The ROI of content design: how better words save money 

Page last updated: 19 December 2025

Contents

Pair narrative with product experience 

Everyone talks about creating the perfect app experience, but delivering it is rarely as straightforward. With a range of limitations, such as timelines and budgets, experiences can mistakenly focus on what gives users the greatest visual impact rather than real value-add. 

The problem with such an approach is that no matter a product's visuals, a disjointed flow can negatively impact the experience. A disjointed flow can result from elements such as inconsistent messaging or an unstructured information architecture (IA). These poorly designed elements can lead to user frustration, lost conversions and increased support needs.  

That’s where content design comes in. When done well, it builds within business constraints to shape clarity and ensure the narrative pairs with the overall experience. Combined with a content strategy that aligns teams and plans for scale, language shifts to being a driver of operational efficiency. Language improves overall content performance and reduces user confusion.  

Injecting storytelling elements into products 

Every digital experience tells a story. Each message and interaction is part of an ongoing conversation with your users, serving as a moment within a broader brand narrative.

A strong narrative gives context to every step, weaving discovery, decision and reassurance into one coherent journey. Even a simple confirmation message can bring a sense of closure and intent. A message can leave users with a feeling that the experience had their interest at heart.
  
Additionally, a strong narrative helps optimise content marketing performance, since every message is geared to reinforce brand memory.

Each experience is a chance to reinforce your brand and its values. You’re not simply building a singular journey, but a brand conversation with the user. 

 Action

Map the emotional and informational flow of your product and align messages to support it. 

 ROI markers

Stronger brand recall, higher repeat engagement and improved customer loyalty.   

Keeping content simple

The golden rule of a good experience is to reduce cognitive load. Every user enters your product with a finite amount of patience. Every re-read or pause to interpret meaning erodes that patience. Too many issues, and users leave.  

Simplifying how you inform your users can reduce product drop-off rates. To keep your content simple, you can review your product’s flows and replace technical details with guidance. 

The temptation to impress with jargon can be tempting, but your users are already here. And guidance, not fanfare, is what they require.   

For example, rather than spotlighting your patented technology in the onboarding flow, explain what you need from users to begin and why it’s crucial.  

Clear messages can strengthen overall user journeys. Stronger journeys reduce case escalations and bounce rates. 

 Action

Rewrite jargon-heavy microcopy with user-tested plain language. 

 ROI markers

Faster task completion, fewer input errors and lower support escalations.  

Remove friction points

What creates friction

While simplicity focuses on what users read, friction impedes how they move. Every miss-click or moment of hesitation adds an invisible strain that could lead to friction. When we talk about friction in a product sense, we refer to things like abandoned journeys or backtracking through an IA.  

A user’s journey is never simply a path from the shop page to the checkout. It’s a sequence of decisions and deliberations that, for the business, also serves as a brand-building exercise.  

Each pathway should lead a user to where they need to be and add unique value. For example, does your support section really help the user, or does it throw the book at them and ask them to work it out themselves?   

Identifying friction

Collaborate with data teams to identify where users stall or change actions. These are your points of user friction. Use these identified points as the focus of your improvement efforts.  

Audit the copy at those forks. Look at content in both isolation and as part of a holistic experience to determine what’s causing the friction. Is it an action that users don’t understand or is it an odd placement of a button that users can’t find?  

Removing friction

Designing for a consistent flow without friction means using active language that gives users confidence to make decisions.  

Buttons, labels and instructions should match the user’s mindset on that page. For example, understand what the users needs to achieve, what they may be unsure about, and the reassurance they might need next. Use simple content to guide the user at every step.  

Ways to better guide users, include: 
  • build clearer signposts
  • use active language
  • break content into clear steps
  • reduce the words on the page
  • write in plain language and explain complex concepts
  • create a consistent information architecture
  • use UI elements consistently
  • apply a writing framework for UI components, so content has rules and boundaries.
For any changes you make, record the before and after results or conduct an A/B content test. Tracking content performance enables you to see if there is a positive return for your efforts. 

