Attract the Right Audience

The key to great user experience is knowing your audience. Figuring out who your audience is and what they are looking for will help you to improve the overall user experience of the site as well as improving your marketing efforts.

Here are three things you need to consider:

1) Who is your audience?

Breaking down who your audience really is can help you target them better. Who is the typical person who uses your website? How old are they? What type of income are they on? 

These basic questions will help you justify where you should be marketing and how you should be marketing. 

2) What are they looking for?

People are coming to your website for information but not necessarily just to find out about your business. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, what type of information would be value to them? Use your imagination and common sense to figure out why your audience came to you in the first place and what they may be looking for within your website.

For estate agent websites, the primary reason a user may come to your site would be to search for properties but they also may be interested in industry news that you supply through your blog, your contact information or a brief information regarding your local area.

Whatever your audiences journey, once they land on your website make sure you have accommodated for their needs.  

3) What do they want to gain?

Why are they on your website? Do they want to research something or are they viewing to make a purchase? Do they want to make an offer on a property? Etc…

Make a list of things they may want to achieve from visiting your website and make sure your website meets all of their needs.

Now take action

You’ve now got a basic understanding of who your audience is and what they would like to be presented with. 

From the 3 points above, you can now make an educated judgement call on the colours your website should be, what sort of images will appeal to your audience, the type of call-to-actions that will be most effective, the type of content you should be producing on your website, which social media sites are likely to be most successful for your social campaigns, when to post things to get maximum exposure, etc.

Remember the most important part of your website is the content within it. The design is just a tool to get the customers through the door...