Let’s begin with understanding what exactly user engagement is.
User engagement is a measurement to understand the interaction on your website or app and how the audience is accepting your product. It is measured by considering various factors such as the average session duration, daily active users, and monthly active users.
Typically, user engagement is the quantified result of the action the visitor on your app or website takes instead of random browsing or leaving your site promptly to find a better source of information that they’re looking for as per their needs.
The engagement has a different definition to various sites and apps, but the core remains the same, that is, their activity on your site. A medical website would be less frequently visited than a usual email app or website to put things in perspective. This proves that there isn’t just one variable to measure the user engagement but an amalgamation of multiple components that contribute to the assessment.
In essence, a greater engagement means that your product’s association is superior in a manner that your users are driven to use your product over your competitors’ consistently.
Lack of user engagement would eventually lead to a dwindling product recall and a failed website or app that can no longer sustain or attract customers. Therefore, it’s so important to track user engagement and their activity on your website. It gives valuable insights into what you need to be doing to make their experience a memorable one so that they keep preferring you over your competition.
Let’s find out how to boost user engagement with our nine proven tactics.
1. Provide a live chat support
Having a live chat on your website can significantly boost your user engagement as the customer doesn’t feel lost or confused while they’re exploring. Frequently, customers cannot find what they’re looking for, even though you have the service or product they need. Your customers probably have queries about a particular product but don’t know who or where to clarify the same.
At times like these, they usually feel stranded and alone. Having a friendly staff to answer their question makes the customer more comfortable and feel relevant.
2. Speed things up!
You might’ve heard the saying that time is money; it’s entirely accurate when it comes to your website. We’re living in the information age, and people don’t like to wait. This is the reason why your web pages should load promptly if you aim to keep your visitors on-site and engaged with your products.
Even the slightest delay in loading the page can harm the user engagement on your website.
3. Experience is a deal-breaker
Customers visiting your website look forward to a great experience online, and if that is missing on your app or website, it will leave an impression on them, and they would in all probability not come back. Ensure that your website is easy to navigate, has content relevant to the theme or topic, and is an admirable experience for the user.
There are multiple ways you can make the experience for your users a memorable one. These include being flexible across platforms mobile, tablets, and not just desktop. You could also try to keep them engaged by providing them with information about your offers and products. This could be incredibly advantageous for first-time visitors.
Additionally, you could also help assist them in comparing your products or services with your competitors. It highlights your product and projects your app or website as being user-friendly as it saves the visitor a lot of time.
Giving your users an outstanding experience is what differentiates a leading business from an inferior brand. The fact is, in a market that has similar products and multiple players. Eventually, it’s the memorable experience that stands out.
4. Make your website safe, secure, and reliable
You need to build trust with your users; if they don’t trust you, they simply won’t visit your website. The looming threat of financial fraud, hacking, or a data breach could drive away your users.
After all, they don’t TRUST you. Hence, your website must be secure and reliable enough for visitors to trust and keep coming back. Reassure them by highlighting how secure your transaction form and process is and the steps you’ve taken to keep it that way.
You need to have best SSL certificate from CheapSSLShop. SSL functions as an authenticator that oversees the communication between the server and the client.
Secure socket layer or SSL provides a safe and secure transfer-layer protecting your confidential and precious data from falling into the wrong hands.
By doing so, you’re not only securing your business website but also reassuring your users that their credentials are safe every time they’re visiting your site or app.
5. Help your users reach their intent. FAST!
Focus on user onboarding which is a streamlined activity of increasing the probability of first-time users and visitors willfully accepting, embracing, and eventually endorsing your product. A customers’ journey through your product is heavily impacted by the user onboarding and how it’s implemented.
This sequence is the first thing your users would experience, so it goes without saying how important this aspect is. You don’t want your new user to get bored and leave, do you? Then new users must be coaxed and gently guided to achieve meaningful goals and objectives without patronizing them too much.
Every new user should be guided through your product’s essential aspects and features, making sure that there isn’t any information overload. The objective is to help them identify the product’s value.
6. Adopt a more personalized communication tone
The days of “Dear Sir/ Madam” are well behind us because this is the age of personalized communication. Personalized communication is an influential tool to connect with your audience better. If the content on your website is plain and straightforward and not humanized, your users are going to get bored and pretty soon leave.
The objective is to make your users feel unique and special, and having a generic tone is not going to help your case. Personifying your communication enables you to stand out from the crowd by creating better and unique content that leaves a special memory for your customers. It’s like your users feel like you’re talking to them directly. This also shows that you’re not some soulless business rather a friend they can happily approach.
Why not have working reply-to addresses in your responses or communication to let your customers ask questions and leave feedback? The information you collect will help understand what you’re doing right and improve it to make their experience even better.
7. Boost your engagement with interactive content
Users and customers today don’t interact with a business; they interact with brands. They want to be engaged and captivated before they can become your customer or make the purchase. In this information age, they can’t physically touch or feel the product.
Hence, they want to experience it by interactive means such as videos, apps, and demos. Therefore text-heavy content cannot drive your user engagement; on the contrary, it would bring it down. People today don’t have the time to read text features or bulky content about the product. Their attention span is in seconds, and if you don’t engage them in those few seconds, you’ve already lost a business. The competition is cut-throat; you have homogeneous products and several players across industries and in all segments and niches.
To stand out, it’s important to optimize your content so that it offers a more engaging, immersive experience rather than a mundane and text-heavy approach. Experiment with innovative mediums such as augmented reality, virtual reality, or videos.
8. Have a neat and de-cluttered design
The opposite of user engagement is user disengagement or commonly known as bounce rate. When there is a lot of confusion and clutter on your website, it leaves your user disoriented and puzzled, which results in them ultimately exiting your website.
If your website’s layout is too busy or disorganized, it’s better to adopt a neater and simpler design. Use the white space to your advantage and highlight the menu by placing it center-stage so that it is easy for anyone to find it. Consider font sizes and ensure that text is readable and not too small or too large.
Having a neat and minimalistic design makes it easier for the users to navigate and eventually aiding in an excellent overall experience.
9. Try to put a site search option
There might be scenarios where even making things easier for your user; they might still not be able to find what they’re looking for. After a point, even well-designed site navigation is simply not enough. If they still can’t find exactly what they want, they obviously won’t spend time on your website and leave to search elsewhere. Not every product can have a sub-menu, and those sub-menus can’t have their menus.
It would be a navigation nightmare. In such cases, it’s beneficial to have a site search option. Users can interact with an optimized on-site search function that helps them find exactly what they’re looking for by merely putting in the keywords.
In conclusion, following these nine strategies, you could have a significant competitive edge in this dynamic business scenario.