Design for a Target Audience
Dear Cricket,
I have a question. When a person builds a website or has a website built for them, I have seen different templates for that. My question is: Should the template reflect you as a person or what you are selling? For instance, I love gardening and I love the water, but I don’t sell those types of things.
I’m just so blank on this website idea. I’ve looking into getting it done by someone but it seems to cost a lot, and for me to create it, well let’s say I have a hard time sitting down to a computer after working on a computer for 8 hours.
Cathy Schroeder, Wisconsin
2Tempting2resist
Hi Cathy!
Although your own personality is bound to come across in your work, the design you choose for your website should reflect your target audience, rather than you or even necessarily the products you provide. Let me explain what I mean by that.
Let’s say for a moment that I sell motorcycles. This product is marketed to a few very distinct target audiences. Based on the inventory I carry, I need to decide whether I am targeting traditional bikers or motorcycle enthusiasts in general.
Overall, motorcycle enthusiasts tend to be a group of professionals that happen to enjoy riding motorcycles. Often times, they are more likely to purchase a touring motorcycle. Overall research seems to show that the average motorcycle enthusiast feels most comfortable in professional dealership surroundings. To help me get a feel for this, I would likely go visit a few professional dealerships both on and offline.
On the other hand, traditional bikers tend to leans toward a smaller Mom and Pop type business and more classic biker colors. They may also account for a large volume of sales in custom built motorcycles.
Again, I need to research the surroundings that this target audience is more comfortable shopping in. I will read popular biker magazines, visit a few relevant online forums, and maybe even spend an afternoon at a bike rally watching vendors and their interaction with the bikers.
Occasionally you may find that your target audience encompasses a few traits that initially seem to conflict. Using the example above, perhaps my inventory includes motorcycles traditionally marketed to both of these audiences. In this situation I need to find a way to combine all of this information into one design.
A few years back, I faced this very challenge when working with the Motorcycles Etc. website, owned by Johnny Holloway. I was able to find a way to use a classic white background for content, which is more closely associated with a professional business site, while still including more vivid colors often associated with bikers in general.
After that, the key to success for that website was lots of high quality, detailed pictures and tons of bulleted lists of motorcycle specifications.
Give your target audience what they are looking for, in the surroundings that they are the most comfortable in.
This concept can be used with any website, marketing any product or service, but it all starts with getting to know your target audience.
If you sell maternity clothes, you still need to know who is most likely to buy from you, based on your specific inventory available. The obvious answer is pregnant women, but that would likely be far too general in most cases. Are your clothes designed more for professional career minded women or are they designed for women looking for a more casual maternity wardrobe? All of these things will help you choose the best approach to take with the design of your website.
Now, even after saying all of this, I still going to recommend that you do not overcomplicate this whole process.
Yes, I want you to try to plan a design for a target audience.
However, if you spend too much time evaluating every tiny detail before you even start, you will never get your website up!
Do the best you can do with the information and skill level you have right now, and then improve over time. There is nothing wrong with starting with a quality template while you are working on your design or coding abilities, or even when the time you have available to work on a site is extremely limited.
Understand and accept that the odds are very good that you will never reach the point of thinking that the design of your website is perfect. You will be constantly tweaking one thing or another, while continuing to work on ways to increase targeted website traffic.
Do not even think of being afraid to make mistakes. It is through those mistakes that you will discover those things that work best for you and your specific business.
I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!
Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
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