If your company wants to sell to a specific target demographic (or niche), such as people who eat organic apples, then it’s essential that your website is tailored to them. With regards to designing a website for any target demographic, you will want to begin with finding out who your company is selling to daily, what they want, what they expect from your website, and what functionality your website needs to keep them happy. Here are a few suggestions about how to make your website more appealing to a target demographic.
Know Thy Customers
Useful site design begins with understanding who is going to be using it. Knowing your customers is an indispensable part of selecting the correct design details, like fonts, color designs, layout, and navigation. If your niche is made up of senior citizens over 65, then you need to be sure that it uses large readable fonts and is simple to navigate. If your niche demographic is the 18 to the 25-year old range, which makes purchases on mobile devices, then you will want to be sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices.
In addition to knowing your customer’s demographics like age, gender, location, and more, you should also find out what motivates them. Find out exactly who they are, what core values they have, which of your competitors they routinely buy from, and what makes them loyal to a brand. As the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu stated- intelligence is key to any successful campaign. By finding out all you can about your target demographic, you can create a website that meets and even exceeds their expectations.
Create a Dummy Customer Profile
After you have accrued data on your niche audience, it should give you enough information to create dummy profiles for customers who will be visiting your site. Create profiles for each type of customer who will use your website. Then pair them with likely situations that they may face. Then take into account what they expect when visiting your company’s site, and how effortless it is for them to navigate to what they want in that visit. Next, determine what your company’s goals are when a customer visits your website based on the dummy profile. How can you lead them to the action you want them to take? Are you mainly focused on conversions, or do you also want to build your brand or both? Understanding what your niche customers want and what your goals are for those customers will considerably benefit your website’s design.
Benchmarking
If you have a competitor who is especially successful in getting conversions on their website or pushing customers into retail locations, it would be sensible to explore their site. When you size up your competitors, you gain helpful insights into where your company stands by contrast. Examine all of a competitor’s sites to find what they have in common. This practice will give you a definite idea of what sort of website features are successful and what isn’t. Thoroughly inspect its usability, design, content, layout, navigation, and how the sites are optimized. As you stake out your competitors’ websites, note their strengths and weaknesses. Then use that knowledge into designing a better website.
Design Layout and Content with a Target Demographic in Mind
Be sure that your website’s layout uses colors that are in conjunction with your branding style guide. This uses colors that have specific emotional effects on customer moods. Research what colors influence feelings and use the moods invoked. This helps lead your customer to where you want then to go. Content should be precise if you’re going to reach your niche. If your target demographic is in the foodservice industry than using foodie terminology and jargon would be a great idea. If your demographic is easier going than a group of professionals, then use a conversational style when you compose content. Incorporate images that are relevant to your niche. This invokes impressions that will guide a customer to convert but don’t use pictures so massive they slow load times.
With a small amount of research and some forethought, you can design the ideal website for your target demographic.
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