Most companies know that creating a website to market their products and services is one of the first steps they need to take when launching a business. However, far too many businesses jump into the website design and development process without answering three critical questions: Who is the audience? What are the website objectives? and What will motivate the audience to take action?
No matter how good your website design, how amazing your product, or how comprehensive your content and search engine optimization, your business website will underperform if these questions are ignored — and your business will leave money on the table.
In this blog post, we’ll break down these three critical components of creating a website, and we’ll explain why they should be addressed before the first design mockup or content draft.
- Who is your website for? Many businesses jump into the web design process thinking entirely about themselves: how great their brand or their product is, how they are better than the competition, etc. What many fail to consider is a breakdown of their target demographic, and even more specifically, the cross section of their audience who will be visiting their website. It is crucial to understand exactly who you are redesigning your website for, so that you can design each element to engage the audience and prompt them to action. At ATX The Brand, we recommend completing an audience persona analysis or at least identifying your audience’s main motivations and pain points.
- What do you want your website to do? Websites have different purposes. These purposes can include giving a brand credibility, informing an audience about products and services, educating, generating leads, or creating brand awareness. Depending on the purpose of your website, the content and design will look different. Before starting a web design process, your company will need to identify your objectives and have a process for revisiting these goals and objectives periodically so you can understand if you are meeting your benchmarks.
- What motivates your audience? Finally, in addition to identifying the target audience, it is critical for companies to understand what their audience will respond to online and how to coax them down the marketing funnel of their website. Do you want website visitors to contact you? Request a quote? Sign up for your newsletter? Buy a product? Depending on your site objectives, you will need to understand the psychology of your audience, how they interact online, and what will persuade them to take action on your specific website.
By answering these three important questions before even starting the web design process, you will maximize your investment in web design or marketing services and help ensure your website is effective and meets your business goals. To learn more about the process of planning to create a company website or to get a free estimate on business web design services, contact ATX the Brand today.
