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32 Digital Marketing Experts Reveal Their Top Strategies for Creating a Great Digital Experience for Customers

Creating an exceptional digital experience is a must for today’s enterprises and SMBs. As consumers increasingly turn to digital media to evaluate and compare products and services, research companies, and make purchases, the digital experience can make or break your company’s success, even for businesses that also have a brick-and-mortar presence.

But what strategies should today’s companies focus on to create a digital experience that makes an impact on their audiences, generates and converts leads, and drives value for the business? To find out what tactics are working for successful marketers today, we reached out to a panel of digital marketers and digital media pros and asked them to weigh in on this question:

“What’s the single most effective strategy for building a great digital experience for customers?”

Read on to find out what our experts had to say and learn about the most effective strategies you can put to use to improve the digital customer experience.

Meet Our Panel of Digital Marketing Experts:


Ricardo MartinezRicardo Martinez

@perconvly

Ricardo is the founder of Perconvly, an eCommerce Digital Strategy company located in Miami Florida.

“The best strategy to building a great digital experience for customers is…”

Actually taking the time to segment users through a proper funnel and deliver messaging and actions per where they currently stand.

Most companies make the big mistake of trying to attract all users at the same time to reach for the masses instead of caring about buying intentions and how to get people as close as possible to that point.

Funnels help businesses ensure users feel committed, engaged, ready to buy while presenting highly valuable content to convince them to take the next step towards making a purchase.


Madeline JohnsonMadeline Johnson

@MarketCouncil

Madeline is a Marketing & Media Strategist & Consultant based in New York City. She teaches marketing strategy at The PR Playbook and blogs at Of Undisputed Origin.

“The best way to create a great digital customer experience is…”

To create helpful and valuable content for them. This will help you build trust that may lead to a sale.


Jeff StreetJeff Street

@Boss_Heating

Jeff Street is the COO of Boss Heating and Air Conditioning Inc.

“The best way to build a great digital experience for customers is…”

To start with an amazing website. Your website has to have useful information that is easy to find and comprehend. It has to be laid out in a logical and user-friendly format. Don’t try to sound important by using a bunch of terms and language from your industry that you understand but your customers don’t. Don’t dilute your site with sales pitches and advertisements. Make the website to provide the customer with information and they will have a great experience.


Ryan FitzgeraldRyan Fitzgerald

@Raleigh__Realty

Ryan Fitzgerald is the founder of Raleigh Realty, a Realtor in Raleigh, North Carolina, and an avid digital marketer. Ryan is a digital marketing contributor for publications such as Realtor.org, Realtor.com and Inman.

“A great digital experience strategy is one where there is…”

No thinking involved.

There are one of two key ways to differentiate yourself as a company: by offering the lowest prices OR by providing an incredible customer experience.

The single most effective strategy for building a great digital experience for customers is to do everything for them so that they don’t have to ‘think.’

If you’ve been in business for some time you should have a great understanding of your customers and what they are looking for online. You’ll need to understand your customers in order to provide them with a great digital experience.

Once you understand your consumers you will be able to optimize their digital experience so that a large percentage won’t have to ‘think’ about what they should do next. The digital experience you create will guide them..

For instance, many of our website visitors are coming to our website to do one of three things:

1. Search homes for sale

2. Learn about the local area

3. Learn tips on how to buy and sell real estate

Those who are coming to search homes for sale have a different set of needs. They are often unsure where to begin their home search. We don’t want them to have to ‘think,’ so we help them by suggesting searches that include common ‘top priorities’ that customers have. These include school districts, new construction, specific communities, etc. After the consumer sets their initial parameters, they also have the option to narrow their search down to specifics inside the home like price, beds, baths, square footage, and more.

Once a consumer clicks on a specific home, they don’t have to think about what they should do next. If they want more information on the home they can see where it is on the map, click on the Google Streetview, and even type an address to find out what the commute time is from a specific address (typically their work commute). Once a web visitor has decided on what they are looking for, they have three options that help them decide what to do next (coincidentally it is also insight into where they are in the buying process):

1. They can ‘save’ the home

2. They can ask for ‘more homes like this one,’ and

3. They can ask to ‘view it in person.’

This is an example of how we use consumer experience to build the type of loyalty and trust that differentiates us from competitors who also have a digital marketing presence.

