Designing a perfect website for your target audience

Why is it important to design a perfect website for your target audience? It is not just because you want your customers, prospects and website visitors to have a perfect journey when surfing your website or to help them easily find and understand how your services help them overcome their challenges; it is more than that – you want your website to ‘speak your customers’ language’, the message it conveys needs to be in sync with your brand, mission, vision and industry.

Therefore, your journey of designing for a target audience starts with getting to know your audience.

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Identify your target audience

This step is about getting to know your target audience, knowing who you are building a website for. In terms of demographics, you need to know their age, gender, education level, culture and in B2B cases even a business industry of a typical customer. To put it simply, the most important task here is to find out who they are.

When the above questions are answered, you are all set and ready for step 2.

Research and Analysis

When researching and analyzing your target audience, you need to ask the right questions. The most important questions here are what they like, what they do, how to speak to them. You need to know what their values are and what is a typical behavior and preferences when surfing the internet.

To successfully complete the research and analysis phase, there are some questions about your product and service as well, i.e. what the main brand elements are – in terms of colour, font, styles, etc. Simply, what is the visual side of my brand and my future website?

Don’t forget to include competitor research in this phase! Try to learn from them, but also use this chance to differentiate your product and service. Turn their weaknesses into your own opportunities. There are so many advantages you can gain with this – both content-wise and design-wise.

Planning

Having gathered valuable information from the first two phases, you are ready to start planning. Planning is about incorporating what we have learned from the first 2 phases into your new website which is an extension of your business. It is about finding out how to answer your customers’ questions, how to respond to their (business) needs and of course – how to do it within predicted timelines.

Good planning saves you time and money and, in this phase, you need to decide on your website colours, style, fonts, etc. And don’t forget the images! It is known that human eye processes images quicker than words, so choose something that will look pretty and be relevant and interesting at the same time.

Think about the hierarchy of information since it is crucial for website navigation. What do you want your visitors to notice first? Is it a call to action button or is it your portfolio or recent projects that will help them find a use case? Whatever it is, make sure it stands out.

When planning is completed, you have come up with the content for your website. And you know exactly how this content will be presented – the visual side of it and the simplicity of website navigation.

Execution

When well prepared, execution is the easiest phase of this process. Now that you know who you want to speak to, what your audience’s preferences and behavior are, how you want to speak to them and what is the first thing you want to say to them – you are ready for the final step. If you have in-house designers and developers, don’t forget to involve them as soon as planning has started. If you want to outsource this project, make sure come up with a good plan for your website. A good webdesign company will be able to advise and provide some useful tips to make your website just perfect for your target audience.

Conclusion

We have been there and done it many times. This is not just pure theory, but a practice done many times and proven with a number of happy customers we have worked with. An example of one such project is the website we designed and built for J3 Building Solutions Ltd – a perfect example of a project well researched, well planned and more than well executed.

From A to B: stories of transformation

Gatsby_1925_jacketIn fiction, the Rags to Riches tale is one of the core basic plots of storytelling. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice are all some of the most popular examples of the archetype.

In the real world: rags to riches stories are common. Successful entrepreneurs who went from relative poverty or a challenging situation, to financial or personal success: Sir Richard Branson (Virgin), Sir Philip Green (Arcadia) and Mike Ashley (Sports Direct).

So, what is a ‘Rags to Riches’ story? This is where the modest and moral, yet downtrodden character achieves a great deal in the face of advertisty when their latent talents are finally displayed to the world at large.

In the real world this applies to anyone with a skill, ability or material which is not yet reaching its potential, due to a set of circumstances, sometimes beyond their control.

For businesses offering a produce or service, they often tend to play the role of the “Fairy Godmother”, giving the hero enough of a push to get to the right place and at the right time.

Some real world examples of businesses that offer such a service are construction companies Newcastle J3 Building Solutions who offer residential and commercial building services to assist you with your building project from conception to completion. On the digital side, web design north east provider Sleeky Web Design & Print who design fantastic websites for their clients, letting them tell their own story on the internet with a bespoke website.

In researching this article, I read the great book, ‘The Seven Basic Plot Types’ by Christopher Booker. A great read for anybody looking to learn more about the construction of fiction behind the veil.

So you want to be a builder? You should read these books about Construction

Sometimes, I just want to escape from society. On the weekends, I love to get outside and hike my way around the local countryside.

I’ve been thinking a lot about building my own property, or at least a small place to go to on weekends. Obviously, this is quite a large challenge. I’ve recently been looking for books which might help me reach that goal and teach me something about construction.

Below are some of the best books that I’ve found on the topic so far:


Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods by Joseph Iano

Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods by Joseph IanoWith over 30 different editions to date, this textbook is widely regarded as essential for construction engineers across the globe. The ‘Fundamentals of Building Construction’ continues to be used by thousands of students in schools of architecture, engineering, and construction technology every year.

Iano takes the reader on a long journey which starts with the types of nails used in basic construction tasks and ends with an understanding of the components of buildings and how they are constructed. Reading this book gives the reader the ability to stop at any site and have a fair idea of what exactly everybody on site is doing and what they have left to do.

Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D.K. Ching

Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D.K. ChingThis classic visual guide to the basics of building construction has recently been updated to contain the most up-to-date information. Building Construction Illustrated has provided outstanding introductions to the principles of building construction for students over the past 3 decades and beyond.

There are some who say this book has too much of a US-bias, but I think that this is a fairly decent read for anybody in the world if they want a more theoretical understanding of construction rather than just practical. you may want to be wary however that the measurements and units used in this book can be misleading.

Graphic Guide to Frame Construction: Details for Builders and Designers (For Pros by Pros) by Rob Thallon

Graphic Guide to Frame Construction: Details for Builders and Designers (For Pros by Pros) by Rob ThallonConsidered the standard reference in its field, this “Graphic Guide to Frame Construction” is the most well respected visual guide to building with wood. This is an invaluable reference for experienced designers and builders. Inside is a complete visual handbook for architects, builders, students, and anybody interested in wood-frame construction.

Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere by Zachery Klein

Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere by Zachery KleinNot a book about construction per sé, but, Klein’s ‘Cabin Porn’ is a chunky coffee table read which you can easily pick up and flick through when the mood grabs you. This book delves into the creation of wood cabins and guides you on how you might build your own. You get to experience your own mini-escape each time you flick through the pages.

The book is filled to the brim with photos. These photos are absolutely breathtaking and will no doubt fuel your wanderlust and make you want to take in the beautiful surroundings in your own cabin someday. The stories left me wanting to meet the amazing people who build these cabins and grab a beer with them.

The one downside is that this book is a little light on words, I wish there had been more tales from the author and the contributors about their journeys.


My thanks go to J3 Building Solutions, one of the best construction companies in Newcastle. I spoke to a few members of the team at J3 during my research on this blog, they gave me some great book suggestions to consider for my learning. If you’re looking for trustworthy commercial builders Newcastle, You can’t go wrong with J3 Building Solutions.