A tremendous opportunity to optimize user experience

With all these choices, what makes a consumer choose one product over another?

Due to a number of factors, there are increasingly important reasons to examine the role of interactivity on the web today. Some issues to consider:

• Know your target audience and your real audience. Defining and analyzing your target audience, and communicating your product's value proposition to them is the first step. But you will also need to evaluate the current client base and prospect base to ensure they do in fact reflect the intended audience. If not, adjustments will need to be made either to the defined target audience or positioning of the product, or both. Alternatively, adjustments may even need to be made to the product or service itself should the current product and/or audience not produce the desired business results.
• Analyze all aspects of current prospect and client interaction. Before improvements can be made to provide a positive experience across all touchpoints, you will need to first determine what exactly needs improvement and what already works well that can be expanded and strengthened. The touchpoints that should be examined include all interactions with the brand (such as brochures, websites, tradeshow booths, etc.), all functional interactions with a company's work process (ordering/purchasing, support, delivery, etc.), and interactions with the product or service (durability, ease of use, helpfulness, price, etc.). From this analysis, it will become clear what works and what does not.
• Create representative groups for your target audience, and create emotional profiles within each group. The emotional profiles will guide you in positioning your brand and communicating with your prospects: what colors to use, what images to use, what terminology and concepts will be understood, how to meet and exceed expectations within company workflows, and so on.

These actions ultimately can lead to the creation of a tremendously positive user experience - thereby gently guiding the user along his or her decision-making path, and culminating in not only a satisfying purchasing experience, but also praise for your company and its product or service.

The resulting total satisfaction is larger than the sum of its parts, and takes on momentum of its own.