We are committed to serving auctioneers as a trusted digital partner. We invest heavily in the industry, because we know that combining the right auctioneer technology and marketing toolkit with the most trusted online buying environment for bidders, enables auctioneers to maximize asset value and run successful online businesses.
We are starting a series of marketing guides to support auctioneers on everyday marketing needs and best practices.
If you have any questions or would like us to cover a certain topic, please feel free to send a note to your account manager and we will try to include it in a forthcoming guide.
What do “UI” and “UX” mean?
As auctioneers, when you conduct an auction online in any format (live, timed or live virtual) there are quite a few things to consider. The most crucial ingredients in generating sales are the online user interface “UI” and the user experience “UX” which focus on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, how they shop, their abilities, their limitations, and their satisfaction.
User Interface “UI” is the specific assets users interact with such as the typography or colors on your landing page. UI focuses more on the visual design of what the user sees, i.e. the color of the button or where to place the button on the page.
User Experience “UX” is the interaction and experience users have with your assets and services i.e. user’s interactions while purchasing from your auction, customer support, their experience at checkout and even their satisfaction with assets purchased.
To ensure the targeted audience converts to buyers we need to remove the barriers they may be facing. The only way to effectively remove barriers is to identify them!
In the illustration above – The photo on the left is an example of a UI; the colorful baby crib mobile that also plays music. The baby is the audience and the photo on the right is the UX. In this image we see the audience view of the colorful baby crib mobile; he is looking up at the rear ends of the animals displayed.
The takeaway – We may think a product is appealing and interactive but unless we understand the user experience “UX” it may not be as functional or useful to our target audience as we may have expected.
How does this affect me?
Well, in today’s over-saturated digital world, we are constantly bombarded with texts, tweets, push notifications, ads, FB posts, emails, updates and upgrades; the level of content we face each day is forcing us to become more selective about where we devote our attention, thus it is extremely important to ensure we stay aware of the bidder UI and UX. We need smart strategies tailored for our ideal audience who can be turned into registrants, bidders and ultimately buyers.
How do we do that?
Ask the right questions!
- Who is my ideal buyer?
- What is a “buyer persona”?
- Where should I market my auction?
- When do I need to notify bidders about my auction?
- Why should they choose me?
- How easy is it for them to find me?
We will answer each of these questions for you in the upcoming emails each month, make sure you keep up with this series of emails! If you miss one, reach out to your account manager and they will be delighted to share.