Reducing friction isn’t simply about getting a user through one task. It’s about creating an experience so seamless that they instinctively return when they need to do it again. 

 Action

Review user journeys for points of difficulty and second-guessing. Simplify content to smooth the process.

 ROI markers

Higher completion rates, reduced abandonment, shorter time-on-task.

Build a structured content approach

When a team of content designers works across multiple product streams, variation is inevitable. Writing styles, tones and even the phrasing of the same action will naturally differ. While content individuality can add character, users must reorient themselves with every shift, something which creates a fragmented brand experience.  

Content standardisation tightens the brand by building content scaffolding that everyone can use. It gives teams a guidepost to work off. 

Content scaffolding includes: 
  • tone guidelines
  • approved terminology lists
  • reusable page and UI templates 
  • content principles
  • content writing frameworks.
Additionally, systemising core content elements fosters creativity. Reducing repetitive decision-making allows teams to focus on what actually needs innovation. It also improves content performance measurement, since consistency makes it easier to apply content analytics metrics across the product.  

For example, when writing an error message, instead of starting from scratch every time, create a list of pre-approved content for recurring scenarios. In this case, the content designer can focus their attention on more complex content challenges. 

A consistent content approach helps content designers create familiar content experiences that build user trust and confidence. 

 Action

Create a cross-functional content framework with templates and shared language resources.

 ROI markers

Reduced editing cycles, faster delivery, lower localisation or rework costs.

Prevent, don't just help

User problems rarely appear out of nowhere. They usually surface because something earlier in the experience wasn’t communicated clearly. When multiple users ask the same question, it’s a clear sign that clarity is lacking at some point in the journey. 

Support data can be used to refine content performance through real user pain points, as support and data teams can help identify and trace recurring queries to their source. For example, were the instructions unclear or a mislabel that caused 10 password reset queries?  

To fix the root cause for future users with proactive content, you can use: 
  • clearer form field labels
  • tooltips
  • progress cues
  • modals.
Just be careful not to content creep. Prevention isn’t about just adding more instructions. It’s adding the right guidance at the right time. 

 Action

Use support logs to inform microcopy and help surface issues in key flows.

 ROI markers

Lower ticket volumes, shorter resolution time and improved satisfaction.

Design a personalised experience

Personalisation isn’t about adding a name to an email. It’s about context. By collaborating with data and lifecycle teams, you can help shape experiences that adapt to users. It’s not about building one generic journey, but about deeply understanding your users and surfacing information based on their data, situations, and previous experiences.   

Look for behavioural signals such as what users click or skip, where they slow down. New users may need step-by-step guidance, while returning users may need shortcuts or timely nudges.  

Strategic personalisation keeps your product front of mind, reducing drop-off and strengthening retention. Cross-analysing content marketing analytics with user behaviour can also help reveal what truly matters to users.

 Action

Partner with data teams to design adaptive content variations for key behaviours.

 ROI markers

Higher engagement per session across different demographics, lower churn, and increased lifetime value.

Relevance saves time and money

Clear, intentional content makes products easier to use. From a business standpoint, products are cheaper to run. When language guides and anticipates user needs, teams spend less time fixing issues and more time improving the experience.  

Extending those practices into a strategy scales its impact, shifting from singular flows to holistic brand conversations with users.   

In fact, the ROI of content design can be simply put as: 
  • clarity that compounds
  • better content performance builds better experiences
  • better experiences keep users coming back.
When content design techniques are applied, users move through product experiences faster and with confidence. This in turn saves businesses the cost of re-earning attention, fixing friction and padding support teams.

Calculate the ROI of your content

Learn how to:
  • Define ROI by understanding what it means in the context of your content.
  • Apply formulas to measure ROI, including how to track costs, conversions and long-term value.
  • Use tools to track content ROI over time and demonstrate the value of your content efforts.
Mark Chapman
Author bio
Mark Chapman is a UX Strategist and Conversation Designer.

In recent years, Mark has turned his focus toward the ethical impact of AI on conversational design. He explores how generative technology intersects with content strategy.
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