Whether you’re an e-commerce website or a neighborhood blog, a great digital experience is how you keep people coming back.


Bob ClaryBob Clary

@IntelliBright

Bob is a Director of Online Engagement for Intellibright, a pay-per-sale marketing agency that helps small businesses manage their digital experience.

“Specific tactical strategies can (and should) be different based on the business…”

But collectively the most important thing any business can do is understand their customer. In that, it’s a strategy for building a great digital experience.  Specifically, what businesses should do is define their target audience by building persona profiles and mapping out their journey from start to finish.


Alex BungenerAlex Bungener

@Digital_Plus_

Alex Bungener is the Founder of Digital+, LLC.

“For any type of business there a few things that help to build a great digital experience for customers…”

Have your website or app load fast, especially on mobile devices.

Make it stupid simple for someone to contact you. Place big, obvious call and map buttons and a simple contact form – on every single page of your website.

Make it super easy and quick to navigate and super easy to find the product or service they are looking for.

No pop ups.

Use live chat ONLY if they can actually answer customer/prospect questions accurately. Live chat as an answering service is infuriating.


Stephen TwomeyStephen Twomey

@StephenTwomey

Stephen Twomey is the Founder of MasterMindSEO.

“The best way to build an exceptional digital customer experience is to…”

Learn how to tell a story. Storytelling is the best form of communication. If you can learn how to engage your prospects with a compelling story about why they should do business with you, then you will create an outstanding experience. You can call it conversion optimization or persuasion marketing. It is simply learning how to craft a message that resonates with your target audience. No one wants to keep searching the internet for a product or service. So make it easy for them to do business with you by communicating with them the right way.


Jessica ThieleJessica Thiele

@VirtualLogistic

Jessica Thiele is the marketing manager at VL, a Canadian SaaS data integration service provider.

“To create a great digital experience for customers, focus on…”

Data, up. This is a short answer, with giant implications: businesses need to integrate their applications. This means connecting your apps together with data integration (many ‘connectors’ are available as add-ons to existing applications your business likely already uses; if not there are services that do custom work) so that your data is automatically translated and moved into all your applications.

This is the difference it makes to your customer experience:

Instead of having order details in App A, customer info in App B, and Order History in App C, all customer information is in all 3 applications in each applications’ standard format. To the customer, fulfillment is faster. In the case where there’s a problem, your customer service staff has all the information they need about the customer at their fingertips. If you sell through multiple channels, this sort of integration is an absolute must – otherwise, you’re leaving yourself open to your competitors.


Mark TuchschererMark Tuchscherer

@geekschicago

Mark Tuchscherer is the co-founder and president of Geeks Chicago, a web design and development firm based in Chicago. Mark has over 16 years of experience in the digital space, working with clients of all sizes in many different verticals.

“When building websites or mobile apps for clients, there’s one thing we always try to do in order to ensure the best digital experience…”

Keep everything simple and fast, no matter what we’re building. If e-commerce website customers want to find products quickly and purchase them, they should have as few steps as possible. Digital users have no patience, and if the site or mobile app is not fast, people will stop leave. Likewise, if the system is hard to use, people will drop off.
Simplicity is the best start to a great digital experience.


Megan FrisinaMegan Frisina

@FactorFinders

Megan Frisina is a marketing associate at Factor Finders LLC, a business specializing in small business financial programs. She focuses on web design, content writing, social media outreach, e-mail outreach, and SEO best practices.

“The best strategy for building a great digital experience for customers is…”

Offering easily accessible content. Potential customers that land on your site don’t want to dig around for what they want. They want their questions answered in just a few clicks. Having an easy to navigate site is key. You want viewers to stay on your site, not jump to another that is a little more comprehensive. A landing page is everything. Ensure that all of your landing pages are optimized with buttons that lead to informative content and most importantly, a call-to-action contact button. The worst thing you can do is have a landing page that offers no next step and pushes the customer right to the exit.


