Why customer experience and brand design have to go hand in hand

Customer experience and brand design have a strong influence on each other and should be thought of as uniform. In order to be successful in the market, it is important to create a consistent user experience.

Successful product developers do not ignore the human component. The diverse experiences and the user experience of customers are crucial in developing a successful product. Products that aim at a modern customer experience appear livelier than classic brands and combine contemporary technology with design.

Customer experience and brand design influence each other

In order to develop an all-round strong product, individual elements of the product should not be viewed separately from one another, but rather understood and connected as a whole. Customer experience and brand design influence each other so strongly that developers have to work particularly closely in these two areas. Extracting knowledge of how customers behave, how they feel using the product and how they then talk about the brand experience is the key to developing a product that will have a long-term impact on the market.

This knowledge helps in brand and product design to continuously learn from customers, but also to question one’s own views. Many companies think they know customers better than they do themselves. But do they really know what makes customers’ lives easier? Only a detailed insight makes it possible to adapt a product precisely to the needs of the user.

Classic companies lack a human touch

“Traditional companies” in particular often have difficulties merging outdated IT infrastructures with new technology standards. In many industries, for example, the traditional local branch business no longer exists. The entire service – including customer support – is provided in digital form.

Accordingly, the products must also be developed in such a way that there is no reason for users to panic if problems arise.

Building this bridge poses great challenges for product developers. Product teams often work in isolation from one another and with different project methodologies on suitable solutions and cannot always guarantee a uniform customer experience and congruent features. At the same time, this creates an inconsistency in the design language of individual applications, which can be perceived as very technical and complex.

Customer experience and brand design should be thought of “end-to-end” in order to offer a uniform product experience. UX / UI and brand design / tone of voice are directly linked. Simplicity is, for example, an experienced added value that is created through intuitive operation of the features and readable / informative content. This content is supported at the same time by illustrative design and direct address.

Successful brands need customer trust

In recent years, startups have brought a breath of fresh air to the various industrial sectors. The advantage of many startups is that they open up a new perspective on established structures and work with work and business models that established companies simply cannot see or cannot implement due to their business model.

As a rule, startups are very much oriented towards a digital way of working – both internally and in terms of their products and services. Reliability, a uniform customer experience and the right brand design can be a key to better customer understanding. This largely sets them apart from many traditional companies that were only able to partially implement modern product development and marketing strategies.

Good brand design is human

A human-centered design process is based on learning directly from the customer in his or her environment and thus leads to targeted product iteration. Companies that follow this approach keep pace with constantly changing customer needs and integrate new technologies into the customer experience to develop a comprehensive solution. Through empathy, human-centered design creates a feeling of belonging and enables a close relationship with the customer. By putting themselves in the shoes of their customers, companies gain a deeper understanding of how customers use new technologies, how they pay for products and services, and can ultimately adapt the customer experience and brand design accordingly.

Another advantage: The customer gets the feeling of being heard by the company. This creates permanently increased product acceptance and closer customer loyalty.

Brand design: speaking the language of the user

Customers associate certain aspects of the customer experience with a brand – when it comes to Apple , a lot of people think of usability, intuitiveness or simplicity. These experienced advantages must flow into the brand elements, illustrative designs and brand communication so that the customer can see an effective whole and the product experience can be perceived in a differentiated manner.

A brand gives the product a face and creates expectations among customers that are based on the interplay of product and brand identity.

User-generated content: this is how you get your customers on board

User-generated content is more than just a background for your own advertising. Ratings, comments and photos from users are considered far more influential than any other form of media.

The idea behind it is quite simple: users create content for a brand, a product, a company themselves and distribute it via the social web. The result: more reach, better customer loyalty, new fans. User-generated content is therefore far too important to be left out by marketers.

Why user-generated content shouldn’t be ignored

The influence of user-generated content on the behavior of (potential) customers has already been the subject of numerous studies and investigations. According to Mavrck, this generates 6.9 times more engagements than brand content on Facebook .

study by Olapec on consumer confidence also shows that users place much more trust in user-generated content and that the willingness to buy increases when user-generated content with positive connotations is seen about a product.

