Website audience

Ok, so now that you've given some thought to your website aims and goals, it's time to give some thought to the audience your website is aimed at. In other words, who are the people that will be visiting your website and why will they visit your website?

This is a very important step when planning your website because you need to know who and why people will find an interest in your website. Your website is pretty pointless without people visiting it... What good is a liquor store in a liquor free town?...exactly... your store will be empty... obvious I know but many people fail to consider this simple fact and end up with websites that don't really appeal to many people.

First think about your target market... what is the global target market that your website/business targets? Can you categorize your target market? Yes, then categorize it... Now, within those categories, who are the people (audience) that will find an interest in your website? You thinking about it?? Good, now list it... that's right, write it down, listing each audience under every category. This should be like a brainstorming exercise, so involve others if you need to.

Once you are done with that rank your list according to importance. Most important audience at number 1. Then you need to define the needs and goals for each audience, i.e. why would they want to come to your site? What do they hope to achieve by visiting you website? Will their needs/goals be met by your site? Did they get the information they set out to get from your website or will they need to go elsewhere? You don't want them to go elsewhere... unless elsewhere brings you some sort of value...

Ok, so there... you have your audience defined and you have their needs and goals defined.. So you know who they are and what they want... Now you need to figure out how you are going to give them what they want in a way they would want/need.

There's no set way to figure that out, so you will have to think like your audience...But I'll explain how to do that in with my next post...so stay tuned for more...