March 2nd, 2009
by Kate McMillan
When you’re building a company and its web presence, you should always ask yourself who you’re targeting. And if the answer you come up with is long, detailed and involved, you need to prioritize. Which of these people are most important? If the answer is that they’re all equally important, you likely have a problem.
The old saying, “You can make some of the people happy some of the time or none of the people happy none of the time. but you can’t make all of the people happy all of the time,” is completely true.
The tough love here is that if you build a website for everyone, it will appeal to no one.
It’s critical to focus on your audience and optimize your content and design for them. This doesn’t mean you should ignore the wider group of users; your site should be accessible and inclusive, but its primary goal is to grow your business to those who are most likely to participate in your business.
A common pitfall is that companies sometimes focus on creating a website that appeals to themselves and their colleagues. Often, these websites don’t tailor to the target user at all. The result is an inappropriate design that caters to company employee’s personal preferences, and content that makes sense only to those who work there. Too often designs that would otherwise hit the mark with the target user are rejected for the wrong reason (eg: because the boss “doesn’t like orange.”)
A sound investment in a web solution is focused on the target user. Make the time to get to know who that is and what they want, not just in your products and services, but from your web presence. Don’t sacrifice liking your web presence, just be sure the first question you ask yourself when making decisions about it is, “will this delight our users?”
Web Marketing Therapy Related Links:
- Marketing Success Begins with YOU…Ready to Own It?
- Your web designer is not entitled to a link at the footer of your site
- Sign Up Forms
- Why Small Businesses Should Fire Their Yellow Page Ads and Invest in Online Marketing
Web Marketing Therapy » Blog Archive » Business Success: Questions for Boosting Your “CUSTOMER I.Q.”
(March 29th, 2009 at 10:38 am)
[...] and desires. How can you further target and meet your customers’ needs today and tomorrow? Target your messages, target your website. Explore your market and use the internet for research and feedback. Do you target and meet the [...]