COMMENTS
I agree that point 4 is critical "Psychographics vs. Demographics" and suggest that persona's provide a practical way to guide teams to think of customers in narrower, behavioral ways. The term "corporate refugee" suggests this thinking process. Persona's can be heavy or light-weight, based on deep research or culled from experiential knowledge and provide concrete guidance to feature choices. No application can be everything to everybody. A tight list of personas drives away from the ill-defined everybody to a well-understood somebody.
/andrew
6. ... Constant Contact ...
Fscking spammers!
By mentioning this scum sucking company, you've lost credibility.
Dharmesh - Great post! I agree completely, especially on the psychographics point. I've been focused on that for years.
You should ask certain key questions like these. "Who comes to your site?" "What do they want to do?" "Why do they want or need that?"
Most sites and systems are designed from a non-user point of view. This is like the sales mistake of selling on features, not benefits. In sales you need to sell the benefits. In sites and systems you need to focus on what problem(s) the user is trying to solve and let the architecture and functionality flow from that.
Each different group of users or visitors has different needs and concerns. You should address them directly. I think all sites should be designed around these groups with potentially a very different approach for each group.
In a corporate web site you have lots of different intnerests to serve: casual visitors (explain to them who you are and what you do); interested prospects (explain the problems you solve and why you are better than the alternatives); possible investors (explain your organization, history, leadership, financing history, openness to investment, etc.); users (provide info on upcoming releases, support, knowledgebases, downloads, etc.); senior management at prospects (interested in how professional and competent your org is).
Within the prospect group you should also address subgroups. All prospects are not the same. Ask yourselves the same questions again. Who comes here? Why? What do they want or need?
Most sites are guilty of this mistake. Of course that's not a good reason to continue doing it.
You can gain a considerable competitive advantage by understanding your target sub-audiences and their unique perspectives and needs. At the very least most organizations have the following types of prospects:
A - New to the market - try to educate them about the space and frame the problem(s) they are likely struggling with. Often they do not understand the issues well, let alone the possible solutions;
B - Somewhat knowledgeable first time buyers - If you educate category A correctly, you have turned them into category B types. Now the task is to explain the advantages of your service, product, or system. Remember sell on benefits first, then you can offer info on the features that provide those benefits.
C - Experienced users who are unhappy with their present system/product/service. For this group you want to position your offerings against the competitive landscape. You can educate these visitors on the general types of alternatives and how your approach is superior. A competitive feature matrix might be appropriate. Remember to sell the benefits though.
D - Decision-makers - these are dimension of the types of visitors. For decision-makers you want to provide a direct action-oriented info like extensive details on features, support, pricing, ordering, etc. Decision-makers want details.
E - Influencers - These folks want to know if you are credible. They will either agree to using your system, disagree, or abstain. Make sure your info contains lots of supporitng materials like press coverage, external reviews, corporate history, success stories, etc.
F - Potential End-users - these folks are worried about migration, ease of use, and specific hot-button issues.
G - Managers - these folks are mostly concerned about whether this will be easy to implement, adopt, and admininster. Will it provide a solid return on investment? Does it solve a real problem?
You get the idea. FAQ's are valuable because they focus on the question at hand. Psychographic segmentation is like FAQ's taken to an extreme. It get's inside the head of the visitor or user and orients the information to their unique interests and needs.
I believe call to actions are critical. I would also ad follow up. Constant Contact and Go daddy, are good at contacting you when your account has been deemed" dead". I think that small businesses some times need to be led to the water, as we are doing a hundred things and technology might not be at the fore front of our minds. I also like the personalization of having my own rep and contact person. I am new blogger and have recieved my own rep from CC, I have been upsold ( in a good was) as a result.
It's nice to see someone who's addressing the specific needs of the small business owner. I read some where that stated small business owners like "do-it-yourself" unless it comes to the nitty-gritty details. Areas like accounting for instance, they'll do the normal day-to-day functions but at the end of the month they'll send their data to an accountant. The same can be said for technology. They like to setup their own PCs (sometimes), but when it comes to something more complex like system security, they prefer to outsource.
You are correct, it does have to be easy to use. They don't like to feel intellectually inferior. Your third point is is interesting about contact info. I've been to some sites where it's nearly impossible to find someone to contact. I avoid buying from them totally. I never knew the stats about them finding that more comfortable but seldom used.
Nice info. Thank you.
Don't forget geographics. Many people living in different parts of the US use different brands, have different needs, and look for different solutions.
Vistaprint might find a new challenge with the advent of video recording using a browser
Examples can be seen in the FREE Video Business Card section of
www.isendout.com -- register then click VIDEOBIZCARD
Its free
www.hypronex.com has professional website design services geared toward small businesses.
great article, one thing i would add is credible references from experts and influences. Most small business owners will seek reassurance that they are not chasing a fad, if you can get some credible folks to endorse the product, it will pay dividends.
Secondly, I think samples for different industries works well. They will ask you how have you helped people like them.
Remember that only marketers and vendors think of them as small business owners, they think of themselves as financial advisers, wine makers, event planners etc., etc.
I agree that point 4 is critical "Psychographics vs. Demographics" and suggest that persona's provide a practical way to guide teams to think of customers in narrower, behavioral ways. The term "corporate refugee" suggests this thinking process. Persona's can be heavy or light-weight, based on deep research or culled from experiential knowledge and provide concrete guidance to feature choices. No application can be everything to everybody. A tight list of personas drives away from the ill-defined everybody to a well-understood somebody.
Vistaprint might find a new challenge with the advent of video recording using a browser