It's Not Just About Looking Good: An Introduction to User Experience and Why it Matters

August 25, 2025

Sarah owns “The Linden Collective,” a chic clothing boutique in the heart of Old Town Fort Collins. She poured her heart, soul and a significant amount of money into her website. A freelance graphic designer created a beautiful site with artistic photos, elegant fonts and a minimalist vibe that perfectly matches her store.

There’s just one problem: it isn’t working.

The site gets visitors, but online sales are flat. Customers come into the store saying they couldn’t easily find her address online. Others didn’t even realize she had an online shop because the “Shop” button was hidden in a clever but confusing menu. Sarah has a website that looks good, but it doesn't perform. It’s a beautiful storefront with a tricky, hard-to-open door.

This is one of the most common frustrations for business owners. It’s the gap between aesthetics and effectiveness. It’s the reason we need to talk about User Experience (UX).

What is user experience (and why it matters more than you think)?

User Experience, or UX, is simply the overall feeling a person has when they interact with your website. Is it easy? Is it intuitive? Is it frustrating? Does it help them accomplish their goal or does it get in their way?

Think about it from a local perspective. It's a sunny Monday afternoon and you're looking for a brewery with a dog-friendly patio. You land on the website for a local spot and it’s gorgeous—full of artistic shots of gleaming beer tanks. But you can't find their hours. You click around, scroll up and down and still can't find a simple tap list. After 30 seconds of frustration, you hit the "back" button and click on the next result.

That feeling of frustration? That’s bad UX. And it’s killing businesses every day.

Focusing on good UX isn't just about being nice to your visitors; it's a critical business strategy.

It lowers your bounce rate: When a website is confusing, people leave. This "bounce" tells Google that your site wasn't a good answer to their search.
It increases your conversions: A clear, easy and frictionless path to purchasing a product or filling out a contact form means more sales and more leads. No one will buy from you if they can't figure out how to do it.
It improves your SEO: Google's algorithm rewards sites that provide a great user experience. When people stay on your site longer (dwell time), view more pages and interact with your content, Google takes these as strong positive signals. A good user experience is a core component of Google's Page Experience ranking factors.

The Marketing 360 approach: Designing for humans, not just for looks

This is where the distinction between a graphic designer and a UX specialist becomes critical. A graphic designer’s job is to make things look beautiful. A UX specialist’s job is to make things work beautifully for a human user. At Marketing 360, our design team is composed of UX specialists.

We design every website with a mobile-first, conversion-focused approach.

Mobile-first because the majority of your customers are likely visiting your site from their phone. The experience must be seamless on a small screen.
Conversion-focused because a business website isn't just a digital brochure; it's a tool designed to generate revenue.

This philosophy translates into clear navigation that’s easy to tap, text that’s easy to read, buttons that are easy to press and a logical flow that guides the user from their entry point to their goal. We build digital spaces that help your user win, which in turn helps your business win.

Zooming in: The anatomy of a high-converting landing page

Nowhere is good UX more important than on a landing page. This is a single, focused page built to receive traffic from a specific ad campaign. Its only job is to get a visitor to take one specific action.

Let's imagine Sarah from The Linden Collective is running a Facebook ad for a "Summer Dress Sale." A user clicks the ad. What should they see?

A compelling headline: Not just "Dresses." It should match the ad: “Your Perfect Summer Dress Awaits | 25% Off This Week Only.” It’s clear, benefit-driven and creates urgency.
An engaging hero image: A stunning, high-quality photo or a short video of a model looking happy and stylish in one of the dresses.
Benefit-oriented copy: Don’t just list features. Sell the feeling. Instead of “100% Cotton,” try “Lightweight, breathable fabrics to keep you cool and stylish through the hot Fort Collins summer.”
Powerful social proof: A few five-star reviews from real customers, right there on the page. “I got so many compliments on this dress! It’s my new favorite.” This builds instant trust.
An unmissable call-to-action (CTA): This is the button you want them to click. It needs to stand out with a contrasting color. The text shouldn’t be a boring “Submit.” It should be an exciting action: “Shop the Sale Now” or “Claim My 25% Off.”

The Marketing 360 advantage: Turning clicks into customers, seamlessly

Building a page with all these elements might sound complicated, but the Marketing 360 platform is designed to make it simple. Our tools are built for business owners and marketers, not coders.

You can easily build, test and duplicate high-converting landing pages for all your campaigns. Want to see if a different headline works better? You can run an A/B test. Need a page for your new fall collection? Duplicate your summer page and swap out the content in minutes.

But the real game-changer is the integration. When a visitor fills out a lead form on a Marketing 360 landing page, their information doesn't get lost in an email inbox or a messy spreadsheet. It's automatically captured in our built-in CRM. From there, you can add them to a follow-up list or trigger an automated email welcome series. This seamless flow from click to lead to nurtured customer is what turns a good landing page into a powerful, revenue-generating machine.

Is your website beautiful but underperforming? It’s time to focus on the experience. Let's build a website that doesn't just look good—it converts. Get started today.