5 benefits when you hire a UX writer
5 benefits when you hire a UX writer
Want a customer-centric brand? A user-centric product or a personalized campaign? Then hire a UX writer!
This seems to be the buzz advice in the digital world today. And with the big guys like Google taking the lead, other businesses want to follow suit but don’t even know why they should hire a UX writer. Let’s find out.
Imagine It’s a beautiful Monday morning; you’re set to listen to your favorite motivational podcast. You open your phone’s music app, and weirdly no words appear on the interface. Must be a network glitch.” You think, “I guess I’ll just listen while commuting.”
You’re ready to commute. You click open the taxi app. Again, the interface is devoid of text. “This is becoming frustrating” you’re confused, helpless, and running late for work.
Screenshot of Apple music’s screen without interface text displayed at the WWDC22, writing for interface
This is your product without UX copy, an interface where clarity is evicted and confusion resides. A no-go area or land of no return.
It’s frustrating, right? I think so too, and so do Apple, Google, Facebook, and other companies hiring UX writers.
Here are 5 benefits you’ll enjoy when you hire a UX writer on your team.
1. Hire a UX writer to humanize your product and guide users to action
Regardless of what it’s called these days; UX copywriting, UX writing, or product writing, it’s evident that words matter in design, hence the buzz.
We all agree that our days are nearly incomplete without performing certain tasks on our apps, like setting the alarm, creating a to-do list, and listening to our favorite music.
A UX writer writes the copy on these apps and websites, which allows you to complete these tasks seamlessly.
You see this copy on buttons, menu options, instructions, etc. Though micro in nature – these pieces of text produce powerful results.
Particularly, this was the case when Google replaced the phrase “Book a room” with “Check availability” on their hotel search feature, which led to a 17% increase in engagement, according to Maggie Stanphill, Senior UX writer at Google, during Google I/O 2017.
Screenshots of Google hotel search results.
2. A UX writer interprets research into impactful language
UX writers are trained researchers, which benefits the product team in many ways.
One is providing the right words at the right time through conversation mining. Here UX writers dig deeper into publicly available resources to source language that resonates more with the product’s target users.
Product teams can further leverage these insights to interpret and understand analytics better.
For example, a product team may find their app experiencing a low “sign-up” rate during onboarding.
Without a UX writer, the first point of call may be to try to solve the problem with a larger and more visible button.
In contrast, a UX writer knows that using an unfamiliar button label may frustrate users and lead to low conversions. To fix this, a UX writer employs proper techniques in researching and comparing users’ language preferences to improve the CTA, as seen in the picture below.
Comparing actionable terms using Google Trends
Looking at the picture above, it may seem easy, but it’s not. The wrong word can ruin a user’s experience, which will cost time and resources to fix. So why not hire a UX writer from the onset?
UX writers are trained to use data to inform word choices, or as John Saito, Senior Product Designer at Lattice, puts it, we design words with data.
3. A UX writer boosts the efficiency of your Product Designer.
UX writing and UX design are subsets of user experience ( UX ) but are not the same. Think of them as cousins instead of siblings.
Both solve user problems but with different approaches. UX writers focus on creating a conversation between the product and the user – think content strategy, written words, brand voice, tone, etc.
In contrast, product designers design a space for this conversation – think interface design, visual hierarchy, typography, colors, etc.
I doubt if one person can be proficient in all these key areas. For instance, earlier, we saw the product team without a User Experience writer and their challenge. Their first point of call was to increase or brighten the button because that’s the primary focus of a UX designer.
Even if some designers can write, they’d pick pushing pixels over punctuation any day.
Don’t take only my word for it:
Add to the fact that according to Indeed’s employee burnout report, 52% of all workers feel burned out. It’s clear product designers also expected to write UX copy are struggling because multitasking reduces productivity by 40%. 40%!.
So if you want to stand out in a saturated market of over 8.93 million mobile apps, tasking your product designer to write UX copy is no longer an option. If you want them to be effective or stay long-term, hire a UX writer.
4. Hire a UX writer for effective communication
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Maya Angelou
Some people undermine the value of UX writing. After all, recent apps and websites follow minimalist designs, so how much writing do you need?
The fact that people think of it this way is a job well done by UX writers. After all, when your product sounds human, the reader doesn’t notice it. This is the paradox of creativity at its finest, which writer and blogger, David Perell, defines as ” a well-done work looks so simple that the consumer thinks they could’ve done it.”
