In April, MediaGrowth Summit 2018 attendees heard from a number of industry-influencing thought leaders concerning issues that B2B media executives are facing.

Tara shared great ideas on how B2B media companies can improve users’ digital experiences.

Here are some of the tips she shared on how to improve and monetize users’ digital experiences:

1.    Understand your audience, inside and out.  Work with a customer data platform  to collect data on users – their likes and dislikes, and what causes them to spend time on a site or leave.  Winsight found that this enabled them to design more compelling and engaging digital experiences which increased Page Views Per Visit and the Time Spent on Site significantly.  

2.    A cultural shift is required.  The entire team must be metrics-driven.  Winsight created a Daily Traffic Diary that the entire team uses constantly to make decisions in real time based on data.  The diary includes daily site metrics, the top stories and newsletter click-through numbers.

Winsight also created dashboards for easy access to Google Analytics that help editors react to a weak day, spot trends, capitalize on a strong day, watch user behavior and be alerted to spiking stories for recirculation.

3.    Drive Recirculation.  Winsight identified stories that were viewed the most and included them in packages, grouped them in a resource module and placed them at the end of every article.  This increased Views Per Visit by .8 pages, a big gain for a small effort.

4.    Capitalize on Opportunities and Inspire Action. Winsight designs its brands’ sites to encourage sharing which taps into their users’ social networks; an audience they can’t reach directly.  Even small changes such as increasing the size and optimizing the location of sticky share buttons (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) have shown positive results.

5.    Make it clear where you want the user to go next.  Tara calls this path the “Linear Consumer Journey”.  Winsight has eliminated the right rail on their brands’ sites and uses Start Here and Read More buttons as well as other directions to lead users on the intended path and to take actions that will help the business overall.

6.    Data provides Predictive Intelligence for making recommendations to users.  Additional content can be recommended to users based on where they have visited and what they have read in the past.  Catch the user when they are most interested.  And take advantage of revenue opportunities by placing advertisers’ messages near highly engaging content.

7.    Test your digital products by using data to determine what your audience responds to.  The greatest thing about digital, Tara noted, is how quickly you can iterate and evolve. Try new things. Watch the metrics and respond and improve. It’s a constant, ongoing process.  

8.    Look for Inspiration.  UX designers are not afraid to learn from each other.  Get ideas and inspiration from other websites. If you like the experience as a user, that’s a great sign it’s working.

9.    Create a User Experience that is Beautiful and one that welcomes the user into the story.  Tara emphasized that research shows that 85% of consumers will make a decision about a brand based on their digital experience.  It’s our job to create premium, compelling products our audience will love.  

Winsight’s efforts have led to their receiving four 2018 Jesse H. Neal Awards including Best Website!

Thank you Tara!