Antonella PisaniAntonella Pisani

@official_coupon

@factgoods

Antonella Pisani has more than 20 years of digital leadership experience with companies including Fossil, JCPenney, Guitar Center, and Proflowers. She is the creator of FACT Goods, an online clothing and accessories brand, and also the founder behind Official Coupon Code, bridging her passion for eCommerce with the ability to travel and work around the world in places as remote as Antarctica and Bhutan.

“The single most effective strategy for building a great digital customer experience comes down to one thing…”

Listening. Listening to your customers can come through a variety of means, ranging from capturing feedback via online surveys like Opinionlab, to conducting in-person or digital usability tests, to seeing what customers search for on desktop and mobile and, of course, listening to customer service calls.

By understanding how customers feel and how they behave, you can refine your digital experience to mirror both their needs and wants. Their feedback can help influence everything from navigation on the site, to payment types offered, to product assortment (you’ll often hear about a desire to bring products back).

While it’s not possible to meet every individual’s request, you’ll often see common themes emerge. It’s easy to get wrapped up in quantitative data when deciding how to influence a digital experience, but pairing the quantitative information with qualitative feedback will yield the best results.

Whether you’re a small business or large one, capturing feedback can be a very inexpensive way to lead to an improved digital experience and future customer loyalty.


Max PageMax Page

@coupon_hippo

Max Page is the founder of U.S. based CouponHippo and have made websites & apps for businesses and personal clients for 10+ years.

“To create a great digital experience…”

1. For SaaS Businesses: Make Common Workflow Personas

If you have a product that makes someones life at work easier make sure you model their entire workflow. Identify a couple types of users you want to target. Write out what their current workflow and then how you want your product to make that workflow simpler. If you make a digital experience that makes the tedious more simple you will have succeeded.

2. Test Your Experience With Real People

The best way to check if your experience is good is to have REAL people use it. Come up with some simple questions that lead someone through your experience to accomplish a goal. Then just observe and record. Don’t say anything during the test. Just meet with your team afterward and troubleshoot any pain points. Try to get at least 5-10 people to go through your experience. If you can’t find people locally you can use a site like UserTesting.com. You will be surprised by what works and what doesn’t.


Ed BrancheauEd Brancheau

@Goozleology

Ed Brancheau is the CEO of Goozleology Digital Marketing.

“Too many businesses take great ideas and poorly execute them because…”

They fail to conduct thorough User Testing (UI). UI is critical to a great digital experience because usually business owners are too close to the product or service. Therefore, because they’re experts, they fill in the blanks that people who have never been through the process can’t fill in.

In my opinion, one should spend at least 10% of their budget on UI to make sure that everything runs smoothly. You won’t know unless you test, test, and test some more.


BrownJJosh Brown

@joshabrown00

Josh Brown is the SEO Manager & Digital Strategist at Soldsie.

“I think one way for businesses to offer a better digital experience for customers is…”

By offering a more personalized experience. Consumers are overloaded with content and purchase choices – personalization allows business to cater specifically to the needs of their customers which can help with an increased interaction between the customer and the business. (As an example, movie streaming services like Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix try to suggest new shows & movies based off of your previous watching experience and ratings, audio services like Pandora and Spotify do the same but with bands/songs, Amazon tries to suggest products of interest, etc.).

To be able to personalize content, businesses will need to get a clear idea of their target audience (something that I see a lot of smaller businesses fail at), understand their pain points, how they prefer to consume and interact with content (series of images – a la Instagram stories, video, audio, long-copy, short-copy, etc.). With this information, businesses will then have a better ability to personalize their offerings which in turn will allow for a better digital experience for the customer.


Ajay PrasadAjay Prasad

@ajayprasad_

Formerly a marketer for a few Fortune 10 companies, Ajay Prasad now runs GMR Web Team, a digital marketing agency in California. He is the also the founder and CEO of RepuGen, a web based online reputation management platform that helps businesses measure customer satisfaction and improve reputation.

