Is your website attracting the right visitors?

3 top tips on how to target your website to customers who want your product or service.

It’s no secret that your website is one of your most important marketing tools. And a great website doesn’t have to cost the earth. But there are a few basics you need to get right.

The first one is working out who your customers or audience really is. And the second is working out how best to target them.

Years ago businesses used to have hard copy product catalogues and customers would leaf through them. These customers would figure out what they wanted or talk to the shop assistant about what product best suited their purpose.

That’s old school and doesn’t happen anymore. Instead, that process happens when your prospective customers or clients visit your website. If our website is well-designed and easy to use, you’ll get customers and sales. If it isn’t, customers will go elsewhere, and you’ll miss out on business.

A good web developer and copywriter can help you with all of this. But if you have a clear idea about what you need and who your customers are, the web developer and copywriter can do a better job for you.

The very first step in creating a website, is to know who your audience is.

1. Who is your audience?

Let me begin by giving you an example. There’s a young, talented graphic designer in Fremantle. Let’s call her Eliza. She’s currently got a simple website that she hopes will appeal to potential clients so she can build up a freelance clientele while she’s still working for her current employer.

Her website’s not bad. But she’s put it together from her perspective, about her and what she can do.

I asked her who she thought her audience is. Her answer: anyone who wants freelance graphic design. But I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think BHP or even a Claremont (read Burnside or Terrigal) ladies' clothing store would want this young designer working for them even though I’m sure she’d do a great job.

(If you run a business that has several distinct clienteles or audiences, an option is to have separate landing pages, each tailored to a specific audience. But I’ll leave that idea for another time.)

So, who is Eliza’s audience and potential clientele? Who is she most likely going to get work from? I think she should focus on Western Australian businesses (although we can all work remotely now, Western Australians are still going to prefer a local designer) and small start-up businesses owned by Gen Ys and Gen Zs with a small budget.

2. Knowing your audience impacts everything on your website

Once you have worked out who your target audience is, and having a narrow target audience is best (because it’s hard to be all things to all people), you or your web developer, designer and copywriter can tailor the whole website’s look and feel to that audience.

This is done through the colours and images used, the tone of voice of the copy and what the pages contain.

Remember that idea that one picture can tell a thousand words? Here’s an example of how that can work on a website. Every business website needs a profile picture of the owner, so if Eliza uses a picture of herself at Cottesloe Beach, she immediately appeals to West Australians, Gen Ys and Gen Zs who are of a similar age (read: she’s my age so she’ll be able to relate to me) and value work-life balance. This image can affect whether BHP, a ladies' clothing store or a start up by a young couple are likely to take her on.

If you target your website exactly at what your clients want, you’ll get fewer, high value visitors who are more likely to convert.

3. Do your research and you’ll end up with a better product

If you spend some time researching your audience and what they like and want, and include this in the brief (the description of what you want for your website) that you provide to you web developer, designer and copywriter, you will get a better product.

Include examples from other sites that you like and align with your audience (they don’t have to be for the same product and they can even be from competitors).

Getting clear on who your customers or audience are, is the first step in getting a good website. And a good website is the first step in a growing business.

#copywriting #webcopy #brief #images #pictures #research #marketingtools #audience #customers