Focus Your Web Efforts on Your Target Audience

Feb 15, 2003 -- Your target audience should drive almost every aspect of your site. Just as with a marketing campaign, focusing your Web efforts on a target audience increases your success rate. You should know precisely who you want to visit your site: customers, prospects, the sales force or investors?

All of them have different needs.

Customers want you to convince them to buy from you again. They seek accurate, easy-to-understand information about your products or services, quick resolutions to problems, want to know when their order will be delivered or have a complaint or compliment.

Prospects want information about why they should buy your product or service. Every element of your site should tell them this or help them find the information they're after.

The sales force wants whatever it takes to help them sell your product or services: up-to-date market, competitor and technical information; pricing; business procedures; sample proposals; upcoming trade show listings... Put this information on a password-protected site or intranet.

Investors want to know why they should invest in your business. Your site — from its navigation to its writing — must convince them they should.

To ensure your target audience drives your site, develop a concise description of your audience. For example, here's one for customers of an Internet-based business selling socks direct from the manufacturer:

My customers are 30- to 60-year old U.S.-based golfers interested in buying sports socks with advanced technical features and quality yarns for 50 percent less than the retail price.

Now, let's turn that into a sentence (or two) that describes the business's target customer on the Web:

My Web customers are 30- to 60-year old U.S.-based golfers who read golf magazines and surf the Web for tasteful golf humor and refreshingly honest points of view about the game. They are interested in buying sports socks with advanced technical features and quality yarns for 50 percent less than the retail price.

This statement is now your guide to:

* Designing your site (humor and opinion)
* Selecting the merchandise to sell online (sports socks)
* Choosing media that drives traffic to your site (golf magazines)

Your customers, prospects, sales force or investors decide if your business makes money. They decide if your site is worth visiting a second, third or fourth time. And they either pay your salary or cost you your salary.

They yield a lot of power, and the surest way to arouse and hold their attention is by providing easily navigated content that keeps 'em coming back.

Questions or comments? feedback@i-genuity.com

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About The Author

Mary A. Sicard is president of i-Genuity, the Click-Here Strategy and Services firm in Augusta, Georgia.

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