VirtuaClass

I typically get asked by my clients, “How do I reach my target market better through the web?” My reply is usually one that sparks a huge task for the client, but at the end, they find they not only have a “target market” but actually several other targets contained in that single target market. Let me explain….

Let’s say you are a website selling quality every day makeup products. At first glance most would assume their target market is women. But let’s break that down a bit further. You could very easily have younger ladies looking to purchase your products; you could have senior women looking to purchase your products. How about those women in the north vs. the southern more humid regions? What about the men who are looking to purchase a gift card for their lovely ladies? You see where I’m going with this.

The wonder of the web is that you literally could have x number of consumer pathways to address the specific needs of each of these “sub-target markets”. For example you could literally ask your visitors on the home page what their age is? WHAT?!?……no just kidding. I don’t think I’d ever recommend a site geared towards women to ever ask their age or their weight. However, you could create imagery to associate a product line, which is for the younger crowd vs. a more senior one. If you have a photo of a gracefully aging elderly lady on one side, with “So and So’s Silver Line of Products”….chances are the visitors to your website who are senior in their years will look at the photo…say she looks great for her age….and then proceed to that section of your website. In that section you could show photos of an elderly generation of women, speak in terms they associate with, speak/show how your products rise above the rest, and then hopefully make a sale. Your “teen line” of products could almost be the same pages, just replace the photos and the content with what younger teen-aged girls would associate with. You now have 2 specialized ’stores’ within your single store and have just increased your chances of converting 2 very similar….yet very different customers.

This is much more difficult for a brick and mortar store to achieve, and one you can do fairly easily. So now go take a piece of paper….draw a circle….put some smaller circles inside of it and break up your target market into more segments based on age, region, gender, race, etc. Then see how you can modify a few sequence of pages on your website to cater to them. So have fun!!!

If you’re like me, you’ve gone ahead and visited a website and gotten to its home page only to be barraged with hundred’s of links….pictures….buy nows…..etc. A sudden feeling of “I can’t breathe” comes over you pretty quickly and you just can’t seem to get to that “back” button on your browser soon enough. However, as with most things in life, that which we feel and experience ourselves, we often feel compelled to do the same to others. Does your website do this to its users? Chances are you might be without realizing it. Enter the saving thought of applying “Web Decompression Zones” to your site. According to most marketing theorists, a Decompression Zone is that psychological barrier of about 15 feet that exists between the front door of a retail store and where the user actually pays attention to an ad or service being offered. It can also be described as that ability to “breathe” when you first enter a store and have a chance to take in the store as a whole before allowing your mind to be questioned into whether or not it is time to buy or not. So basically when entering a store you’ll find that most large box stores will apply this theory by making sure you have plenty of time to walk through their doors and get past that zone before hitting you with any type of product or display ad.

This same concept, I believe applies to websites. With some simple research I have done when redesigning an existing website, I’ve found that websites with lots of information and links on their home pages get less conversion traffic than those who apply a “Web Decompression Zone” to their home pages. The problem seems to be that when presented with tons of options so quickly, a user tends to get either confused or frustrated and would rather find a “simpler” site to navigate to.

Any of you who have children know that when you go to a snow cone stand the last thing you want to tell them is how many different flavors they have. If you tell them they have “red or blue” or “strawberry or grape” you are more likely to get a faster decision than if you present all of the possible choices of strawberry, grape, orange, watermelon, blue raspberry, cherry, root beer, cola, etc. all at once. Now I’m not saying web users are child-minded…but let’s face it….when you go to a website you are looking for information from possibly tons of resources in less time than you would carve out to take your daily shower. So information needs to be presented succinctly and quickly to allow the greatest amount of inflow of information. Too many choices slow that process down.

So as a web owner, your job is to know the relevant yes/no, option 1/2/3 questions to help your user get to where they need to go. The best place to do so is your home page. So allow just a few images and information to catch your user’s attention, present it in a professional and well thought out manner, and allow the user’s click on one of those links to be the answer to those yes/no or option 1/2/3 questions to put them into the correct place on your website and now present them with some additional options. You’ll find your visitor’s will get further into your site on a more consistent basis and be less likely to get frustrated or overwhelmed from the start. Now it’s time to go get my shower for the day. Enjoy!