The advantages of user-generated content are therefore clear:

  • It’s virtually free or at least cheaper than other content.
  • Customer loyalty is strengthened.
  • He is authentic and creates trust.
  • Users identify more with a brand / company.
  • UGC achieves higher reach and interactions.

What types of user-generated content are there?

The phenomenon is not new: reviews, ratings or comments on social media platforms are commonplace. Such user-generated content is primarily used by companies to receive honest feedback from their customers. In turn, such contributions help other users with their purchase decision. This content is usually very text-heavy and is therefore not really suitable for targeted campaigns with user-generated content. Anyone who wants to use a campaign to specifically encourage their customers to become active themselves should rely on photo and video contributions. Unboxing videos or photo competitions are effective formats here.

How companies can use user-generated content for themselves

User-generated content can also backfire, as the Nestle campaign shows.  (Screenshot: Twitter)

Not every product immediately offers enough user-generated content to make it usable for your own advertising strategies. Emotional products, so-called high involvement products, such as luxury goods or premium food, are much more affine for user-generated content, so that companies can often fall back on a real cornucopia of such content without much effort. Low-involvement products, such as food and other everyday goods, have a harder time. Here companies have to actively encourage their customers to generate their own content.

In order for such a campaign to be a success, a few points must be observed:

  1. Weighing up the risks beforehand: Making users the mouthpiece of your own brand can quickly backfire on controversial issues. Think of # FragNestlé . Make sure that your customers have had mostly positive experiences with your brand or company so far.
  2. Prepare crisis strategies: User-generated content has the disadvantage that it is never possible to predict exactly how the users’ reactions will be. A crisis strategy is therefore indispensable even for less controversial issues. The content must be moderated: Clear rules on netiquette are required and negative reactions must be responded to quickly, but above all transparently and politely.
  3. Whet your appetite: A UGC campaign that runs over several weeks or months carries the risk that interest will quickly decline and ultimately fizzle out. In order to still motivate as many users as possible to participate, the campaign should therefore be attractively announced in advance and arouse users’ anticipation. Once they are fed, companies can look forward to a flood of content once the go-ahead has been given.
  4. Take your customers by the hand: In order to receive valuable user-generated content, don’t leave your users alone, but be a kind of co-marketer for them. For example, provide them with a hashtag or photo filter. Show them how they can create, distribute and interact with content or select targeted brand ambassadors from your user group with whom you then implement a campaign.
  5. Clear, simple rules: It is important to keep the threshold for participation for your users as low as possible. After all, your users want to have fun and share their experiences with your brand with others with as little effort as possible.
  6. Interact and moderate: If you are calling on your customers to produce content for you, you should value this “work”. React to the content of your users, comment or share it. Your users have to notice that they are being noticed and taken seriously so that they don’t lose interest. This does not only apply to UGC campaigns, but to any content from your users. Regular monitoring of how users interact with your brand, for example using your hashtags, helps you to get in touch with your users.
  7. Evaluate successes: The success of a UGC campaign can be measured using various key figures: click rate, length of stay, sales, new leads. Thorough monitoring is the basis for a successful evaluation. After such a campaign, you should also draw a conclusion on the content: How was the engagement of the users? How was the quality of the contributions? How much negative feedback was there? With this knowledge, you can plan new UGC campaigns even better.

User-generated content from an SEO perspective

In a video from the # AskGoogleWebmasters series, John Mueller explains how Google treats user-generated content on websites, just like other page content. Regardless of whether these are comments, discussions or entire pages that are written by users. Google assumes that this is content that webmasters want on their site and that therefore meets their own requirements. In order to simplify the moderation of such content and to prevent bad UCG from harming the ranking of the page, Mueller recommends excluding these pages from indexing until a quality check can be carried out. If user-generated content include links, they should also with the UGC attribute rel = “ugc” be provided

Conclusion

User-generated content is a powerful tool for strengthening your own marketing activities. Customers build a much stronger and more personal bond with a brand and thus represent the lifestyle behind a product. And although consumers recognize the advertising intent behind a UGC campaign, they trust its content more than pure brand content. In order for such a campaign to work, however, here are the most important questions that you should ask yourself in advance:

  1. What content should be produced? (Photos, videos, texts)
  2. Who should produce content? (all or selected users)
  3. Where should the content appear? (social networks, company website, separate homepage for the campaign, offline …)
  4. How long should the campaign run?
  5. What time and human resources are available?
  6. Which overarching goal should be achieved?

