Why understanding your audience, and services, are an important step in building a website
Which type are you: the business owner with a clearly outlined, step-by-step process for each of your products or services, or the business owner who tends to keep it fast and loose with general outlines but nothing more concrete?
Now I know, creating processes for each of your offerings seems like an unnecessary step. I’ll let you in on a little secret…it’s not! Especially when it comes to your website.
When you’re working solely with an outline of your process, you end up working in a bubble and not considering how your clients are interacting with your products and services. It’s almost like you’re having a one-sided conversation with yourself and your clients are nowhere to be found. And what happens when our products and services do that? They leave you with a message that doesn’t connect with your target audience, and leaves your would-be clients not feeling confident enough to make a purchase.
Here’s the problem: the concept of writing out your processes is not the least bit exciting.
That’s why I have my clients do it differently! We make something fun out of it! We create personas for each ideal client, then we brainstorm how each client can be positively impacted by each product or service.
For example:
Robin’s ideal consumer is a woman in her 30s-40s who values nourishing her family with quick, healthy, homemade food. She’s a busy mom who doesn’t have time to scour the internet looking for recipes that her children may or may not eat. She needs meals and snacks that she knows her kids will like but also contain healthy ingredients, and she needs those recipes to be at her fingertips. So, for her website, What Robin Eats, we made sure to include a searchable recipe index that can be filtered by meal type and ingredients. Now, the busy moms that Robin caters to don’t have to go any further than her website for tried and tested recipes. (See the story of What Robin Eats here.)
Using this technique does two things. First, understanding how your services will impact your clients helps you become energized about what you have to offer and leads to you speaking about your products and services with more confidence and lots more clarity. Secondly, it’s an important step in determining what style of website you’ll need and what features will need to be included.
So in conclusion, processes might be boring, YES, but they are necessary and we can make writing them at least semi-fun. Good luck!
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