom to see your content. Finally, it means having a design that increases the time your customers spend on your website while on their mobile devices.

Is Your Website Easily Navigated?

Customers must find your website easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate. That means having clearly defined links and paths that encourage and incentivize customers to move from one webpage to the next. If your website has a high bounce rate, one where customers are quickly coming in, and leaving just as quickly, then it’s a possible sign that your website isn’t properly laid out. Optimizing that layout means customers will stay longer and respond to your call-to-action.

Does Your Website Have the Right Social Media Strategy?

Today’s customers use social media to share what they like about your company and its products and services. However, it’s not enough just to be on social media or have a “presence”. Your website must incorporate the right social media strategy, one that’s tailored to the kind of customers you sell to and one that simplifies how they share your content.

Do You Consider Your Website Up-To-Date?

There are 4.8 billion webpages. Either your website is up-to-date, or your PageRank will suffer and your customers will go elsewhere. If your website looks tired, or otherwise looks like it needs a refresher, then it’s time to move forward on a redesign. There are several Miami website design firms to work with who can give your website that refresher it desperately needs.

A redesign is an important part of any rebranding effort. If you’re looking to make a lasting impression with customers, one that provides them with engaging content and gives them a reason to become a customer, then a Miami online marketing agency can help you do all of that and more.

The rise of powerful mobile devices and smartphones has increased the need for responsive design. This allows a website to adapt to nearly any device so that it can be clearly seen and used. Unfortunately, not all sites are embracing responsive design. There are seven reasons your website redesign should be responsive.

Mobile Commerce Is Growing Fast

The first and most important reason is that mobile commerce is growing fast. Consumers today are now using mobile devices to buy items and services quickly. If your website is not accessible through a mobile device, then you will lose out completely on that market segment of consumers. You need a new website with a responsive design so that consumers anywhere using any type of device will be able to buy products from you.

Improved User Experience

The reality is that a website with a static design or one that uses absolute positioning is not going to be very user-friendly. Anyone without a very specific resolution might have to scroll around just to see an entire page. A user with a high-resolution screen might have images and text so small that it is uncomfortable to look at. A bad user experience means that people are likely to leave your site and go elsewhere fast. Responsive design allows you to improve the user experience. The design makes it possible for all the necessary components and images to be seen at once regardless of the screen size.

Making Changes Is Easier

Trying to create a complex layout without using responsive design practices can be a real mess. You might be left with a website filled with overly complicated formatting and pages of indecipherable scripting. This means changing even the smallest things on the website will become a monumental task. Allowing a Miami digital marketing agency to redesign your website so that it is responsive will make changing things much easier. You can insert new text or change pictures simply without breaking the entire layout. The fluid layout will just adapt to the changes in most cases.

Professional Appearance

You want your business website to be taken seriously by consumers, vendors and partners. If you are not using responsive design by this point, then it could hurt your image and brand. Your site might be seen as behind the times or ineffective. If you have a responsive website, then you are taking advantage of the latest technology to create an attractive and functional online presence. This can greatly improve the professionalism and brand of your business.

Search Engines Want It

How search engines see your website can directly contribute to the popularity or anonymity of your business. A low search engine ranking means that your site will be invisible to anyone casually searching for what you are selling. An important factor about responsive design is that search engines want it. A skilled Miami web design firm can create an optimized and responsive site that could easily outperform and outrank lesser sites. This can help to drive more traffic to your website.

Increased Conversions

Something interesting is that the ability to access a website through a mobile device appears to increase conversions. Mobile devices are becoming an integral part of the purchasing process. They help people to make decisions about what to buy. Moving to a responsive design means that you could start to see a larger number of conversion at a faster rate. This can potentially improve your revenue each year.

Be Prepared For the Future

A final reason your website redesign should be responsive is so that you are prepared for the future. New devices and technologies are appearing every year. If you have a professionally designed responsive website, then there is every chance that you will be able to take advantage of those new devices with few to no changes. This will keep your company competitive even as things change.