And last but not least: Listen to your customers, take them seriously and give them a platform. This is how you can turn them into authentic ambassadors for your brand.

Page Experience: You now have to know about Google’s new ranking factor

The user experience will have a stronger influence on the Google ranking in the future. Due to the corona crisis, the changes will come into force in 2021 at the earliest.

Google is revising the ranking factors again. In the future, the user experience is to be given more importance. At the same time, the availability of an AMP version will no longer play a role in the placement in the search results. The group announced this in a blog post. However, due to the corona crisis, the changes should not come into force until 2021. Google promises to announce the exact date at least six months in advance so that website operators have enough time to make any adjustments to their site.

Google: Web Vitals form the core of the new ranking factors

The core of the planned ranking factor are the Web Vitals key figures presented at the beginning of May 2020 . They consist of a total of three individual metrics, with which render time, time between user activity and browser reaction and the visual stability of a website are measured. In addition, the new ranking factor should also contain existing signals.

In addition to the Web Vitals key figures, the new ranking factor will therefore also include the following questions in the evaluation:

  • Is the website optimized for mobile devices?
  • Is the website safe with no malicious code or phishing content?
  • Is the connection to the website protected by HTTPS?
  • Are overly intrusive popup elements preventing the actual content from being seen?

The final value of the new ranking factor is then calculated from the respectively determined Web Vitals values ​​and the four other signals. Together with the existing factors, this then results in the level of placement in the Google search results.

Search Console: Web Vitals Report now replaces the Speed ​​Report

In the meantime, Google has also revised the speed report in the Search Console. Instead of the previous report, three Web Vitals key figures are now also recorded for your own website. Google had previously integrated the new assessment basis into the Chrome User Experience Report. In addition, the group has announced that it will also use the Web Vitals as the basis for Pagespeed Insights in the future.

6 tips on how to increase your content production without loss of quality

In the battle for customer attention, many marketing departments struggle to produce enough content. With these tips you will be able to ramp up your content production without the quality suffering.

Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, plus landing pages for advertisements, a company blog and now it has occurred to the boss that you could also “do something with this Tiktok”. More and more channels with more and more competition require more and more content. The biggest challenge for marketing teams is to manage all of this without any loss of quality. It can work with these tips.

1. Put the right team together

A good team that works together optimally is the basis for every success. For content production to function, different roles have to be filled:
Project management: For a strategic approach, someone has to take over the planning, control and coordinate processes and ensure quality assurance.
Production:Texts, pictures and videos don’t just fall from the sky, of course, they have to be created. This requires specialists who not only understand the graphic or textual craft, but also have in-depth knowledge of the respective topics. Especially when companies serve many different subject areas, it can make sense to hire freelancers with the appropriate specialist knowledge for production.
Analysis: The analysis of the content creation is divided into two sections. Before the actual content production, a target group analysis as well as topic and keyword research is required. After publication, success measurement and reporting follow.

But those responsible shouldn’t dream of the egg-laying woolly milk sow. The all-rounders that are so popular in job advertisements and that cover all these competencies do not exist. At least not if the quality is supposed to be right in the end. Rather, what is needed is a team in which everyone can play their own strengths to the full and all requirements are covered.

2. Establish a workflow

Good planning is half the battle, as the saying goes. And it’s even easier if you don’t have to start from scratch every time you plan. A clear workflow must be established so that content production can run smoothly. Then everyone involved knows who has to do what, when and how. A workflow for frequently required content such as blog posts should first be developed. This can then be expanded later and transferred to other formats or special cases. A lean workflow should clarify the following questions:

  • Who is primarily responsible for the different elements?
  • Who issues approvals and approves results?
  • Who carries out the various tasks and is responsible for which sub-element?
  • Who needs which information?

