88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad user experience (UX), and one report found that e-commerce brands can lose trillions of dollars from faulty UX designs.
But when your brand masters the UX experience, the impact is tremendous. Recent research from Forrester states that “on average, every dollar invested in UX brings $100 in return. That’s an ROI of 9,900%.” Based on the above and the need for human digital experiences, demand for talented UX designers is high.
What is a UX Writer?
A UX Writer ensures the user’s experience with the product is positive, addressing and solving pain points along the journey with their copy. In this article, we’ll explain how having a UX Writer can help your marketing efforts.
Create Microcopy
You need a UX Writer to create microcopy if you want consumers to smoothly complete their goals on your website or app. Microcopy is the interface text such as a call to action (CTA), error messages and form labels that guide consumers from one point to another without drawing much attention.
UX Writers collaborate with designers, product managers, and other marketing team members about the product and how it’s promoted to create emotionally intelligent, insightful microcopy. Below are some examples of how UX Writers use microcopy to guide consumers.
Calm Fears: Lululemon’s checkout page microcopy reduces the visitor’s fear of sharing their personal information by engaging them in a warm, human-like tone. Thanks to the language and style of the microcopy, consumers easily get the message and feel less hesitant when making a purchase as a registered user.
Increase Conversion: Take a look at how ASOS and BustedTees use microcopy in their cart. Which sounds more persuasive?
BustedTees’s microcopy goes beyond the ‘empty shopping cart’ notification and uses the alert as a chance to inform visitors about deals on their site. It’s friendlier, more enticing, and has a greater call to action than ASOS’ version.
Clarity: Zappos’s search box nudges customers on where to start their search process, and the subtle microcopy improves clarity and helps customers to easily find what they want.
Well thought out microcopy can help you achieve emotional interactions with customers and improve your user experience. Adding a UX Writer to the team is a great way to start.
Give Your Chatbot Some Personality
It’s official. Consumers are okay with chatbots. One in five consumers would consider purchasing goods and services from a chatbot, 40% of consumers want offers and deals from chatbots, and consumers are willing to spend more than $400 through a chatbot.
However, despite the wide acceptance of chatbots, consumers want them to be human. 54% of consumers would like the AI interface to behave like a human and have a distinct personality. A UX Writer shapes your chatbot’s personality by developing its tone of voice and designing conversational scripts, serving as a functional and helpful guide.
One branded AI helper serving some personality is Amazon’s Alexa. The retail giant created several Alexa personality traits, including, humble, enthusiastic, helpful and friendly for their interface, along with the ability to beatbox, tell groan-worthy dad jokes, and sing a so-bad-it’s-good barbershop quartet tune about technology to keep users engaged. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), the average person with an Amazon Echo spent roughly $1,700 a year on Amazon as of Sept. 30, 2017.
To turn conversations into conversions, have a UX Writer sprinkle some personality in your chatbots so customers enjoy the experience of interacting with your brand.
Build A Consistent Tone Of Voice
Global trust for brands is decreasing. Specifically, the United States shows the most significant decline, as only 48% of the general population trust businesses.
This statistic shows that brands must do more to earn consumer trust, and a consistent tone is a good step. In fact, data shows that the consistent presentation of a brand increases revenue by 23% on average.
Based on the above, one major responsibility for the UX Writer is to create a digital style guide that provides explicit instructions regarding your brand’s language and ensure it stays consistent throughout your digital platforms. Style guides support marketing initiatives by ensuring that all your messaging is relevant and related to your brand’s goals and mission. Specifically, a UX Writer interviews marketing leads, product owners, sales team, and more to find out how best to describe your brand in a way that connects with your audience.
Take a look at how Walmart Canada’s style guide keeps the brand’s tone of voice consistent. According to Walmart’s brand guide, the company has three principles to keep their tone consistent; smart, human and delightful.
Following this guide, Walmart Canada’s digital style guide indicates that copy for carosles or banners must be direct and helpful. Also, the style guide states copywriters must avoid fake promises and vagueness so that consumers have a consistent experience with the brand. Little wonder Walmart is among Canada’s most trusted e-commerce retailers.
A UX writer on your team will ensure your tone of voice stays consistent. And homogeneous messaging makes it easier for consumers to internalize your brand values, trust your company, and be more likely to purchase from you.
Find The Right Words With User Research
Data from the 2017 Brand Simplicity Index shows that people are more likely to recommend a brand because of their ability to provide simpler experiences and communications. On the other hand, unfamiliar or vague terms can lead to a less than ideal user experience.
For instance, an analysis of online retailer JustFab’s website by the Nielsen Norman Group found that the brand’s Get Started button kept consumers from finding the information they were looking for on the site. Specifically, one user completed all the questions in the style quiz to learn more about the company, but when reaching the final screen, she was asked her to for her email and a password, promoting her to leave the website.
To avoid negative user experiences like the example above, every word on your interface needs to match your customer’s expectations. With user research, a UX Writer uncovers how microcopy impacts the way consumers understand and use your product. Done at an early stage, usability testing with real users saves time and eliminates confusion that makes users bounce.
If you fill your online platforms with difficult or ambiguous language, users may end up not achieving their goals. Get a UX Writer to help you find the right language for your audience and enhance passage through your app or website.
Good Writing Is Good Design
Today, consumers expect quality experiences from digital products, and companies that aren’t delivering quickly become irrelevant. As web designer Jeffrey Zeldman once said, design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration. When selecting a UX writer, look out for a portfolio with strong writing capabilities, a background in UX and an ability to weave complex content into digestible terms.