I’d like to share both a rant and a tip to anyone interested in putting together a website. It works for the corporate employee assigned to work with a web developer on the company’s next big web project, the small business owner putting a website together for the first time and the web enthusiast putting their first blog together. It’s a very simple concept with world-shattering ramifications for those brave enough to employ it.

The Nutshell

In a nutshell… You are not your audience. That’s it. Now take a minute to let that sink in because if you do, I think you’re going to have an “Aww crap!” feeling hit you square in the eyes. Really think about what that might mean in your current/next web project. Yes, just because salmon pink is your favorite color doesn’t mean it will engage the people you are trying to reach. Just because a cutting-edge website uses a ton of spiffy Flash animation, it doesn’t mean that your target market will respond the same way theirs does. Just because you like to be on the cutting-edge of technology, doesn’t mean you should manufacture a way to include it in your website for the sake of being perceived as cutting-edge. Moreover, you can’t truly be cutting edge if someone else is already doing it, but that’s another rant. To be blunt, if you’re designing your website to suit your own personal tastes and biases, at best your going to make yourself happy and at worst you’re going to alienate your target audience. It can make waste to your entire effort.

So what does this really mean when making decisions about how your website will look and work? For those who began in the first era of the Web it meant killer content, or the memorable adage, “Content is King”. Today, we’ve learned to refine that idea. Now we have to think in terms of what killer content does our audience even want? It’s not enough to simply realize you are not your audience. If you really understand it, it means you have to know your audience.

To travel further down the rabbit hole, “to know your audience” has an underlying meaning. Of course, you need to know what your market wants from a website like yours, but Initially, it means you must know who it is you’re even targeting. Then you can begin to answer the question of what they really want.

What’s Next?

The hard truth is, it takes a lot of time and energy to fully realize that you are not your audience. In other words, it’s going to take some hours of research to discover what audience it would serve you best to target and what it is they really want.

It’s best, if possible, to start with what you already have. For example, if you have a business with a pool of existing customers, start collecting information about who they are and what they like – what they like about you guys and their interests in general. Then, start putting together descriptions of who your customers are and new markets you’d like to have.

When putting together a list of who makes up your audience, you’re going to be building a demographic profile. Don’t be to put off by that term. We’re not talking about a 5-page analysis of census data. It’s really just a quick way of describing a marketable group such as:

First-time homeowners.

Double-income couples in their 20s

Inexperienced with home improvement

Thrifty with their money
Relatively computer savvy

This is just an example of a basic description of an audience group. The more detail you put in, the more you narrowly define who you’re targeting and the better you’ll be able to meet their needs by making more informed decisions.

More than likely, you’ll need a handful of profiles to properly identify all of the basic audience groups your project will be targeting. Be careful not to go overboard with too many disparate target markets. With too many, you’ll feel trapped on a balance beam juggling all of the needs for each group. That inevitably leads to a site getting crammed with too much stuff – trying to be the end all, be all to everyone. As I’ve mentioned in another post three is probably enough. Not too much to manage, but enough to cover the bases.

The real research is in answering questions about these profiles. What do these people do with their time? Where do they spend their money? Where do they find their news and information?

Sure, not everyone will go to these lengths to figure out what their audience really wants. In some cases, if you’re just doing a blog for yourself, you may not need to go through the whole gamut of research. Just having a clue of who your audience is, and realizing that you are not your audience, can guide you to making better decisions when developing a website. Of that, I am absolutely convinced.

Anyone had an experience building a website this way? Or, can you share the results of using personal preference to guide your decision-making in putting a website together? I’m curious to hear your stories.

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