Setting the right website goals is important for the growth of your site and business. You can’t be everything to everybody, or you’ll end up with an aimless site that confuses your target audience.
Instead, you need to focus on specific segments and where your site offerings align with your users’ needs. From there, the next step is to identify offerings that have a high return and require the least amount of effort, start with them, and progress. This post highlights five main segments to prioritize to improve your website.
Start By Addressing Users Needs and Wants
Your website segments and offerings should show that you have the end user in mind. If your ideal customer has different needs from your goals, it can make you irrelevant and create a disconnection between you and them.
Always try to think about it from the perspective of what your users want first and not what you want. Discover the essential details like their shopping interests, communication preferences, pain points, and what content motivates or triggers them.
You can do this by creating a buyer persona profile that represents the wants and needs of your potential ideal customer. If you have more than one buyer persona—primary and secondary, you can create personas for them too.
You can also conduct quantitative and qualitative research and analysis using a focus group that matches your ideal persona. Use the data and information collected from your research to make more informed decisions and tailor your goals to your users’ needs.
Position your Offering as a Solution to Users’ Problems
Your website should focus more on your users’ needs and how to address their issues. Avoid talking about the technical aspects of your product, services, and company. Customers buy results and benefits, not products.
Instead, use the value-centric or value-proposition approach, which focuses on solving underlying user problems and pain points. Use this opportunity to position your business as the ideal solution for their problems. Your website positioning statement should address:
- Who you serve (if you can solve their problem)
- Why you’re in business (Is your business mission to solve their problem?)
- The value you offer (how your product or service can solve their issue)
- What differentiates you from the competition (standout aspects)
Using relevant problem-solving information always guarantees the best possible user experience and keeps your user engaged. In return, it boosts user dwell time on your website.
Include Outcomes and Do your Best to Show, Not Tell
Users today are attracted to and emotionally invested in businesses that prove they can do what they say they can. You should include social proof on your website as a psychological marketing strategy to establish trust with your target audience.
While realistically, it may be hard to get some of these things, take it one step at a time as you grow. They include:
Visualizations
Visuals help attract users to your website and establish trust and authority with them. Visuals also explain what it is that you do, who your ideal customers are, and how you can solve their problems better than text. The various types of visuals you can use are:
- Attractive background images
- Testimonial videos, segmented or on auto-play, that last a maximum of 2 minutes
- Relevant infographics
- Image or video slideshow ads showing your products or services
- Catchy thumb links
Case Studies
You can display case studies on your website showing how your service or product has helped past customers over a measurable period. Case studies are real-life examples from real clients and can act as solid evidence of your claims, increasing your credibility with users. You use both text and visual case studies to be more engaging with your audience.
Expert or Influencer approval
Recommendations from experts and well-known professionals in your field can help you establish authority and trust with users. You can get a leader to recommend your product or service by blogging, posting on social media, or giving a direct quote. Attach these to your website so users can see them.
Ratings and Reviews
Customer ratings and reviews are excellent social proof that costs no money or effort. You can request that customers leave detailed reviews and ratings on each product or service page. You can also include a way for other users to verify if the reviews are legit. For example, thumbs up and drop-down icons on each review. This way, your business and the reviews are credible.
Product Demand
Displaying demand for your product or service can increase user belief in your business’s products and services. It also increases the sense of urgency for users to take action before stocks run out. You can indicate the number of active customers purchasing from your business on your website
Iterate and Evolve
Of course, user needs and tastes change over time, just as do your goals and website trends. The best way to know what to prioritize is to constantly test various strategies by implementing them.
You should also keep learning about your audience’s needs and wants and how they change over time. Doing this will help you evolve and tailor your website goals to their present needs and wants. Above all, it is all right to crawl throughout this process, provided you keep moving. No one has it all figured out.
Reach Your Website Goals and Initiatives Using a Customized Website
Having a website is important. However, a website serves no use if it doesn’t have an impact on the target consumer. The right way to improve website efficiency and maximize your ROI is to find a connection between your goals and the user’s wants and needs.
You can do this by prioritizing website initiatives that address your users’ main wants and needs, positioning your business as a solution to users’ needs, using social proof to build credibility, and constantly learning.
Also, don’t be afraid to start and grow slowly, especially when building social proof. Some things take time. Contact us for more information on how we can help you create meaningful, impactful content.