In addition, workflows should be checked regularly and optimized if necessary.

3. Define style and quality guidelines

While it takes some time to create style and quality guidelines, they will save you a lot of time later. This can be used to record the tonality in which communication is to take place, whether the target group is being used or not, which color concepts should be used in which areas, which requirements are placed on the formatting and much more.

Such guidelines also help to inform external freelancers about the requirements and to avoid unnecessary correction loops.

4. Working with templates

Most of the time is wasted in content production, with recurring formats having to be created from scratch every time. At the beginning this can still be useful to test which format and which design works best with your own target group. Once you have found your recipe for success, you should record it in templates for the various content formats. But that doesn’t just apply to pictures or videos. Blueprints can also be developed for texts that record how a particular genre should be structured.

5. Create an editorial plan

With an editorial plan, the productivity of all team members can be easily channeled, as everyone involved can quickly see what needs to be done and when. Content can be planned months in advance, for example, in order to cater to seasonal events or to be able to implement large projects well in advance. The editorial plan determines which content is published when on which channel, which material is required and when the respective deadlines are.

6. Evergreen content and user-generated content save work

Content doesn’t always have to be new or homemade. Evergreen content is a great way to use successful content over the long term. Such permanently successful content only needs one time to be created and can then be updated and replayed at regular intervals with little effort. They ensure constant traffic and thus also strengthen the ranking in the search engines.

User-generated content virtually outsources the creation of content to its own target group. Whether comments on social media platforms, photo challenges or unboxing videos: user-generated content offers customers the opportunity to be active and heard, and at the same time serves as authentic and trustworthy access for others. Of course, campaigns with user-generated content also have to be planned, moderated and evaluated, but the actual production effort is greatly reduced.

Google Discovery Ads: Why the advertising format can be profitable for companies

Google has now released its Discovery Ads worldwide after a test phase of around one year. Why the advertising format should be attractive to many advertisers and where exactly the ads appear.

The Google Discovery Ads ad format is now available worldwide. As announced by the company, advertisers in Germany can now also use the interesting ad variant in full, which appears in Gmail, Youtube or Google Discover in addition to Google itself.

Google launched Discovery Ads for individual markets almost exactly a year ago. They are played out according to user interests and have a high reach because they cover the entire Google ecosystem. Google Discover has become a traffic generator for many websites because, in addition to the latest news that is amazingly well targeted and based on the interests of the user, it also offers videos and other information. The feed is user-related not only displayed on the mobile website, but also in the app. Gain insights into the profitability of Google Discovery Ads for companies by Understanding the TV advertising cost per month, revealing the cost-effective nature of this advertising format.

Google Discovery Ads: Especially for mobile users

The Discovery Ads appear either as normal Gmail ads in Gmail or as infeed ads on Google Discover and Youtube, depending on the type of display. When targeting, Google uses a large number of signals and properties that the user has left behind. When booking this advertising format, there is not much to consider: up to five headings with description can be implemented, an image in landscape format and a linked landing page are sufficient as advertising media, CTA-oriented images are, as usual, prohibited. The whole thing is billed on a pay-per-click basis.

Interestingly, the ads are mostly aimed at mobile devices – for example, only Gmail ads appear on the desktop. In this way, agencies primarily reach users of mobile devices. Here, however, the Discovery Ads are a good addition to the existing ad portfolio.

Brands you can touch: Why digital only is not enough for your brand marketing

Is everything still digital? Corona changes brand experiences, but customers want real closeness and goose bumps. The tech agency reddo is breaking new ground in live communication and offering free webinars.

The exit and contact restrictions in the corona crisis have allowed many digital offers to blossom. But now users want to take their eyes off the screen again and establish proximity to their preferred brands in the real world.

The tech agency reddo INTERACTIVE , a specialist in digital and analogue experiences, has published a fire letter on the current situation under the title “Uns enough …” . The approach: times of restriction need more courage and creativity. Maintain the deceleration you have just gained. Bringing people back to the fore. It is a manifesto for a living departure, a call for a collective outlook.

