The More the Merrier - Page 6
February 7, 2002
Figure Out Who Your Customers Are and Welcome Them
Most sites serve multiple audiences with diverse agendas and a
variety of reasons for visiting the site. To name but a few,
different types of audiences include first time users and
frequent visitors; subscribers and non-subscribers; commercial
and residential customers; students and educators; patients and
doctors. Such overlapping purposes can make the task of informing
each of these audiences that they have "come to the right place"
difficult. Once it has been decided which target audiences a site
is intended for, an immediate question arises as to the way in
which this multiplicity is effectively managed on the homepage.
To illustrate our point, consider the following case. A major
retailer for whom we conducted research wanted to use their site
to better serve its commercial customers—that is, people
who buy in volume or buy special products that meet the needs of
businesses as opposed to individual consumers. By contrast, their
homepage featured lots of consumer-oriented products and specials
and a variety of customer service offerings tailored to the needs
of "regular folks."
As you might guess, when commercial customers were shown the
homepage, they immediately assumed that the site offered nothing
for them, and felt that they were better off going to the store
or using the catalog. The "Commercial Customers" button on the
top navigation bar simply wasn't enough to entice them. Had they
selected that button, they would have found a page completely
tailored for them. However, few commercial customers got that
far, and our research surmised that the homepage was in
trouble—at least from a business-to-business perspective.
The MasterCard site reaches out to both consumers and commercial
customers (through a special area of the site).
Testing revealed that what was most compelling to commercial
customers (such as volume discounts, tax exempt status, and
special products tailored to their industries) was all but absent
from the homepage. We therefore recommended that the homepage be
redesigned so that a major piece of real estate—the page
center—would be devoted to reflecting the needs of
commercial customers. This section communicated the benefits of
registering as a commercial customer and, in so doing, created a
compelling path to that area of the site that was more expressly
designed for their needs.
Sites that serve multiple audiences with diverse needs must use
their homepages wisely to generate an impression with members of
each of its audiences that there is a special place for
them on the site. This is especially important for the
homepage because it is here that visitors will find "front doors"
to other areas and pages of the site.
The following are a few tips on how to achieve this goal:
- Be sure to call each target group by a name they call
themselves (for example, "commercial customers" or "B2B"). This
definition may be influenced by company size (for example,
companies of fewer than 100 employees); if so, this needs to be
made clear.
- Give each audience equal "weight," so that each feels
significant, and so the site is designed for that group in
particular.
- Avoid content or advertising that might appeal to some among
one audience, but which you suspect could offend or perplex
others; for instance, stock price info on a health insurance site
or candy advertising on a diaper site).
- Again, use visuals to your best advantage wherever they are
relevant to direct your audience. For instance, you might use a
photograph of kids and parents employed as a guide that leads
each group to its own section of the site.
- Cite benefits of interest to each target audience so they
know both how and why they would want to click further.
Make Sure Your Design Is in Service to Your Concept - Page 5
Back to the User: Creating User-Focused Web Sites
Tell the Truth Up-Front - Page 7
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