How Does UX in Brand Marketing Impact The Overall Strategy

The importance of UX in brand marketing can’t be underestimated especially for brands who’s main hub for online channels is their website, see why.

UX in Brand Marketing

Image Source: Pixabay 

 

Where do people typically learn about a business or brand first?

There are several solid answers to this question, but we’re on the same page if you said online or on their website.

Public perception of your brand is critical to the longevity of your business. In addition, if people learn about a company or brand primarily online, that makes the user experience on their website integral.  

 

So, brand marketing is crucial, but using UX to fuel brand marketing is too. You can use UX to communicate your brand’s values and connect with your customer base.

But how? 

 

Before diving into five tips for standing out from the competition with UX in brand marketing, let’s discuss how UX is intertwined with brand marketing. 

How UX is Intertwined With Brand Marketing 

According to experts, the goal of brand marketing is

“to be thought-provoking and generate discussion so that your brand is remembered and associated with positive sentiment.” 

 

In other words, brand marketing is how you shape the public’s perception of your brand and build an emotional connection with your customers. 

 

UX is intertwined with brand marketing because the likely first place a person will learn about your brand and begin their relationship with your business is your website. 

 

A terrible UX can lead to negative brand perception and even cease an entire relationship with a potential customer. On the other hand, an excellent UX can lead to positive brand perception and start the business relationship off on the right foot. 

 

For the best results when using UX in brand marketing, you must determine common core values with your target audience and choose those that you can easily show through UX. 

 

For instance, let’s say sustainability is a value you share with your target audience. In that case, implement sustainable UX design. Reduce data usage on your site and look for sustainable alternatives like digital documents and signatures. 

 

Or, let’s say accessibility is a value you share with your target audience. You can showcase this by designing a website that is as accessible as possible. Consider hiring an accessibility specialist to ensure adherence to the most current accessibility guidelines. 

 

Now, let’s explore how you can stand out from the competition in UX for brand marketing. 

How to Stand Out From the Competition with UX in Brand Marketing  

Ready to distance yourself from the competition in UX for brand marketing purposes? Here are five tips for doing so effectively: 

1. Define your brand 

First, to be successful with brand marketing, you must be definitive on who you are, what you stand for, and how you want to come across to potential customers. What makes you different from everyone else? How can you communicate those differences in your UX design?  

 

Brand consistency helps you stand out from the competition. Ensure your values are clear, your message is genuine, and that you document visual branding elements. Also, once you’re done defining your brand, make a list of the values you’d like to showcase in your UX design and begin brainstorming how you will do this. 

 

Next, look at how your competition is approaching brand marketing and UX. 

2. How is your competition approaching UX in brand marketing?

To be better than the competition, you must first know who your competitors are and what they’re doing. In this case, you’ll want to study how your competitors are approaching brand marketing and UX. 

 

Do your competitors have a brand marketing strategy? How is the UX on their website? What do customers say about their brand? Are they using UX to communicate their values and mission? 

 

Aside from studying your competition, know who you’re trying to reach and how to reach them. 

3. Know who you’re trying to reach and how to reach them 

It’s surprising how many businesses don’t honestly know their target audience. They may know standard demographic information like race, gender, education level, work, and income level. 

 

However, the most successful businesses get much deeper with target audience research. For instance, they study their target audience’s decision-making, what influences their buying behaviors, how they think, what they feel, their pain points, and how they’re navigating life generally. 

 

Your best competition is studying the heck out of their target audience, and you should be too. But take your research a bit deeper by learning how to create a better brand marketing strategy and best leverage UX in your brand marketing for your specific customers. 

 

Explore the following questions: 

 

  • What is your target audience currently saying about your brand? 
  • How do they feel about your competitors’ brands? 
  • How does your target audience navigate and engage with websites?
  • What do they say is a solid user experience?
  • How do your brand values mesh with your target audience’s values?
  • Which of your target audience’s values can you showcase in your UX?
  • What do you want your UX to communicate to your target audience about your brand?

 

Furthermore, be sure your marketing, design, and development teams collaborate for a better chance at standing out from your competition. 

4. Bring your marketing, design, and development teams together 

Bring your marketing, design, and development teams together to truly leverage UX for brand marketing. When these teams collaborate, it gives you a better chance of creating a UX that authentically sheds light on your brand’s core values and mission. 

 

If you don’t require your marketing, design, and development teams to work together in some capacity, you run the risk of your brand marketing and UX not being cohesive.  

 

So, set up collaboration meetings. Ask your marketing team to share the brand marketing strategy with UX design and UI development teams. Then, allow them to develop a plan to create a UX that powers the brand marketing strategy. 

 

Also, leverage data analytics to improve UX and brand marketing. 

5. Leverage data analytics to improve UX and brand marketing  

Tap into the power of data analytics to gain valuable insights into UX and brand marketing. By tracking the performance of your brand marketing tactics and the UX design functions and features that support those tactics, you can learn what’s working, what isn’t, and make necessary adjustments to both. 

 

You can leverage data analytics to improve the following about your UX: 

 

  • Navigation 
  • Personalization 
  • Visual elements 
  • Brand consistency 
  • Search engine optimization 
  • Calls-to-action 
  • Information architecture 

 

You can also leverage data analytics to improve the brand marketing techniques you’ve chosen. However, to leverage data analytics appropriately, you must first select the right questions or topics to focus on to collect the data you need. 

 

Then, choose the best KPIs and metrics to track. And finally, if it isn’t you, hire a data analyst or specialist to ensure you’re getting the most out of your data and are making insightful adjustments to your UX and brand marketing. 

Conclusion 

Ultimately, you want to find the best ways to form a positive perception and conversation around your brand with the public. Consider using UX in brand marketing to boost your total marketing efforts. Experiment with various brand marketing tactics and UX features and functions until they’re perfectly intertwined to grow your brand and better the UX on your website.