“Countless digital formats have emerged during the time of restrictions. Brands have missed their social media cannon fodder in the form of active films or posts, ”writes Hendrik Grohmann, Creative Director of reddo INTERACTIVE. “For this time it is definitely a good, no, the right measure to reach consumers, to stay in contact and memory, to enrich everyday life a little. But should it go on like this? Are digital offers replacing real goosebumps? Right now, when summer is coming and life is pulsing outside? ”

Webinars for new brand communication

Every crisis has always prepared the ground for something new. And it is precisely in this young field that reddo wants to sow ideas, paths and approaches. The tech agency will be offering free webinars on brand experiences in the current situation in the coming period. The goal: to give agencies, companies, marketing decision-makers and all interested parties the opportunity to sharpen their own mindset for the future after and with Corona. The webinars provide input on how live communication can look for people and brands in a still unclear “new normal”. In addition, it will be discussed whether budgets that are currently frozen or that are mainly spent in the digital sector should not be better returned to analog measures. In this way holistic moments between brands and people can arise,

You can register for the webinars free of charge on the reddo website. The 90-minute sessions are intended to be the first steps in which reddo INTERACTIVE presents an inventory of the changed present and then makes specific new suggestions for successful live communication.

Don’t leave anyone alone in a crisis

Interact with the brand analog and digital.

“Corona causes justified uncertainty among companies and agencies,” says Johann Thiem, Key Account Manager at reddo INTERACTIVE. He outlines the mood in the run-up to the publication of the fire letter and the hopes for the future: “We have therefore decided to break new ground in live communication with and for our customers. Simply to face the future with new solutions and not to leave anyone alone. It is a challenging situation for everyone, but we are convinced that together we will find ways to expand the offerings that have migrated heavily into the digital again, create values ​​and experiences for people and still take into account the requirements of the federal government. ”

When researching the webinar content, reddo was inspired by the Zukunftsinstitut and Trendone . Surveys by pilot and the new study by Grabarz JMP and Point Blank “How Corona changes our everyday life and our consumption” were also taken into account. “So everything has a hand and foot,” says Hendrik Grohmann. “And of course our own experiences and observations were also incorporated.”

Increase the common good and sales

The webinars do not convey a purely sales-oriented approach. Instead, a future is thought that is marked by a more attitude and commitment to the common good. Regional aspects and sustainable action are packed into the equation together with profitability.

“Our fire letter and the webinars are intended to provide food for thought, but also concrete suggestions on how we can understand the changed normality of people and jointly implement innovative campaigns in live communication,” says Hendrik Grohmann. “Studies show that, especially in crises, people reward when companies stand up for them. Therefore, we want to focus even more on user-centered, authentic and cool actions for the future and encourage agencies and companies to catch up. With all of this, we just have to show the same courage and the same commitment as the many small restaurateurs and retailers who are currently facing the crisis with their creative and unconventional solutions. For us, that’s live communication. This is how you open horizons for the future.

Online Marketing: 16 Dos and Don’ts in Retargeting

Retargeting is very easy to use, especially for online retailers, and can be a powerful tool if done right. We’ll show you ten great ideas to copy and six mistakes to avoid.

77 percent of all customers leave their shopping basket where they are, according to a study by market researchers from Ascend2 . 45 percent of B2B marketers think retargeting is the most effective digital advertising method.

Similar to SEO, email marketing and SEM, retargeting is one of the long-running digital advertising methods. But the signs have turned in the last few years. Retargeting is now often played out via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and competes with other content in the feed. If you want to stop the user’s thumb while scrolling, you need cool ideas.

10 tips for retargeting

1. Address pain points directly

The user who receives a retargeting banner knows your company. Therefore, generic banners don’t make sense. It is much better if you do it like Hubspot and address specific problems that the user has in everyday life and that he can solve with your help. If the decisive argument is there, then maybe he will convert.

Hubspot, for example, addresses the time required to set up a CRM tool: set up in 25 seconds, but it saves 124 working hours a year.