“Nowadays, the most important thing a business can do to provide a great digital experience for customers is…”

Site and content optimization. If your website can not conform to any screen size, then you will lose a lot of potential customers researching you online. People research and surf the web in many varying ways, so you need to ensure your website can adhere to any circumstance.


Brian MurphyBrian Murphy

@getzaius

Brian is currently the Marketing Manager at Zaius. With experience in the digital marketing space across both B2B and B2C brands, Brian has always put an emphasis on powering marketing campaigns with customer-centric data. Outside of the digital world, Brian is a die-hard Boston sports fan, plays guitar, and coaches youth football.

“To create a great digital experience for customers, companies need to remember that…”

The number of channels and devices available to consumers has grown exponentially over the past few years. And it has become increasingly challenging for marketers to create relevant, targeted, and beautiful marketing campaigns designed to deliver unmatched digital experiences to customers.

So how do we, as digital experts, cut through all the noise and build relevant experiences for each and every customer? Well, the answer is simple in theory, but more difficult than you would think without the proper advanced personalization.

After all, every customer needs to be treated in a distinct and unique way. To start, you need a holistic understanding of customer behavior, a single customer view – cross-channel, cross-device, online, and offline. Unfortunately, many marketers lack the capabilities to stitch together these behaviors, and their marketing campaigns suffer as a result.

Let’s take Jane and John for example – both are two of your most loyal customers. Without a comprehensive understanding of their individual cross-channel and cross-device behavior, you’ll never know how to optimize their individual experiences. While you may know that they’re both loyal customers, you won’t know that Jane is actually more responsive to your email campaigns and discounts, but John, on the other hand, prefers to browse on his mobile device, then shop in store.

With this kind of data at your fingertips, you’re now looking beyond generic levels of loyalty or lack thereof, and actually understanding their individual customer journey, purchase intent, and are able to engage them with more relevant and personal content, where and when they prefer it. You’ve now created that exceptional digital experience.

With this granular level of detail powering your marketing campaigns, you’re truly going to boost your critical business metrics, like: average order value, repeat purchases, and customer lifetime revenue.

At the end of the day, there’s no single treatment that’s applicable to all your customers – and it’s time for your marketing to be smarter, more relevant, and ultimately drive your business forward.


Maxime RiemanMaxime Rieman

@MaximeRieman

Educating and assisting shoppers about financial products has been Maxime Rieman’s focus, which led her to joining CoverWallet, a startup dedicated to simplifying insurance for small businesses. Previously, she launched the personal insurance team at NerdWallet, and helped create an innovative brokerage comparison product.

“The most effective way to build a great digital experience for customers is…”

To give users the simplest possible route to reaching a complete solution. This seems clear, but has a couple core components which can be easy to push aside. First, you need to identify a visitor’s intended solution and make sure it’s available at the end of the online experience. Don’t be the site which collects a bunch of information before redirecting the user to a different site or pushing them offline, and requiring they start over. Second, take the time to really plan out what a user needs to do before reaching a solution. Can you avoid several questions by referencing a public data source? Can you make intermediary steps, like logging in, optional or push them to be post-completion? By collecting data on user behavior and dropoff points, it will help as you iterate to improve your digital experience.


Daniel DeelstraDaniel Deelstra

@_Marketing_Mix

Daniel Deelstra is a keen digital marketer, SEO and entrepreneur working as the Digital Coordinator for The Marketing Mix. Daniel is passionate about business growth using all digital marketing channels. With qualifications in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Daniel is always looking for innovative ways to communicate with customers and provide value. Whether that be though social media, search marketing, content marketing or paid traffic Daniel knows the important thing is whether the channel is effective at driving sales.

“You can’t really just have one strategy for a digital experience nowadays, as in you can’t be on just one platform…”

Your digital presence needs to be in all areas – social, website, app if appropriate, and mentions in sites related to your niche. To build a create digital experience on each platform, you simply need to follow the guidelines set out by each platform. For example, to create a great website experience just follow Google’s SEO guidelines. This is a good strategy as Google want to deliver the best results for each search. For example:

  • Mobile friendly design
  • Site speed
  • Use of vertical content such as images, videos and news
  • Answers to the queries of your users, become a hub of expert information in your niche
  • Gain user reviews
  • Gain mentions and links from trusted sources

Google knows what users want in a website, so just following these principles will get you a result that will lead to a great customer experience.

