It's Not About You

Published: November 20, 2007

What is your website? Is it a marketing tool? Is it a sales tool? Is it a source of information? These are important questions, but they aren’t the most important question you should be asking. There are six fundamental questions, (who, what, when, where, why, and how) and there is a reason why “who” is the first question. Without “who?” the other questions just aren’t as important anyway.

Unfortunately, many websites answer this first question wrongly. So what’s the correct answer? Let me give you a hint...it’s not about you. You may develop, manage, and even pay for your site, but it’s your target customers’ or potential customers’ site. If you doubt this-seriously, when was the last time you visited your own website anyway?

It can be challenging, but it’s important to approach your site from the point of view of your audience. Take some time right now, grab a pen and a piece of paper—don’t look at your website—and think about who your target client or customer is and what they are looking for when they come to it.

Now, read through your site page by page and ask yourself whether each page is there for you or your customer. Are you using the language and terminology that your customers use or are you all about the lingo of your industry? Impress your customers by talking to them, not over or at them. Don’t let brand-speak and techno-talk get in the way of communicating with your audience.

This is where focusing on answering the questions that your customers ask can be extremely helpful. By using this approach, it can dramatically change the way you present information on your site; from being self-centered, promoting products or services, to customer-centered, providing answers and solutions.

It’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Take another step back and ask yourself whether your site is laid out in a way that makes sense to your customers. Is your site laid out in a way that makes sense to them? Do you have clearly labeled sections on your site for “products” or “services?” What about your contact information? This all sounds overly simplistic, yet it is one of the basics that many sites get wrong. Too often this happens because someone gets too cute or clever with words used in the navigation or sections of the site.

It is far too easy to get caught up in the excitement of your website. It becomes less and less about the information you are providing and how you are providing it, and more about how it looks. Ironically, most if not all of your visitors care far less about how it looks than what it delivers. Sure, we all like to visit sites that look good, but substance is far more important. I don’t know about you, but give me an average looking site with great content over a great looking site with average content any day.

5 Questions for every website

Who is my target customer/client?
What problems are they trying to solve?
What is important to them?
What simplifies their life or job?
What questions are they seeking answers for?

As appeared in the Presence Pointers column of the November 2007 issue of Business Watch.

Information

Instillery Topics

What is the Instillery?

Here are a couple of meanings of the word instill:

instill: to infuse slowly or gradually into the mind or feelings.; to put in drop by drop.

Instill captures what this section is about. You will find various, bite-sized bits of information for you to take in, drop by drop, to consider.

The more involved with the web you become, the more you realize that it is less about knowing and more about considering. You find that everything must be taken into context and considered based on situation and circumstances, rather than a definitive "this is the way it is."

One of the most important goals of Identity Developments has been to help educate clients and others regarding their web presence. Consideration for what is and way may be is perhaps, the most important lesson.

Educated and informed clients are great. They understand why things are done the way they are and the importance of doing things a certain way. They also gain a greater appreciation of the value of doing things the way we do them, rather than being swayed simply by the "cheapest" provider or deal on the table.

So the "instillery" is a place where you can come and take in, drop by drop, gradually, useful information and ideas from Identity Developments to help you grow, improve, and promote your web presence.