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Who is my target audience?
These are the people you want to attract to your site, and who will
be your consumers. It makes a big difference to your site design if you
are aiming at mainly home users or corporate business users. People have
different browsing patterns, and each will have different needs and wants
from your site. Try to identify what your audience will gain from visiting
your site, and what kind of information they will be looking for. Keep
in mind an idea of your typical visitor as you plan your site.
What am I trying to achieve?
Identify the purpose of your web-site early on. It simplifies the design
process, and allows you to focus your time and resources more efficiently.
It will also result in a better, more coherent site specifically targetted
to your identified audience. If you don't know your objectives, how will
you know if you are successful?
Corporate Presence
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Your aim might be simply to have your company details out there
on the web, to make more people aware of your existence, and what
type of products or services you provide. Providing contact details
allows interested visitors to email or phone you for further information.
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Provide Information
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In addition to company details, you may want to provide more specific
information on your products and services. You might set out to
educate your visitors about your business, provide service manuals,
or an on-line catalogue of your products.
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Interact
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One step further from merely presenting information, is to allow
visitors to interact with you. This could be on-line ordering and
paying for products, booking appointments, or getting customer feedback,
for example.
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Develop a Relationship
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If you want to keep your visitors coming back to your site, you
could ask them to register. Provide additional services for your
regular visitors, for example regular product updates, an email
newsletter, or preferred services.
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How will the Web-site fit with my current business?
Your Web-site should be considered as a part of your Marketing Strategy.
Project an image consistent with your existing marketing materials, and
be sure to update both together.
If you are expecting your Website to produce additional interest and customers
for your company, you should consider in advance how you expect to handle
that. Who will be responsible for answering product questions? Technical
questions? Where and how will automatic orders be processed?
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