Over the past few months, we have realized that a lot of business owners usually overlook a few very important things when it comes to building a new website. The most prominent thing that these businesses overlook is what their customers are actually looking for. In most cases, a client will come to us with ideas on how they want their website to look like, function and the features that it should have so that it stands out from other websites. Well, this is good but because of this “obsession” in some clients, they end up forgetting what their customers would want the website to do.

If you are not meeting the needs of your customer, then you are missing the mark.

So, lets say you are looking to get a return on your investment in terms of having a new website, then you need to know what your customers are expecting , what they need and what they want. The first step that you have to make is to figure out who your target audience are. One of the very first questions that we ask any of our prospective clients is, “Who is your target audience?” Surprisingly enough, a lot of them have told us, “it’s for everyone.” Well, this is not very possible unless your website is the new facebook.com, your customer is more than likely not “everyone.”

When getting started with a new website project, ask yourself who your ideal customer is. Imagine you are in the Real Estate business and are trying to figure out who your target audience is. Typically, it’s someone looking for house or plot to buy. That’s easy enough but you need to go deeper than that. You also need to know what your market in that business is like. The typical real estate buyer in Lusaka is likely going to be different than your typical buyer in Monze. These are different markets with different buyers with different budgets who are often looking for different things when buying real estate property. At the end of the day, you will need to make a decision whether you are targeting the whole country or just one city like Lusaka so that the website is modeled around that criteria.

A few months ago, a prospective client answered our target audience question with, “kids between 10 and 15.” The reasoning behind that answer was because they provide tuition services to primary school going kids. But are 10 year old kids going to be online looking for tutors? No! The correct answer is parents of kids aged 10 – 15. The bottom line here is that our client wanted a website that kids between 10 and 15 would like, but did not put it into consideration that kids in that age group aren’t online looking for tutors. This simply shows us the importance of planning the design of the website for the parents of those kids, and not for the kids themselves.

Lets now find out how to figure out what the target audience is looking for when they are on your site.

Every person who comes to your website does so with a purpose. Figure out that purpose and open the door to a bigger ROI.

Page visits to a website don’t just happen, at least 90% of the time. People will land on your website with a purpose. If you are an online store, then the person who lands on your website is not there because they accidentally stumbled upon your website, but rather something brought them there and that is usually because they have an interest in something that you are selling. The good news about this is that if someone is on your website, it is very likely they are a potential customer. What they are looking for and why they are on your websites are questions that you must have an answer to.

If someone lands on your online (the example we are using here) then they are likely looking for a product or service that you are selling. Obviously, they will need to know what kind of services and promotions you offer. This is where it has to be clear what kind of services you offer. Once you have your area of expertise nailed down, the next question your potential client will be asking will be, “are their services/products good?”. The only way to answer this question is to showcase your products/services on your website as just saying, “We are the best” is not good enough.

Knowing who your customer is and what they are looking for when they land on your website is the key to converting site visitors into customers.

In some very rare cases, it is possible you don’t know what your customer wants or are looking for. In such cases, we always advise that you find out before you engage us to start building a new website otherwise, you could be wasting your money. If you do no know the answer, there are quite a number of ways to find out. Here are a few things you could do;

• Look at your competitors’ websites. What do they have? What are they doing? You can often get a good idea of what your customers want by checking out what your competition thinks your customers want.
• Hire a market research company to find out for you.
• Ask your colleagues for advice. If you know other people in your field, talk to them. Working with your colleagues is a great resource, not just for you but for them too.
• Use Facebook Insights to help you know who your visitors are. If you have a Facebook page for your visitor and it has more than handful of likes (and those likers aren’t just your family) you can use that information to find out who is interacting with you. There is a ton of demographic data in Facebook that can help you determine who your customers are.
• Ask your current customers! If you have active or past clients, there is a wealth of information that is just an email away. ASK!

Knowing the reason why customers land on your site will allow you to tailor their website experience so that site visitor can become your next customer. Giving the user what they want will make a huge difference in the outcome of your online presence.