2. The better, dynamic product image

Are the generic images from the product page really good for the small retargeting banner? An ambient image with the product in use may work better than a cropped view of the product alone. The Yoox online shop even renders the viewed items of clothing in retargeting with virtual models.

Neuromarketing has taught us that the state you achieve when you buy a new product is often perceived as more important than individual features or the price. You are cooler, healthier, more mobile, more carefree. This can also be illustrated in the picture.

Tip: Retargeting banners can also be a good test of which image on the product page converts better.

3. The conversion tables

Urgency is one of the best neuro-triggers out there. In the case of a product that has already been considered, the customer often does not need to obtain further information. So a time-limited special offer or a reference to only a few pieces left can help.

4. The smart voucher

Anyone can use a voucher. The smart voucher or discount is one that communicates a clear value and yet eats little of the margin. If you want to sell a hotel weekend, you can probably get over a free bottle of champagne in your room. Those who discount the individual product could link the discount to the newsletter registration.

5. Retargeting as upselling

Conversion is not the end of the journey. Does the purchased product need a cable or a stand? With the recognition of the user, the journey can be extended. This also applies to how-to content, i.e. material on how to use the product (for example in cooking recipes). This tactic may make it easier for the customer to set up a customer account.

The statistics provide important insights for the selection of the right complementary product: Which products do other customers like to buy together?

6. Welcome to the club

Existing customers are easier to convert. Use retargeting to remind your customers of a positive shopping experience from the past and use this as an opener for the presentation of new products.

7. The integrated retargeting architecture

You can only achieve good frequency control in retargeting if you keep all your channels under control. This is particularly difficult for resellers of advertising space when they play through affiliates. Anyone with a comprehensive retargeting strategy has good reason to think about marketing automation. And vice versa.

8. Channel-specific banners

Every website has its own design rules and this is especially true for the Facebook and Instagram, which are so popular in retargeting. According to its own information, the design platform 99Designs was able to increase its incremental turnover to 134 percent and at the same time reduce costs by a quarter by building 100 variants instead of the previous ten different layouts.

9. Content instead of sales

Of course there are users who don’t like retargeting. But these are mostly those who are afraid of their data or are bothered by bad ads. It’s time to turn the tables in the direction of inbound marketing. Simply apply for a free offer, such as a white paper or a test drive. Such ads are called lead-gen ads, because registration is required to use the free offer.

Linking and advertising additional information about the product viewed can also be the right “detour”. “This is what other users say about product XY.” Or: “Horst used our product XY so creatively.”

10. Churn prevention

And another variant of how you can deal with existing customers in retargeting: Talk to your newsletter subscribers specifically, especially if they haven’t clicked for a long time or even bought something. For example, conversion guru Neil Patel particularly liked an ad that reminded him that he had been an American Express customer for exactly four years. Including upgrade offer.

The 6 biggest mistakes in retargeting

The British marketing service E-Consultancy has summarized the six worst mistakes in retargeting :

1. Users who have already converted

Rubbing the promotion for new customers under the nose of existing customers and showing buyers that the great product they bought yesterday is already much cheaper today is not only a waste of advertising space, it also annoys loyal customers. The ID of the respective tracking pixel or other recognition features must be excluded when the user has converted, unless you have a clear upselling strategy.

2. No segmentation

Additional data points make retargeting really exciting. Which pages did the users visit other than the one on which the tracking pixel was set? Did they come from Google or type-in? Generic retargeting converts poorly.

3. Lack of creativity

Probably the most common mistake: Assuming that price and product image will fix it. Relevance is created through recognition but also through a cool call-to-action. And especially in fast social media, you need a strong visual incentive for users to look at the banner.

4. Underrated addition

Those who did not convert directly may need a little additional incentive. Calculate what the new customer acquisition is worth to you and divide the amount into media and promotion.

5. No frequency control

If you haven’t bought it after the third retargeting, you probably don’t want the product (or you already have it, but not from you). How about a complementary product, because there is probably interest in the product type.

6. False statistical twins

Those who do not segment properly can only expand their target group on a very generic level with statistical twins (lookalikes). And then the probability of additional conversions decreases.