For an example in social media, follow Facebook’s best practices:

  • Post consistently
  • Add targeting to your posts
  • Use fresh images
  • Publicize discounts and promotions with ads

Again, Facebook knows what their users want. So following these best practices lead to a great customer experience on Facebook.

It’s really that simple!


Marisa SouthMarisa South

@VetAndPetJobs

Marisa South is the General Manager of Vet & Pet Jobs, a career website for employers and job seekers in the veterinary industry in Australia.

“When attempting to build a great digital experience for customers…”

Companies should remember that consistency creates loyalty. It’s critical that a company’s CRM tracks all customer interactions and integrates these channels together as one. By this, I mean email, phone, social media, live chat, and any other communication channel. If these aren’t integrated, the customer will likely have a poor digital experience. For example, if a customer is communicating with a live chat representative today, but is forced to repeat all the information they provided via email the day before, this damages the digital experience. It’s a waste of time, and customers will notice. Streamline customer communication with a versatile CRM, and you will build a successful digital experience.


Brandon WelchBrandon Welch

@doxymeHQ

Brandon Welch, PhD, is the owner of Doxy.me, a free telemedicine solution that thousands of clinicians and patients currently benefit from.

“We’re always trying to come up with ways to improve the digital experience for our customers…”

And one of the best ways to do that is by utilizing tools that gather opinions. If you’re unable to measure the way customers feel about your product or service, then how will you find opportunities for improvement? Just because a customer has a negative digital experience, it doesn’t always mean they will bring it your attention. While a customer may announce their frustration in a brick-and-mortar setting, people often don’t have time in an online setting. Instead of waiting for customers to tell you how they feel, businesses need to be proactive in measuring just how well they meet digital expectations by reaching out and asking digital consumers directly. This can be done efficiently with digital survey tools like Zendesk or SurveyMonkey.


Michael SueokaMichael Sueoka

@MichaelSueoka

Michael is the Head of User Experience at The Mobile Majority in Los Angeles, which is currently the fastest growing tech company in Los Angeles. He helped Grindr, Honda, EXOS, MC & Saatchi, Daily Associates, Ohio State University, HCHB, DivX, and Entertainment Arts. He taught at UCLA and Cal State Long Beach.

“The single most effective strategy for building a great digital experience for customers is…”

To establish user needs and cross check those with the business requirements. What’s the point of building something if you don’t know what the user needs? By knowing the user needs first and then reviewing them against your business requirements you will be able to pick and choose to build the highest value items with the lowest cost (based on your business). This prevents the business from bending over backwards to fulfill certain needs, but able to fulfill needs with high quality that are easily obtainable.


Travis BennettTravis Bennett

@travbennett

Travis Bennett is the Managing Director of Studio Digita.

“What’s fundamental to a great digital experience is…”

Your core message.

It should be communicated in every platform you’re on so your branding is consistent and a customer understands who you are and recognizes your brand, whether they’re reading a blog, following your posts on Facebook, or
hearting your photos on Instagram.

Everything you do needs a commonality, and it all needs to tie into your core message.


Zack NaylorZack Naylor

@AureliusLab

Zack is currently CEO and co-founder of Aurelius, a product strategy platform to help you build the right products and features for your business and its customers. He’s been helping people make better and more informed design and product decisions for over 10 years ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies in nearly every industry there is. He was an early contributor to several startups such as ModCloth.com, Lockerz and Pikimal as well as Principal UX Designer at The Nerdery, successfully helping teams with wide ranging needs create sound goals, conduct customer research and connect intelligent insights to product decisions.

“There are 4 critical steps to building a great digital experience…”

Goals, research insights, smart decisions and a way to measure them. Start by setting goals for your product and experience. These should clearly tie up to overall business goals or objectives as well. Having clear product and
experience goals give you confidence that your experience will support top line business initiatives, but also create a definition for what a good design or product decision is later.

