Web site maintenance, website management and web consulting services

This is the fourth article in my series about Website planning. If you’ve missed the previous articles you may want to catch up before reading on.

Today we’re continuing on our quest to find out more about the target market for our micro business website, and we’re going to figure out what your visitors want, and answer the eternal question “what does your website do for me?”

The easiest way to find out what people want…

…is to ask them. So many people forget to do this when planning a micro business website. You can’t just bang off an email to a web designer telling him to knock up a website for your business without giving some thought to your visitors. Your website will fail.

So let’s look at a few things visitors may want to do on your website:

• Find out more about your products/service
• Get contact information
• Read testimonials from satisfied customers
• Find out more about your business
• Interact with you via a blog
• Download an ebook, an operating manual, a brochure or a white paper
• Find your premises
• Schedule an appointment/meeting
• Send you a compliment or a complaint
• View a price list
• Make a purchase

Other than the bit about the blog, there’s not much Web 2.0 stuff in this list. That’s because most people who are dealing with a micro business want to find out how you can solve their problems and if they can trust you. Everything else on your website is simply fluff to make you look good or make search engines rank you higher.

Armed with this list of common website visitor wants, pick up the phone or send an email and ask your customers, family or friends what they think will be important when visiting your website.

If you speak to enough people, you’ll end up with a long, messy list of features that never occurred to you before. Trust me, this is a good thing.

In the next article, we’ll figure out which features to keep and which ones to throw out, all while remembering that you have very little money and even less time.

Moral of the story: People want you to build them an online resource that solves certain problems. Don’t ever assume you know what those problems are without asking your target market first.

If you really want to know what’s in it for you, you should subscribe.

One comment so far. Your turn.

There are 2 ways to figure out who the ideal target market for your particular brand of widgets is likely to be.

The first method is the one I learnt about in marketing school and involves lots of inaccurate census figures and speculation. This method is also likely to lead you to consider suicide. We’ll call this method ‘Academic Target Marketing’ for lack of a better phrase. I suggest you forget about Academic Target Marketing immediately.

The second, fun method of target marketing is what I like to call ‘Micro targeting‘ (I just made that up. Eat your heart out Maslow! This method is for those of you who run a home business and don’t have time to spend a week in the local library.

Micro Targeting answers basic questions about your target market. It doesn’t tell you what color underwear they’ve got on, but it does show you where to look for new business.

Allow me to illustrate

My sister runs a curtain making and cleaning business. She’s really good at what she does and she’s growing a pretty good client base. You’d think that homeowners would be her target market, right? Wrong. She targets her marketing to:

• Interior decorators who decorate high-end homes and offices
• Hotel groups who clean and/or replace their curtains frequently
• Architects, who design homes and corporate buildings, and who work with end users and interior decorators all the time
• Property developers, who build large numbers of homes, usually for high-income owners
• Furniture-makers who not only deal with homeowners and interior designers, but who also make furniture that needs upholstery and cleaning

My sister knows that homeowners are likely to buy once, maybe twice. But people in the business of building and decorating homes will buy, or recommend her, every time they start work on a new project.

With only 5 niche markets to target she doesn’t need to waste time on prospects that aren’t going to grow her business in the long term. That’s pretty smart.

Moral of the story: You need to know who you’re building your micro business for. And you need to know a lot about them. You should be able to craft a voodoo doll of your perfect client and know exactly where to stick the pins.

Still haven’t subscribed yet? Loads of other people have. Now they officially know more about micro business marketing than you do.

2 comments. Join the club.

In his book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, and in just about everything he’s ever written, marketing god Seth Godin emphasizes being remarkable as the only way to really grow a business in the Internet age.

For us mere mortals, being remarkable is also known as having a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), or answering the timeless question “why should I buy from you?” In short, your USP is that one little thing that sets you apart from all the other people peddling the same products as you.

And because it only takes 2 seconds for Google to tell a customer who those people are, you’d better find a way to stand out from the crowd.

No USP? Write one now

Because micro businesses generally deal in niche markets their USP’s ought to be pretty easy to figure out. Break up your USP into 2 segments:

1. Why should I buy?
2. From you?

If your take-away guarantees a 30-minute delivery or it’s free, that’s your USP. If your graphic design business specializes in menu design for up-market restaurants, that’s your USP. My USP? I help people with very little money grow a micro business online. You get the idea. Now go get yourself a USP.

Repeat after me: My logo is not my brand

If you think your shiny new $500 logo plastered on the side of your van, on your shirt, your cap and your invoices is branding, you’re wrong. Your logo is simply an image customers use to identify you. It tells them who you are, not what you stand for.

Branding is far more than image. It’s the way you answer the phone. It’s the level of customer service you offer. It’s the way you go out of your way (or don’t) to help customers solve their problems. And it’s the way you do something totally unexpectedly simple, yet brilliant, to get your customers talking about you.

Your business brand is everything you do right, and it’s your USP. The better you are at doing everything right, the stronger your brand. That’s how you become remarkable.

Moral of the story: Unless you know who you are and why anyone should care enough to give you some of their money, you’re going to get lost in a sea of websites and online businesses that just don’t matter.

There’s more where this came from. Subscribe today if you don’t believe me.

No comments yet. Be the first.