Communicate effectively – reaching out and creating engagement on the web

We live increasingly digital lives and there's a lot of talk about content marketing, storytelling and engaging messages. Most people can write – but how do you express yourself best to reach your target audiences? We give you 7 concrete tips on how you can cut through the noise.

1. Have relevant content

When we meet clients who want to redesign their website we often hear that they want to increase engagement. Many people instinctively think they should involve social media and have share buttons everywhere. But is that really what creates engagement among users? Having a presence on social media is standard. Social media offers fantastic opportunities to communicate, both with those who already like the brand and with new target audiences. But throwing share buttons onto your website without purpose or goals is not the right way to go. To succeed in cutting through the noise you must first and foremost create relevant content. If the content isn't relevant to users, a brightly colored share button won't make a difference. Few will share content they can't relate to. When you produce your content, make sure you speak to the user when you communicate.

2. Tailor to the target audience

Sometimes people talk about highlighting contests or quizzes that encourage users to interact. But before you start thinking about all conceivable solutions, you must first and foremost understand and base your approach on the users and their needs. A website usually doesn’t have a single target audience with one need. There are often multiple audiences with different needs. Therefore it’s important to tailor and target your communication so that it appeals to the right person at the right time. So how do you do that? You can start by identifying your target audiences. Interview and observe them to learn more about them. Map the customer journey and see which touchpoints exist. Once you know that, you can also find out whether anything needs to be developed, improved or clarified in your communication to reach out in the right way.

It is also important to adapt communication to the chosen medium. Tone and language use can differ depending on which platform you publish your message on. On Instagram you may be able to communicate more personally and spontaneously than on Facebook. To cut through the noise, there also needs to be a clear message. Think more about a specific recipient than an anonymous mass. From this you can more easily set your tone both in terms of visual language and manner of address. In web design, personas are often used when designing user experiences. Personas are a description of a typical person in your target audience, usually your ideal customer. This can be a useful tool to help you understand your audience’s needs and challenges, so you can write content that your target audience will be interested in.

3. Plan and get help from experts

Regardless of the medium, you need to take the time to create content, and that requires planning. We often meet clients who want to redo their website but who don't have an editor or writer who can produce truly good content. People think that if we just redo the shell and transfer the existing content, all our problems are solved. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. A nice, well-designed website is nothing without relevant, good content. If you don't have the competence in-house, get help from someone who does. You have to work actively and strategically with your content, so-called content activation.

4. Engage and capture the visitor's interest

In an earlier article on the role of information and the 3-click rule, we wrote about “The scent of information”, which concerns the constant scent of information along the user's path to their goal. On a web page the scent of information is about the content. Just as animals follow a scent to their prey, the user will follow the scent of information if it is presented in a way that engages and captures their interest. There are different ways to capture your customers' interest - a clear message, images, videos and strong headlines that evoke the visitor's emotions, to name a few.

How do you capture your customers' attention? Think about what appeals to your target audiences? What are their interests, goals and motivations? 

5. Give the visitor something of value

Make sure your images and your text convey something of value, something your customers actually appreciate. Ask yourself what they take away after having read and seen your post, article or web content. Maybe it’s a pleasant feeling, inspiration, a useful tip or new knowledge. Write articles or blog posts and share your knowledge and expertise – that, more than anything, engages and gives you credibility. In this article, for example, we give concrete tips on how to create engaging content to communicate effectively.

6. Evoke emotions

The key to reaching our users is emotions. We humans are not as rational as you might think, we often make decisions based on our emotions. If we succeed in capturing our visitors' attention and also arousing strong emotions, we can create content that engages. Content that people want to share, comment on and interact with.

Think about which emotions your brand, service or product evokes in your customers and visitors? Are they in line with what you want to achieve and the feeling you want to inspire in your customers? If not, what can you change in your message to evoke the right kind of emotions?

7. Test content and message

You often don't know how others perceive you. It can be difficult to examine yourself and your brand. With the 5-second test you can find out how your users perceive your website. The test involves the user seeing your website for 5 seconds, after which it disappears. They are then asked to describe how they perceived the page they just looked at.

Ask the following questions:

• Do you understand what we sell and/or what our business idea is?
• Do you know what we want you to do on our site?

The purpose is for you to zoom out and look at your business with fresh eyes. We want to find out whether, in just a few seconds, they can pick up who the sender was, what the company offers its customers, what the website is about and which emotions were conveyed. If the test participants' answers to the questions are not clear you need to take a closer look at your website. What is it that makes our message not get through? What do we need to improve?

Summary

1. Have relevant content – speak to the user when you communicate
2. Tailor and target the communication to the audience – address the right person at the right time
3. Plan and get help from experts – work actively and strategically with the content
4. Engage and capture the visitor's interest – appeal to the audience's interests and motivators
5. Give the visitor something of value – share your knowledge and expertise
6. Evoke emotions – change or adapt the message so the right kind of emotions are stirred
7. Test content and messages – do the 5-second test on a user

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