Working and living in the Treasure Valley of Idaho has always been a pleasure; people here tend to have a real passion for what they do. Unfortunately, there are times when I see a business struggling to effectively share that passion in their marketing, especially online. The culprit tends to be a poorly defined target audience which results in a lot of wasted effort, time, and money. Defining your “target audience” may be the epitome of business basics, but the undeniable fact is that mastering it is a tricky and complex endeavor. This complexity is due in large part to the ever-changing crossroads between business, technology, and the economy. The advent of the internet and the boom of social media are modern-day examples of this. With an audience the size of the world, who are you really selling to?
It could be said that limiting your marketing focus will hinder you in a tough economy. Thankfully, that’s not true if you prove your business is an exceptional example in your market. Even internet giant Amazon.com started out only selling books, but they did it well and that gave them the opportunity to grow to what they are today. Most businesses are good at a finite product or service selection and because of this it is all the more crucial that they clearly define who their target audience is.
The last impression you want to give your online visitors is that of a confused business that they can’t trust. For example, if you visited an upscale, fine-dining restaurant’s website and were greeted with low-quality, blurry images of their food or a confusing, unnavigable dinner menu you might wonder if the restaurant is really “upscale” at all. Or what if you visited a website renting wedding locations and while they claimed to have “beautiful, fairy-tale-like” venues they didn’t provide large enough photos to showcase them. Your next click might be the ‘back’ button rather than the ‘contact us’ link.
Visitor perception is something you need to anticipate when working on any aspect of your business but especially your website; step into a potential visitor’s shoes and try to imagine why he or she is on your website and if that expectation matches what they see. The better you can define your target audience and meet their expectations the more likely they will view you as an exceptional leader in your market.
