When a customer smiles in response to a salesperson’s pitch or gestures that they’re getting bored, these are important body language metrics. They give the salesperson an indication of how to proceed.
But these days up to 91% of Americans do a lot of their shopping online, and most other business and interactions, too. So how do you know whether your customers are satisfied, uninterested, curious to know more, or frustrated?
That’s where digital body language comes in. If you’re not quite sure what digital body language is, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading for a complete guide on what digital body language is, and how to use it to your advantage.
User Interaction on a Website or App
So, what is digital body language? This refers to any and all interactions that a user makes on a website or app. It includes where they click, how they hover on a page, each form they fill out, each webinar attended, and so much more.
It’s an attempt at understanding someone’s experience on a website or app—whether they were happy with it or not. By analyzing digital body language, everything people do online, you can get an understanding of online behavior, what people want, and what they’re looking for.
A salesperson uses facial expressions, gestures, and body postures to judge a customer’s satisfaction. Digital body language is the online version of this.
Every online gesture and the micro signal is a part of digital body language. For more information check out this article from decibel.com.
Why Is Digital Body Language Important?
Measuring and analyzing digital body language gives you important insight into user experience and satisfaction. When measured on a large scale, the findings can be used to improve user digital experience, which in turn boosts traffic, engagement, and revenue of a website or app.
Because digital body language gives insights into a user’s frustration, engagement, and confusion, you can see what works and what doesn’t and make the necessary adjustments. It’s the most authentic type of customer feedback and is invaluable for your website or app.
How to Use Digital Body Language to Your Advantage
There are a couple of amazing ways that your site can benefit by tracking digital body language. For example, if you use an email tracking tool you can see when a prospective client or subscriber has opened an email multiple times, or hasn’t opened any emails at all, or opens every email you send at least once.
What does this mean for you? This gives you insight into who you should be reaching out to and prioritizing, and who is a waste of time. You can also get a general overview of the most popular time that people open their emails and send your new content or newsletters at that time.
If you see a user spending a lot of time on your pricing page and visiting multiple times, you can assume they’re very price-conscious. This helps you prep emails or your meeting with this user. Perhaps by offering a deal or discount?
Digital body language also gives insights into how much a person knows about your website or brand. If they’ve visited every page and spent a lot of time reading your content, you can assume they are well-versed in your offerings. This will help you to prep for your meeting accordingly.
Depending on the type of website or social app you run and the type of service you offer, the benefits of digital body language are infinite. Start analyzing user behavior and see where there are gaps and opportunities for you to make the most of.
Important Metrics to Look Out For
If digital body language includes every single gesture that a user makes on the internet, how do you know which are important? Of course, there are some that will be unique to your business. But there are a couple of places to start.
We’ve already briefly discussed email behavior. If a prospect opens your email, they’re indicating interest and you should keep communicating.
If they click a link in an email, they’re curious about what you’ve sent them and likely want to know a bit more. This gives you an opportunity to invite them to engage on a deeper level. If they don’t engage, you should follow up.
Mouse reading behavior is a useful metric. It gives you information about your user’s responses to different messaging and helps you identify what they notice first on a page.
If someone comments frequently on social media it tells you that they’re interested in expressing their experiences and opinions. This makes them a good candidate to invite to share a story on your blog.
If you’ve created a Facebook event and people click ‘interested’ this is a good indication that they are interested in the event but the timing or location isn’t suitable.
Depending on the amount of ‘interested’ invitees, you may want to review the date or location or invite those interested to follow your social channels or visit your website.
There are plenty of different digital metrics to look at. It all depends on your goals. Define your site goals and then think about the customer behaviors that are most optimum for reaching those goals.
Body Language Isn’t Dead: It’s Just Digital
As more and more aspects of our lives move online, it’s important to keep up-to-date with the more useful metrics and tools to grow your website and business. Digital body language is important as it gives you critical insight into your user’s engagement, frustration, and satisfaction.
You can then use this information to chase leads, convert sales, optimize your site and grow your business.
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