How mapping out good lead-ins support great business results

Website update for Spaced Magazine

Summary

With the roll out of a new product around the corner, Spaced Magazine was in need of strong lead-ins to guide users from the main website to the new product’s landing page. The founder (client) asked for assets to add to the existing website that would nudge users to learn more about the new product and ultimately subscribe without being too intrusive and annoying to the users’ experience. Integrating the right lead-ins on the website drove strong results.

Role
Lead UX designer, worked in all stages with focus on visual design, user flow and copywriting

Scope
Competitive research, ideation, user flows, visual design, copywriting

Skills
Figma, user research, copywriting

Team
Founder, secondary designer, marketer and development team

The challenge

The client’s website needed to upgrade lead-in assets to:

  • Gain member subscriptions

  • Clearly communicate the new product’s launch and purpose

  • Further support marketing efforts

Based on user research, users generally disliked interrupted web experiences, and strongly disliked intrusive notifiers that were hard to remove or exit out of. The website was in need of lead-ins that were:

  1. Easily noticed and recognized

  2. Clear in CTA

  3. Not nuisances

Why are we doing this? (value)

  • Increase the number of membership subscribers

  • Attract and gain more donors and partnerships

  • Clearly communicate the opportunities with new product

  • Better understand how to successfully reach audience (newsletter, pop-ups, etc.)

Our hypothesis was that, if we create motifs/assets that are impactful and not disruptive to the user experience, then:

  • Users will be able to successfully navigate to the new product’s landing page 

  • Users will be enticed to learn about the new product and subscribe

  • Users will not feel frustrated and thus be turned off from learning more about the new product and services

  • Potential partners and donors will be interested in contributing to the business growth opportunities through Spaced Magazine

Considerations and constraints

  • I was tasked to lead the project from conception to implementation on a tight deadline with various time zone differences

Solution

By converging the client’s brand and asks with our survey results, we decided to move forward with the following lead-in assets to gain member subscriptions, clearly communicate the new product’s launch and purpose, and further support marketing efforts:

Pre-header banner:

Implementing a pre-header banner as the first touch point with our users helps to prompt engagement and support message recollection

Pop ups:

Implementing effective pop ups based on user feedback further supports higher yield in conversion rates and engagement

Reminder icon:

Users are give the opportunity to revisit pop ups at any time as pop ups don’t have to be dismissed forever

Footer button:

A lead-in was added in to the footer as a final engagement point

Impact:

  • Average CTR of 54%

  • 48% pop up engagement rate

  • Membership subscription hit over 500 in the first 30 days of launch

Next steps:

  • Implement embedded messages and touch points on other pages of the website

  • Review CTRs, engagement rates and CVRs to see if there’s room for improvement to reach higher rates

Key learnings:

  • Time and resource limitations forced me to focus on what could be done and use the information in front of me to drive quick solutions

  • Upsetting a user is never ideal but sometimes you have to get “in their face” at least once to get your message across