Friday, June 15, 2012

What you want vs what your audience wants

If you've owned a business for more than 10 seconds you know the urge.  The unshakable feeling that is driving your every move to convince as many people as possible that whatever it is you are selling is the right solution for them.

You believe this deep into your bones.  If you could just have 5 minutes face to face with that prospect you could show them how wonderful your widget/service/etc is.  All they have to do is fill out that simple form on your website and they will understand!

Oh that thing I just mentioned, filling out that form?  There is the hard part.  In fact its the hardest thing your website will ever do and the most important.  The form could be to buy something on the spot or to speak with a sales rep, either way that conversion is the Holy Grail of your entire web presence.

Why is this such a problem?  On a good day 95% of the people who visit your site don't take a measurable action(buy something, fill out a form etc).

There is no way to get everyone to always convert but if you understand one thing about your audience it should be this:

How does your audience decide to buy what you are selling?

Match your site to the buying process not the selling process.  This doesn't just go for your website but for all digital content you create(Facebook updates, YouTube videos, etc).

Ask yourself how anything you create online matching the stages of the users buying process.  It could be high level or something close to the sale itself.  If you don't know how your content fits into the your customers mindset then they will probably ignore it.

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