Select the right audiences

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Select the right audience(s)
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People feel they are part of your web site. They
feel a sense of ownership.They will tell you
what you are doing if it is wrong or not, in
their opinion. The web is plastic. If you make
a mistake, you can fix it and a week later, it
wont matter at all.

• David Talbot, Editor-In-Chief, Salon online
  magazine interview with Terry Gross of NPRs
  Fresh Air

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Target your web site for the best audience(s)

• audience noun
• 1 a reading, viewing, or listening public
• 2 a group of listeners or spectators
• 3 those of the general public who give attention
  to something said, done, or written
• Merriam Webster Online

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Then develop the site to

• Maximize your goals
• Meet the needs of those visiting
• Generate repeat visits
• Earn personal recommendations to others
• And increase bookmarking

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Selecting your target audience is not something
to fear,

• whether you are starting a new web site or
  revising your existing site

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It is something you owe to your audience, and
is necessary if

• You want to hold their attention
• You want them to learn from and leave with the
  resources youve placed on your web site
• You want to use your web site as a communication
  tool

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Remember, a web site is not a technological
demon under the bed

• Its an open brochure, delivered electronically,
• to let your audience know what you do
• or what you have to sell

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So, how DO you target for your audience(s)

• and how do you determine
• what needs they have at your web site?

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Tally, for instance, has to support

• Corporate politics (Tallys parent corporation
  likes to dictate look-and-feel from Germany)
• Sales and marketing, including e-commerce
• Resellers and value-added resellers
• End-user customers seeking specific printers for
  specific tasks or buying in specific geographic
  locations (east coast, Ivory Coast, Brazilian
  coast, etc.)

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• Educated shoppers (who buy spares and supplies)
• General public (via search engines)
• Marketing communications (what's new/press
  releases/new products)
• Human resources (job openings)

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• Technical support personnel (who use the web site
  to deliver the latest driver updates)
• Service (so customers may order service calls and
  purchase contracts)
• Perhaps a night sysop whose printer dies at 1
  a.m. the night he's doing 100,000 dunning letters

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• Differences between IE and Netscape, and between
  version 2, 3, 4, and 5 browsers (and now, version
  6)
• Screen resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768).
  Tallys web site dynamically fits the screen at
  each resolution
• Mac? Or PC? Or even Alpha?

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• ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
• Use ALT and TITLE tag attributes for every
  graphic and hyperlink. Include text-based
  hyperlinks. Make sure navigation structure is
  same on every page

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Lots of divergent needs You get the picture
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How do you determine who to please?
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and who to ignore?

• What product/service are you selling yes, even
  non-profits need to know this
• What specifics of your product/service make
  you/it/them unique?
• How is the product/service used?
• Is your audience internal? Or external?

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• What are the needs of people/companies to whom
  you sell?
• What are the needs of people/companies to whom
  you DONT sell?
• What are the sales and technical requirements of
  the product/service?
• Who might be seeking your product/service?

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• What emergency might they be resolving?
  (equipment breakdown, technical support, etc.)
• What emergency might YOU be resolving? (crisis
  communications, message clearinghouse, etc.)

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• Will their visit result in a request for
  information?
• Will their visit result in a sales lead?
• Will their visit result in a sale?
• Will their visit result in a recommendation to
  someone else to visit your site?

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• What potential equipment might they be using to
  view your web site? (What kind of beat-up dogs of
  workstations have their companies assigned to
  their desk?)

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This is all standard marketing research
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R O P I M

• Research your audience (and your goals)
• Set your Objective(s)
• Plan your site
• Implement (and test, test, test)
• Measure your results
• and revise what needs to be changed

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Assuming that you want to sell to all of these
audiencesKeep them coming back!
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How?
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Audience are impatient.And choosy.And not very
loyalAnd sometimes, downright ahem stupid
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If your web site doesnt immediately meet
audience expectations, they will

• Jump to your competitors
• Jump to the next item in the search listing
• Search again
• Move to a different topic for their search

• Close their browser if your technology freezes
  them up (major JavaScript problem)
• Complain (rarely but vehemently)

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TipThe seven-second rule saysSomething new
displays or moves on your page every seven
seconds or less

• The main menu (the butterfly) is chopped into a 4
  by 6 grid
• Each item appears one at a time
• The grid uses ALT tags for experience (repeat)
  visitors
• The entire grid loads in 10-20 seconds but
• each item loads in less than two seconds

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Other questions to ask

• Organization of site
• Never more than three clicks deep. Never more
  than one click away from Home page or any other
  section
• Big files?
• Warn people if graphics/downloads are large
• Security?
• Is it needed for your audience? Tally has a
  password-secured zone for each VAR

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• Other resources required?
• Warn people if plug-ins, applets, extra programs
  are required. Tally requires Adobe Acrobat
  Reader, so we include a link to the Adobe
  download site on every page
• Contact information?
• When do you give addresses and telephone
  numbers? And when notprivacy/security issues?
  And where on the site do you put them?

