Before you can create an effective web site make sure you
understand your ‘marketability’. I define this as knowing
what your customers really want when they visit your web site.
You want to accurately mirror your customers needs, wants,
emotions and perceptions (NWEP).
Sounds simple right? Maybe too simple? Do not let the
‘technology’ of the internet drive the design of your web
site.
This will require answering some basic questions:
- What is the intrinsic motivation that is driving your
customer to visit your web site or buy your
product/service? What do they want to learn?
- When customers think of buying your product/service,
what thoughts come to their minds? What are their
emotions and perceptions?
- What goal do they want to achieve? What do they want
to experience more of or less of as a result of visiting
your web site? Just as the purpose of your web site
determines design priorities, so should your target
audience impact your approach to the web site design.
- The idea is to tailor the content of your web site to
mirror the needs, wants, emotions and perceptions (NWEP)
of your target market. No business can meet the needs of
everyone. Neither is it realistic to expect that you can
meet the needs of everyone who visits your web site.
Choose your target audience carefully. Overlook this
area and I guarantee you will be disappointed with the
performance of your web site. Get this right and you
will be overwhelmed with the response. Here are some
more questions to ponder:
- What do you know about your target market?
- What on-line competitors do you have?
- How are competitors approaching your market?
- What are competitors' weaknesses and strengths?
- How can you improve upon the approach?
What are the lifestyles, demographics and psychographics of
your ideal customer? (check out
http://future.sri.com/vals/iVALS.index.html
, a great site for internet psychographics). It is based
upon the self-orientation and resource dimensions that make
up decision making patterns. On this web site you can take a
survey and find out what internet psychographic segment your
customers fit into and also see what drives the other
segments.My observations and summary of the these ten
internet market segments are as follows:
- Worker: Likes useful information, mid to
upscale incomes. Likes info via email, flame
people.Utilitarian in their use of the web. Access
internet via school or work.
- Pioneer: positive, use retail sites, lower than
average income. Computer technicians and professionals.
- Seeker: oldest age group. Work focused. Likes
overviews and information filtering services.
- Surfer: willing to pay more for internet
services. Enjoys recreational nature of the net. Oldest
and highest incomes. Careers: mid-manangment,
consultants and professionals. Highest users of retail
sites. Spend the most time on the internet.
- Wizard : active, skilled internet user. 80%
have been on the net for more than 3 years. Primarily
male. Visit retail sites. Careers: software, computers
and technical information.
- Upstreamer: generalist, younger. Likes
personalized content. Careers: sales, consultants and
scientists.
- Socialite: enjoys social aspects of the web.
Strong entertainment focus and modest incomes.
- Sociable: entertainment focus. Seeks social
aspects of the net; young.
- Mainstreamer: Internet is a tool. Above average
income; higher education. Careers: computer techs and
senior managers. Likes to use banking and shopping for
personal use on the net.
- Immigrant: new to the net. 50/50 male-female
ratio. Kindergarten to grade 12.
For example if you're looking to target Mainstreamers you
will need to provide a high degree of personalization in
your web site. If your main target market is the Seeker,
provide overviews and offer them a ‘readers digest’
(short) version.Work out who your target audience is and
design your site to accommodate them.
