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Articles by Melissa Bandy

Speaking to Your Audience Online
By Melissa Bandy
December 13, 2006

As online retailers have come to know, web sites offer many ways to reach visitors without ever talking to them personally. But the most effective information for your web site visitor is information that speaks personally to them.

Know your audience
It's common practice in business to determine your target audience, right? Well it should be no less than that when considering your message, the flow and design of your web site. In fact to improve your ability to persuade visitors to take the action you ultimately want them to take, one should consider not just the target audience as a group but also identify several personas that may exist within the target. By fleshing out how some of these personas would view things and act in life, you can develop a sense of what kind of information and trigger points will appeal to them.

Speak in their terms, satisfying their wants and needs
What's in it for me? Remember that motto because any visitor to your web site or viewer of your online ad wants information that resonates or connects with their desires and needs--even when they didn't realize they needed your service or product. And when they arrive at your site, the connection should continue from whatever led them there and throughout their linking path within your site. Write in their terms and satisfy their wants. If they arrived at one of your pages because you told them they would find out about blue popsicles then you better headline and open up the conversation talking about blue popsicles.

Anything other than what you led them to believe they will see, unless it is an eye-opening experience, it will be less than satisfying. Sounds rough doesn't it? Well it doesn't have to be. If you write with them (not you) in mind, and provide further comfort or confirmation with links using text that look like the answers to additional questions or concerns they may have, then you are engaging them. And all along the way, you offer outlets to the calls to action you really want them to take—to buy, to try, to contact you, to sign up etc.

Offer options for various stages
Not everyone is ready to buy or contact you or take any action when they first visit your web site. They can be in any one of a number of stages in the buying cycle (even when buying in your case doesn't mean an exchange of money). So as you attempt to answer their inner questions consider questions and answers that reflect those who are just in an information gathering phase, those who need deeper details, those who need options for buying and so on.

And never lose touch but not too often
Speak often enough to let them know you're there but not so often you become the online pest. Email marketing when done based on direct permission – they opted in specifically to you – is a wonderful thing but even when you have permission, especially when you have permission, be mindful of what was requested. Maybe they have implied a desired frequency for information based on choices that you can satisfy—monthly specials vs. weekly, monthly newsletter vs. all news, press releases and announcements, etc. When there is not an implied frequency, only testing will reveal what works for your business. This is an area where how much is too much is dependent on the business and an unwritten expected mailing rate for that business. For your opt-in mailings watch the opt-out rates at each mailing and develop a trend on which to base future frequency judgments.

It is all about them
As should be true throughout your business the focus is on the customer. Make their exposure to and experience of you online one that is centered with them in mind—not just what you want to push at them. In doing so you are more likely to attract, gain and retain more customers to what you offer.

Melissa Bandy is the owner, founder and principal consultant of Mercole Online, LLC, offering consulting services in web site strategy, ecommerce and online marketing, and web analytics to help businesses get more from their online presence.

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