Next, do user research with your customers to understand how you can meet this goal and deliver that experience for them. You’re looking for two things; one, their current and past behavior as it relates to the kind of experience/product you’re trying to build and, two, what needs and expectations your customers have that you can deliver on that will help you meet your own company goals for that product and experience. Research insights are critical for obvious reasons, but in short, if we solve the wrong problem on time and on budget, it won’t matter. Doing user research with your customers is the only way to ensure you are closer to solving the right problems for your business and its customers.

Now you can make smart decisions, informed by your research insights that best align to the well defined goals for your product and experience that you should have outlined. From there, choose appropriate metrics that reflect a way to measure the success or accuracy of those design and product decisions you’ve made. This can include hard metrics like analytics, but just as importantly, it can and should include additional qualitative measures such as customer service feedback, interviews and surveys.

In the end, building a great digital experience is an exercise in clearly defining what you’re trying to do as a business, what your customers’ needs and expectations are, making smart, informed decisions based on all that while having a plan to measure and learn from those decisions.


Kevin HanleyKevin Hanley

@kevinphanley

Kevin Hanley is Vice President of Marketing at Delphic Digital, an award-winning digital agency in Philadelphia. He oversees the digital marketing strategy for enterprise clients, ensuring effective execution and accurate analysis of marketing campaigns. Kevin has over 14 years of digital marketing experience.

“The strategy behind a fantastic digital experience is actually pretty simple…”

First, begin by being empathetic to your users and their online journey, then start SIMPLE! The true sign of a successful strategy is speaking to the right person (segment), at the right time (technology), and with the right message (content). Use technology and data (such as personalization) to remind your customers how great they are, and how lucky you are to be communicating with them.


Yulia MaystrukYuliya Maystruk

@yulz31

Yuliya is part of the marketing team at Enplug, a cutting-edge SaaS that interactively blends technology, entertainment, and information into any TV display.

“Build a great digital experience for customers through an…”

Engaging digital signage experience. Start by placing a number of HD screens in high-traffic, visible areas around your venue: behind check-out counters, next to fitting rooms, inside window displays, and next to elevators (see this guide for more ideas on where to place screens in specific locations for greatest impact). Any location visitors tend to loiter embody good pit-stops for
digital signage.

Next, install a cloud-hosted software solution like Enplug to entertain, engage, and inform your customers. You can choose to display a rotating or scheduling cache of digital content, or pull posts from your social media feeds to enhance real-time customer engagement. Guests can use a specific internal hashtag to instantly see their Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook posts appear in real-time on screens inside your venue. Video wall installations, touch screens, and 4K resolution displays will further complement and enhance a great in-store digital experience.


Swapnil BhagwatSwapnil Bhagwat

@swapnildigital

Swapnil Bhagwat is Senior Manager – design & digital media and implements social, digital, marketing, design and web strategies for the group companies at Orchestrate. He is an MBA graduate with work experience in the U.S., U.K., and Europe. Swapnil has worked for more than a decade across a range of businesses for the global markets.

“The most important and effective component for providing a great digital experience for customers is to…”

Make your website mobile-friendly.

The attention spans of customers are shorter and thus the engagement should be simple with clear expectations from customers which is easy for them to understand. The page should provide the experience that customers are looking for in an effortless manner. Many times, a properly designed website for mobile may make the requirement of an additional mobile app unnecessary, and this helps companies to concentrate on the website experience of the users.


Jói SigurdssonJói Sigurdsson

@joisig

Jói is the Founder/CEO of CrankWheel, provider of practical, reliable screen sharing for sales. He worked for 10 years at Google, leading technical teams servicing tens and hundreds of millions of active users of Google Chrome, Google Toolbar and Google Desktop. He was also a Co-founder or early C-level employee of several startups.

“The key to building a great digital experience, especially for a high-value product or service, is to…”

Have things flow smoothly from the digital world to the real world. In other words, don’t just focus on building a great digital experience, focus on building a great end-to-end customer experience.

