Starting a new website

Attracting website visitors

Improving conversion rates

Measuring and Testing

Your Target Market and the Buying Process

If you ask most business owners who their target market is, they automatically say 'everyone', however, to target 'everyone' you need a marketing budget to rival Coca-cola or McDonalds. If your budget does not run into millions each year, you need to break down that group into specific categories.

Think about who actually buys from you, and what they have in common. Try to be as specific as possible. Are they all within 20 miles of your office? High Income? Grandparents? What is it that connects these people together and makes them want to buy what you are selling.

Once you know who you are selling to, you can think about how they actually buy. The biggest difference with the internet is that the buying process (from the initial thought through to purchase) is now taking longer in nearly every industry as buyers spend time researching at home. If you do not know this, ask some of your customers what questions they asked themselves before making the purchase.

As a website owner, understanding the buying process gives you more opportunities, buy only if you know how to use them. Lets look at the example of 'digital cameras'.

Buyers at the beginning of the buying process are normally looking for general information, i.e. camer comparisons or new features. The advantage of these types of visitors is that they are less likely to know who they are going to buy from, giving you the chance to develop a relationship with these visitors before the competition, but they will take time and nurturing before they buy.

Buyers at the end of the buying process are normally looking for something much more specific like 'best deals on camera x' or 'shops that sell camera x within 5 miles of my house'. If you can provide the best deal or are in the right geographical location, you will probably make the sale instantly, but many visitors may never get this far as they have already decided on the business who nurtured the relationship and gained their trust.

Summary:

Being specific about your target market will lead to a better understanding of their buying process. This will help you decide on what type of content you should be putting on your website.

These articles are part of the '10 steps to building a new website guide'. Move onto step 3 - Your website structure - or go directly to the main contents page.

Once you know what to change on your website,
the question becomes how...

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