3 Questions to Ask to Connect With Your Online Audience
In the world of the millennial generation, online resources have gone from being a convenience to a necessity. During 2018, eMarketer reported that the average person would spend around 3 and a half hours a day on their smartphone. That time would be divided up between apps, social media, web browsing, and games.
Clearly, with so much time being spent on the internet it is crucial for businesses to have an online presence. The first impression a customer has is often the company’s website. This can be intimidating for a business, but it should not be. It is possible to have an affordable website that is both attractive and user-friendly.
When creating a website, it is important to keep a few things in mind. What is most important is deciding who your target audience is going to be and the purpose of a company’s website. Is the website designed to sell something? Perhaps the website is purely informational. Here are some things that need to be decided before the website can be designed.
Who is the target audience?
When narrowing in on an audience, the more specific the better. Research is very important in making this decision. We will stick with our preschool theme for a theoretical situation. Imagine a company’s decided target audience is working dads ages 30-45 with a six-digit income, (yes, a selected audience should be that specific). What the company needs to evaluate is if these dads are actually the people signing their children up for school, dropping them off at their activities and ultimately using the product. Dads may not be the users in this situation, meanwhile, the actual audience will lose interest and stop using the product. Therefore, it is important to identify the correct target audience.
What’s the purpose of your website?
Websites have many different uses; sales, information, and persuasion to name a few. Before designing a website it’s important to know what it will be for. A website for a preschool would need to be both informative for parents whose children already attend as well as persuasive for parents who are considering sending their children to the school. Functions that should be considered would be an online calendar of school events, online payment options and contact information for the owner and possibly some of the administration.
Why maintain a social media presence?
It may seem time-consuming and an unnecessary project to keep an active social media presence, but keep in mind there are over 3.03 billion active social media users. Additionally, a person spends 116 minutes a day on average on their accounts. An obvious target for business practices of all kinds. Once the audience and aesthetic of the website have been selected, it is important to keep both those things in mind while navigating the social media world. Returning again to our preschool example, the audience that was the intended target on the website should be the exact same on the social media platform.
If it’s intimidating to get started with an online presence just remember that affordable web design options are available. With a little help, a business can tap into the online resources that are being used by billions of people daily.