Know what your web users want before they ask for it.

What draws users to a website? It’s a question that many brands and marketers ask themselves each and every day. Though, we have to admit it’s not the right question to be asking. We should be wondering what influences users to engage with our websites. After all, without action, they’re all just eyes on a page. Luckily for us, the answer to both questions is the same. It’s relevancy. If your site isn’t relevant to the users’ needs, they won’t visit it. If what your site is offering isn’t relevant, they won’t take action. So, let’s take a look at 5 steps we can all follow to build relevancy and convey it to the right audiences.

1. Sprinkle Breadcrumbs

The first step in the process is showing users you exist. This can be done through any combination of social media, banner ads, SEO or off-line tactics to raise awareness for your site. Simply put, if the audience doesn’t know you exist, they’ll never have a chance to visit. Of course, you can’t just put any information out there. You have to offer it up in the right context. This allows everyone to see they’re on the right track for what they’re looking for.

 The second part of this step is to build a great landing page. If you drive these interested users to your site and immediately turn them off with a bad homepage, all of that work was for naught. Be sure to highlight the most relevant portions of the site and provide users with enough persuasive information that it drives them to dig even further.

2. Influence, Influence, Influence

You have to get to know your target audience and adapt to their ever-changing needs. What they were looking for yesterday might be completely different from what they are looking for today. You must always be in tune with the goals of the audience and ensure you’re helping them take the necessary steps to get there. A great way to achieve this is through influence. If you are able to build meaningful relationships with these users, you can influence them to tell you more about their wants and needs. In turn, you can then use your tactics to better influences others like them, who still aren’t sure about your product or brand.

3. Build an Experience

You want users to know they made a good decision by coming to your site. This starts with utilizing similar copy on both your site and your ads. It will immediately ease the stress and anxiety of visiting a new site and let them know they’ve landed in the right place. From there, you need to keep the audience engaged by giving them multiple reasons to stay there and visit again and again. This can be done in a variety of ways—such as videos, games, dynamic content, social streams, contests, etc.—but it’s all dependent on what your users are looking for.

4. Pull the Trigger

Words Trigger words are a representation of the user’s thoughts. Therefore, if you sprinkle them throughout your site, they’ll immediately begin to feel more at ease with their decision, because a connection has been made on an entirely different level. Of course, you can’t just bombard these individuals with a slew of loaded words. You need to ease them in amongst the highly relevant content you’ve established within the previous steps. This allows them to flow naturally into the content provided, rather than feel as if they were shoehorned in.

5. Deliver a Good Design

Curiosity and satisfaction are not mutual. Just because you’re able to draw a pair of eyes to your site doesn’t mean they want to be there or that they’ll ever come back again. If you’ve done every other step correctly, you’re almost there. The final step you have to take is delivering a design that’s intuitive and easy-to-use. Without the right functionality or visual cues, the audience can still end up feeling lost or overwhelmed with the site, regardless of the information provided.

As with any site, a successful one is created through a combination of talent and knowledge. These 5 steps are a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to drawing the right audience in and delivering what they’re looking for. Yet, when they are coupled with the talents of an accomplished digital agency, you have the power to build an online presence and personality that go far beyond the page.