Marketing \ User Experience:
Putting User Experience in Context:
By: Dan Hoff @ ChannelReady
It seems that every day there is a someone discussing User Experience somewhere. In the media. On social sites. And even in the press. Even institutions have gotten into the game and now offer certifications and degrees in the art and science of UX.
Seemingly it is discussed, presented as a package and sold every place you look. And that begs the question: Is UX really all that important in today’s digital world?
Short answer – Yes! It is important. In fact, today it is more important than ever before.
In the old, analog era of the past, sales had one precept. Control the process and you can control the sale.
Now, that whole notion is gone. It has faded into the past right alongside the dial telephone and polyester leisure suits. Now, the buyer, not the seller, is in charge of the process.
B2B consumers choose to engage with sellers later in their buying journeys — and when they do engage, they expect the seller to know who they are, where they are in that process, and what business goals their companies want to achieve. “Previously in B2B, sellers drove the sale,” said Chris Blaik, VP of integrated global marketing campaigns at EMC Dell. In a recent Forester Interview [from The Birth of the B2B Consumer, Steve Casey, Forester], he noted that “today, it’s all about helping customers buy. They control their own destiny, and they know it.”
The buyer solidly in charge of the process. The buyer is the master of their own journey. As sales organizations – and yes, if you are in business to make a profit, you are a sales organization - we need to shift our focus from the sales cycle. We now need to move away from the traditional marketing funnel to the buyer journey and their path to purchase.
Recent research from SiriusDecisions shows that 80% of buying decisions are based on the experience buyers have. The fact that many buyers rely on great customer experiences to make purchase decisions highlights how important it is to drive an excellent user experience across the full purchase lifecycle, according to Lisa Nakano, Service Director for Customer Engagement Strategies at SiriusDecisions. She added that it also emphasizes how “important it is to amplify positive customer experiences wherever they occur.”
We are no longer in control of the timing of the sale. We cannot control the process or the cadence of the sale. In all likelihood we don’t even know who the buyer is until they reach out to us. And at that point, it is late in their purchase path when they request information. At that point, they are probably in their final decision phase.
That means that our only point of control is how the information is delivered. We can control the user experience at that point. And that gives us the ability to use persuasive architecture in our delivery, messaging and gain influence over how that message is received.
If we can gain control of that and deliver what the buyer needs, on our terms, we can regain some measure of control of the buying process. That is why paying meticulous attention to the UX is so important, especially today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
For the past 25 years Dan Hoff, founder of Dan Hoff Marketing, has “lived” at the intersection of software, technology and marketing. Of those years, he has been an entrepreneur a senior business leader and marketing executive. Now Dan serves as a primary advisor and consultant helping emerging companies throughout the western U.S. to conquer the divide between digital and traditional marketing to find business success. Dan thrives on complicated problems, is an avid "growth hacker" and is not afraid to iterate to arrive at a full solution. This characteristic has been at the core of his success in local, regional, national and international marketing initiatives for some of the top names in technology and software.
