February 19, 2021
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Words Nicola Phillips
3 min read
With any great service offering you are always putting your customer first, thinking what they might need, anticipating their requirements and creating the tailored solution before they have even asked for it. A website is no different. You need to put your audience front and centre. Who you determine as your audience will not only influence the content you create and how it is presented, but it will determine the structure and the customer experience required. Do you know who your primary target audience is? Don’t say ‘everyone’, it’s not true. Be honest with yourself, have you profiled your customers? You may have different service offerings that are targeted at different customers, that’s totally fine. Just be clear what the needs of each type are.
There are several ways to do this, but start simple. Ask yourself a few questions to create a picture of your target audience: What generation are they? Are they gender-specific? What do they do for leisure? Where do they go for information? How do they communicate with their peers? What are they interested in? What challenges might they face? What communities are they part of? Get to know your primary customer and the world they live in.
Once you have a clear idea of who your audience is, next comes the most important question.
If you already have a customer base you could just ask them! A simple survey could provide you with the insight you need. Do you have analytics on your site? Review this data for any changes and include it within your questionnaire. If you’re just starting out you could reach out on social media, find the groups that your potential audience attends and ask them or ask friends and family to give feedback on your assumptions. You might uncover some hidden gems or insight you hadn’t considered!
Your main goal here is to identify who your audience is and what challenges they face.
This gives you that valuable insight. This helps you confidently shape solutions to the challenges your customers have identified.
In our current changing world, the needs of your customers will have adapted over the last year, so as a business how have you responded to these changes? Have you created a new service or product? Are you now attracting a different audience and have you consciously responded to this?
The answers to these questions are so important for your website. If you know the needs of your audience, you can design your website to create clear, targeted messaging which ensures your audience finds what they need. Happy customers will return, they will tell their friends, you will grow your business.
If you haven’t updated your website in the last 12 months, we would strongly recommend you review the needs of your audience as a priority and update your website with the relevant changes.
88% of users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience. (Forrester)
Know your audience, know what they need and they will be your best customers and your best advocates.
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