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• On-screen instructions?
• Can audience follow directions.
  Testing/usability is big issue
• Off-site links?
• Do you want them to come back to your site? If
  so, always have the hyperlink open the new site
  in a separate browser window (use
  target_blank). When they finish and close that
  windowthey are right back at your site.

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Consider this boo-boo

• Lack of site-wide continuity
• A popular Florida resort citys web site
  contains a well-anecdoted list of sights to visit
  but nowhere on the site is there a map of the city

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Another important question

• Do you ever throw away parts of your audience?

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Yes!Absolutely
You may need to consider excluding parts of the
potential audience, based on your research, your
goals, and the needs of your audience
especially the technologies youll use to deliver
your content.
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These are potentially exclusionary

• Frames eliminate version 1 and 2 browsers
• Java and JavaScript eliminate version 1 and 2
  browsers
• DHTML eliminates version 1, 2, AND 3 browsers
• HTML 4.0 and XML eliminate browsers lower than
  version 4.01
• 1024x768 pages sizes eliminate smaller monitors
• AOLs browser chokes on most of these

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Consider some web site horror stories

• Ive seen all of these
• Formatting that DEMANDS you use Netscape (or
  Internet Explorer)
• Remember, most people have a preference!
• Screen resolutions so low the type chunks up
  and is unreadable
• Always assume 640x480 unless you know
  differently its the Windows default

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• Graphics that take 90-145 seconds (or longer) to
  become visible remember the seven-second rule
• Horizontal scroll bars 8, 9, 10 screens wide
• Never, never design more than the initial
  screens width avoid horizontal scroll bars at
  all cost
• Dynamic HTML (only 30 percent of all browsers
  will actually allow you to view it)

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• Links make sure you research/test that second-
  and even third-level links dont take your
  visitors to pornographic sites
• (If you dont find those links, someone else
  will can you afford the negative
  connotations?)
• Content that stays static for months/years
• Content that is out of date
• Spelling and grammar mistakes

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• Culture starting Hebrew pages with text going
  the wrong direction
• Technical look at web sites operated by Japanese
  hobbyists in Japanese
• If youre using a Western operating system, you
  wont read their pride-and-joy
• then consider what happens when they tweak their
  hyperlinks to, say, black not-underlined

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• Lack of testing in all browsers and at all screen
  resolutions looks fine in Internet Explorer,
  doesnt display at all in Netscape or vice
  versa
• Content that require plug-ins, applets, or
  downloads (especially those that dont warn you
  they are installing themselves)
• Yes, this even includes Flash/Shockwave

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• JavaScript so intensive it crashes the visitors
  browser
• If they open more than two browsers with pages
  using JavaScript, they risk destablizing their
  operating system
• Pages that require JavaScript to display even the
  first line of content

Even done some of those things myself
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Yes, this seriously affects content
developmentYou may need to make your content
simpler
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This also impacts what technologies you use to
deliver your content
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Problem technologies for some users

• Java and JavaScript
• Perl and Java beans
• HTML version 4.0 and XML.
• Cascading Style Sheets

• Active Server Pages (ASP)
• Cold Fusion or Net Objects
• DHTML, Flash, Dream Weaver, and Shockwave
• And worst of all large graphic images

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In fact, some people toggle these things off in
their browser options
So beware of anything that is innovative,
refreshing, flashy, or advanced
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In some extreme cases, you may be limited to

• Plain-vanilla HTML no higher than W3C version
  3.2 (or even 3.0)
• Text-based content only (no style sheets)
• No animated or transparent graphics
• Or no graphics at all
• No downloads or plug-ins (Juno.com)

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Never assume your audience will be as technically
literate as you areOr as financially well-off
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Do your research Understand your audienceThey
WILL recognize and reward the consideration
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Which meansTheyll return to your web
siteThey will be likely to book mark it

• Research indicates that 1998 was the high-water
  year for search engines
• In 1999, a new trend appeared in hit-log
  analysis
• Hit logs showed visitors who didnt come from any
  other web site, hyperlink, search engine
  nothing trackable
• They could only be coming from their own
  bookmarks
• which they themselves saved
• And the trend is accelerating

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About my background

• Full-time web developer/web manager for five
  years
• 25 years marketing communications and print
  production experience
• 16 years as managing editor of international
  corporation's weekly full-color worldwide
  magazine
• Developed new communication tools/vehicles and
  killed ones that reached their lifespan ( and
  web sites need this, too)
• Degree in journalism and communications
• Introduced accessibility to Microsoft Exchange
  Server and MCIS/Site Server groups
• Set up web pages and online content for
  limited-sight persons and those with other
  handicaps

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