Lately we’ve been seeing a move to dethrone content and establish user experience (UX) as the new king in digital marketing. There are those who aver that content is simply a part of user experience and others who staunchly insist that content still reigns. Has content been subsumed by UX? Or does content power the overall user experience? Is this even a meaningful debate?
We think not. Because content is key to user experience and vice versa. If you want to build your business online, you need to make them work hand in hand in order to move your prospects through the stages of the buyer’s journey.
The content marketing world has changed. We can no longer rely exclusively on valuable content creation and distribution. Digital usability and interactivity, among other things, are now important factors when it comes to inbound marketing. But no one’s going to build a successful business and brand without engaging content. Part of creating a great experience with your business—the experiences you’re providing for visitors on your site, followers on social media and the experience with your business overall—is in providing great content to be enjoyed by your target audience.
To quote a Content Marketing Institute article about content planning and UX research, “content marketing is all about putting buyers first.” Brands put buyers first by providing them with the info they need to make a purchasing decision. Likewise, UX is all about putting users first—by designing experiences, products and services that help them accomplish their desired tasks and goals. This process includes taking into consideration people’s unique needs and removing barriers to engagement.
Instead of treating content as part of user experience, let them work side by side to give your customers the help they need to move further down the sales funnel. Information architect Peter Morville suggests we “strike a unique balance on each project between business goals and context, user needs and behavior, and content.” He created the model below, known as the User Experience Honeycomb, with UX specifically in mind, but we can apply it to content as well. It can be a useful tool for consciously defining priorities based on your business goals, users and content.
User needs and behavior can help drive your content creation in valuable ways. Are your users looking for a social experience? A way to interact, share and connect? Then, package your content as a social experience. Do your users respond more to a story? Then, tell a story. How do you know what your customers want? Start by creating buyer personas.
How do we make content and user experience work together? Create a content strategy. That is, a business-driven, user-focused plan for the creation, delivery and governance of useful, usable—and findable, desirable, credible, accessible, valuable—content that meets specific goals. If you’re creating content for customers and prospects, their experience through all stages of the sales funnel needs to be at the heart of your content strategy.
Looking to create a great user experience for your customers across all channels? Contact Filament for help devising a content strategy with user experience at its core and creating useful, usable content.
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