Web Site Focus

Work your web site from the customers viewpoint

You've looked at all the information you have on hand about your customers. You know that many of your customers have computers and use the Internet for some amount of time during their week. You know who's very profitable. You know who's a good solid customer. And you know who costs you money.

Your Web site is a twenty four hour a day resource for your customers. It's value to them is that the information they want from you is available on their terms. For customers and clients who have very little time and very many choices, that convenience may make all the difference. Giving them an opportunity to communicate with you when they want to can bond customers to you just enough to make it difficult for your competitor to woo them away.

Focus, focus, focus

It's hard to get visitors or keep visitors without a tightly focused site. Instead of trying to appeal to a big diverse audience, focus your efforts on the needs of your real target audience. You will be far more succesful appealing to a smaller group of people who REALLY want and need what your services or products offer.

Focus on your intended users who you know have a demonstrated need and you know what those needs are. It is too easy to go for a website with sizzling graphics, professional copy, a bevy of great products and affiliate programs yet still end up with few users who stay on you site or return to it.

It is also much easier to get listed on search engines if your site has a narrow, well-defined focus. A site about "direct Internet marketing" will have an easier time getting listed high on search engines than a site about the more general topic of "marketing."

Set yourself apart.

With very little overhead, your Web site can gather information about your customers. It stands ready to bring them the most up-to-date information in an instant. It can be the foundation for a communications system between you and your customers that rivals the telephone, direct mail and advertising all together. Think about it. If your profitable customers, even some percentage of them, are computer friendly, you have the opportunity to cement your business relationship with them for a very small incremental cost. It's all about communication. Make it count.

Your Web site design should begin at the beginning:

• Who is your most profitable customer group?
• What do they have in common?
• What will it take to keep their business longer?
• Will they recommend you to others who share some of their qualities?

Your site should be designed around the answers to these questions. But design isn't enough. No amount of slick dancing baloney graphics will hide a lack of real information delivered to your customers one-to-one. Remember, the real strength of a Web site at this stage of the Internet's development is as a communications tool. You are offering information to your customer one to one. It's customized because it can be interactive. In that sense it is an invaluable marketing tool for you even though it may not be an effective advertising medium for you.

If you have any questions about Web Site Focus, please don't hesitate to contact SEO Web Design today.