Good UX copy feels natural and friendly. But this is no wave wand magic. Product copy is often short, concise, precise, and convincing in very few words; accomplishing this takes years of practice.
Again, don’t take only my word for it.
Similarly, JamesClear – author of Atomic Habits, puts it as follows: Usually, the better someone does their job, the easier it looks. You rarely realize how hard it is until you try it yourself.
Let’s put that into practice. Try translating this error message into a human-readable language.
No cheating. I’ll access your copy at the end of this article.
5. A UX writer increases your customer lifetime value ( CLV) and reduce your cost of acquiring new ones (CAC)
According to Wikipedia:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)is the cost of winning a customer to purchase a product or service.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a calculation of the net amount of money a customer spends throughout a relationship with your business.
Think about all the copy a company needs to get someone’s attention, build a relationship, move them to purchase and keep them satisfied even after the purchase.
Yet 88% of online shoppers would be hesitant to return if they had one bad experience. Thus, prioritizing UX copy is essential for improving customer retention for a better CLV. But it’s not that simple.
Before writing a word, a UX copywriter wears the hat of the business and its users. And then draws the customer/user journey map to identify their needs and, like a thoughtful host, anticipates the guests (the users’) arrival with the right words (solution)at the right time for the right action.
This type of thoughtful UX copy makes users loyal fans of the experience, thus increasing their lifetime value to the business. They even go further in telling their friends about the experience without any marketing efforts from you, thus reducing your cost of acquiring new customers.
This brings us to building a recognizable brand tone and voice.
6. A UX Writer builds your brand voice.
Every brand wants to be recognized, unique, and consistent, and UX writers are responsible for making this possible through written content.
A UX writer knows when to adapt your brand voice and tone in its recognizable personality at different stages of the experience so users can quickly identify it.
People are more loyal to organizations they recognize, which can save delicate moments.
Whether you’re trying to persuade a user not to unsubscribe or redirect a stuck user on a 404 error page, UX copy with the right voice creates an emotional connection with your users.
Remember our little quiz in number 3? How’s this for a more on-brand and human error message?
So, over to you. How did you perform? You can send me your copy privately; let’s see on a scale of 1 – 10 how badly you should hire a UX writer.
Don’t feel bad if you’re not proud of your copy. For one, you’re not a UX copywriter; secondly, brand tone and voice are vast topics many people find conflicting. I’d address these in another article; for now, you can read this case study on the Impact of Tone of Voice on Users’ Brand Perception.
Too busy to read?
Here are a few popular brands with a recognizable voice to inspire you, or you could just hire a UX writer to save your time and effort.
- Google’s voice is casual, natural, and approachable.
- Apple’s voice conveys quality, intimacy, and confidence.
- Coca-Cola’s voice is positive, friendly, and down-to-earth.
- Starbucks’ voice is evocative, direct, and joyful.
Love them or not, we can all agree that these three brands have a tremendous number of fans because of the experience they deliver; that’s what the right tone and voice will do for you with the help of a UX writer.
So, what’s your brand voice? Only one way to find out.
Conclusion
Just like you wouldn’t want your favorite digital products void of guidance, as we saw at the beginning of this article, you know who else wouldn’t? Your users.
When users can use your product with ease and trust, it builds lifelong loyalty that can stand competitors, as we see with Google, Apple, Coca-cola, and Starbucks, which ultimately boils down to communication.
Harvard Business Review explains better in this article how a company is only as good as its writing.
The rise of UX writers is still in early bloom, and now is the time to hire a UX Writer before your competitor does.
Do contact me if you need a UX writer who can bring these values and much more to your product team.
By the way, how’s this for a music screen with text?
Screencaptures of Apple music’s screen with interface text displayed at the WWDC22, writing for interface
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I’m Katherine Igiezele
A UX writer and SEO copywriter. I create copy that helps products engage with users and search engines for conversions. Want copy that users and Google would love? Get in touch.
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6 thoughts on “5 benefits when you hire a UX writer”
This is a valuable post. I love how relatable it is, coupled with the simplified mode of delivery.
Thank you. I’m glad you got value.
Such a joy to read your blog post. I learnt something new. Thanks Kat
Thank you, Chi. I’m happy to hear that.
This makes a lot of sense… I got value
Glad to hear that!