If you deliver physical products, make it easy for them to go from the physical packaging back to a relevant page on your website where they can manage their order, easily initiate returns and so forth. Take a page from Amazon.

If your customer clicks a button on your website asking for a phone call, don’t make them wait a long time until they receive the call. Less than two minutes is ideal. Then when you’re in the phone call and they need to be shown a demo or guided through your product, use a screen sharing tool that works every time and makes the experience easy for them. Don’t hassle them to install software just so you can show them something.

Overall, give your customer one seamless experience, where everything works well, not just the digital parts.


Serena HolmesSerena Holmes

@serena__holmes

Serena Holmes is the President and CEO of Tigris Events, an event staffing and experiential marketing agency headquartered in Toronto.

“Building a solid digital experience starts with…”

Providing prospective customers with value before they have committed to buying your product or service. For example, this could include offering a free e-book or consultation to visitors to your website. This strategy provides potential customers with a small taste of what you offer so they can make the best purchasing decision.


Vladimir GendelmanVladimir Gendelman

@vgendelman

Vladimir is the Founder & CEO of Company Folders.

“Most people want to create a good digital experience‹ but not if it means giving up their agenda…”

They’re intent on using the keywords, layouts, or design styles they want, which may not actually be best for the user. If you want to create the ultimate digital experience, you have to really commit. Set your own agenda aside so you can focus on creating a design that’s usable, yet simple. Simplicity is the key to a great experience; you might even want to use the old K.I.S.S. slogan (Keep It Simple, Stupid) as your project motto.


Mark GoetzeMark Goetze

@MotionRC

Mark is the Co-Founder of Motion RC.

“Building a great digital and web experience begins with…”

Optimizing your website for quick loading times and a smooth, clear user experience. Make sure your website is optimized for fast loading (under 2 seconds is prime) and ensure all aspects of your site are responsive and mobile-friendly. When a user lands on your website, whether it’s on desktop or mobile, if it takes more than 3 seconds to load they are likely to navigate away. Optimizing your website for speed and responsiveness will include eliminating bloated plug-ins, optimizing your code, and compressing large images.


Charlie FuscoCharlie Fusco

@CharlieFusco

Charlie is the CEO of Synergixx.

“The single best way to use digital media to communicate messaging is…”

To make sure your content is clear and distinct but keeps a common voice throughout all media channels. Between your website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and even Pinterest, the key is to make the content seem distinct but remain linked to the core message. The challenge is many companies believe they can repurpose content that already exists without customization and use it across a variety of channels. Consumers see this as inauthentic, which curbs growth and therefore decreases traffic.

Additionally, companies often ask others to lend their voices to their service or product. This is an effective way to keep content fresh and unique. Whether that’s a controlled message through a social media influencer, a celebrity spokesperson, or the face of the company, or an uncontrolled message through written or recorded customer testimonials, this approach adds intimacy and realness to the message.

I work with companies to align their social media efforts with their television, radio, and print efforts. We take a macro view of how your message enters and remains in the consumer’s mind. Today’s customer is a multi-channel consumer who may have entered your funnel through a search engine after seeing your product or service on TV, but it’s the repeated, unique touches online that generate sales and in the long run bring your customer engagement numbers to the next level.


Emerson TaymorEmerson Taymor

@etaymor

Emerson Taymor is the founder of Philosophie, a boutique software consulting company that helps companies build better software, faster. Between their offices in NYC, LA & SF they have shipped hundreds of digital experiences for clients that range from multinationals to early stage startups.

“The single best way to create an exceptional digital experience for customers is to…”

Talk to your end users every week. Digital experiences are ultimately built for the people who will use them on a day-to-day basis. While any product person may have many amazing ideas, the only way to know what ideas will resonate is by talking to your users frequently. Don’t be afraid to put something in their hands that is not 100% polished or finished. Ship often and get real feedback. Talking to 3-5 people a week will give you more insights then 10,000s of analytics or metrics. You can see what people love and what people hate and invest your resources accordingly.