What Is Your Website’s Personality?
by Marsha Maung
Sept 28th, 2008
There are so many avenues to marketing a business on the internet today that, frankly speaking, it’s got me puzzled as well. And I’ve been doing this for more than ten years. Recently, a couple of people wanted to start an online business and asked me help out with their websites – I agreed. And I ask them the very same question that I ask all my graphic design and website development clients…. ‘So, what do you want your customers to see as?’
It’s an important question because websites are mainly faceless vehicles that people use to market themselves or their businesses. And when you’re faceless, it’s crucial…ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to them (and you) what they see you as the first time they pop into your website. And that’s one of the hardest questions a new business owner has to answer. Once you get over this hurdle, you’re pretty much clear on the website branding front.
Let’s assume that you’re selling antique stuff on your website….and this is a really tough one, what kind of antique store owner do you want the customers to see…or rather, what kind of first impression do you want to give your potential customers? Do you want them to come into your website and see you as an exuberant website with loads of new affordable products? Do you want them to hop in and see you as an old-school but reliable website and business owner – you make no bones about the fancy stuff, rather, you focus on quality (which equals high prices, I am assuming)? Do you want your customers to think of you a new-age antique store owner selling affordable, charming and stuff that appeal to young home owners as well?
As you can see, there are many ways to appeal to the right customers through your website and it won’t work, I repeat, it WON’T WORK, if you’re being too general. And many website owners struggle with this even as they are developing their websites, logos and what-nots. It pays for you, a new website and business owner to pay a little bit more attention to the initial branding of your website.
There are many ways to find out the kind of branding you want to use to reach your target audience. For one, you can use a focus group – oh, you don’t need a lot of people, really. Just ten people who belong to the right demographic profile would do. Shoot them with a list of questions, compile the information and you’ll have your answer. If you have a blog, a popular one would be good, use it to get feedback from your potential customers or ‘fan base’.
It gets a little trickier if you already have a website and you’re trying to revamp it and give it a branding lift. Consider, for a moment, what will it take to ‘change the first impression’. Changing the first impression can be an extremely exigent task, mind you.
What I find extremely useful is to use my imagination, or rather, prompt my client to use his or her imagination. This goes beyond just trying to imagine what the website will look like when it’s done. But it’s more like….imagine if your website is a new friend. What kind of person would this person be wearing? What kind of personality traits would you imagine your website albeit new friend would have? How do you think this website will try to sell you stuff – persistent, grunge, gentle, new-age, funky, chic, patient, endearing?
If my client is able to give me an image like that, it would make life easier (and his or hers, as well) when it comes to developing his/her website. Time is not wasted and we hit the hammer double-whammy to deliver the right message right from the start.*** *** ***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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Listen up! I am a very nice person, if you think this article is neat and you'd like to publish it in your website, all's cool with me but with one condition. Only one and from the bottom of my heart, I wish that you would, in all sincerity, allow me my one single wish....to place the following codes into the your website at the END OF THE ARTICLE. It's not going to disrupt much, so please do it?
Either paste the above ABOUT THE AUTHOR stuff into your website (with links included) or copy the following codes into your website. That's it! Thank you! *muax*
<b>Marsha Maung</b> is a Malaysian-based <a href="http://www.marshamaung.com" target="_blank">freelance writer</a> with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her <a href="http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com" target="_blank">blog</a> for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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