Of course, there are some who understand their target audience inside and out and ask for changes based on the knowledge of their target audience’s preferences and needs. The target audience of this article is obviously not those people.

More often than not, the provider of a product or service is NOT part of their own target audience. This means that research must be done to determine the target audience’s needs and desires. It also means that a design and its elements may not particularly appeal to the client.

This is not to say that the designs for the business should not reflect the owner. But it should, above all else, be appealing to its target audience and solve their problems.

What is a Target Audience, anyway?

Every bit of marketing that your company does must be focused toward a specific set of people, or it will be unsuccessful. Your target audience is comprised of the people who will be most likely to purchase your product or service.

When asked about the importance of a Target Audience, Angela Rohner (@rohner, owner of thebestdesigns.com) had this to say:

I have been a professional web designer since 1999, and I also run a CSS/Flash Gallery that I launched in 2001. Throughout the years of working for different firms on many different types of projects and running some of my own websites, I learned that one of the most crucial parts of an effective website is to understand your audience and to keep learning about your audience. It’s important that you keep up with the needs of your visitors and strive to make your website the best it can be. The user interface and content of your website should be tailored to best fit their needs.

If you start a business or a new website or service, it is usually started because you see a need for it. Somewhere in the world, there are people that may need or want your service or product. You need to find out who these people are and why they want to use your product or service. Are they an older or younger audience – or an even mix of the two? What part of the world are you targeting? Only a certain area or all over the world? What are they interested in? What types of industries do they work in? As time goes on, you will start to learn more about your audience – through polls on your website or feedback from your visitors – so that you can keep your website on track. You should always keep an open mind to change and listen to their feedback.

When I started TheBestDesigns.com, it was important to have smaller thumbnails of featured websites so that load times were a little faster and so that visitors could see more websites on a page at once. Since then, times have changed. Many visitors seem to like the larger thumbnails now. A couple of years ago, I added category tags so that my visitors could browse through websites based on their design style or design elements used. In recent months, I have been taking notes about some things that I am going to change and enhance during my next revamp. I also started a Twitter account for the site recently and have enjoyed interacting with my visitors. I have been listening to my visitors because I know how important they are, and I appreciate their feedback.

So how does one determine their Target Audience?

For some it may be simple: If you sell fishing lures, your target audience would be people who like to fish. However, this isn’t always the case, and for some, pinning down their target audience may be a difficult task. There is also something to be said for finding a niche. Maybe you sell fishing lures, but maybe there is something very special about these lures. For example, perhaps they only attract a certain type of fish. Then you will only want to target people who fish in a specific area that has that specific type of fish.

1. Make a list of attributes and benefits of your product or service. List those who would benefit most from it and from there make a list of attributes of those people.

• Where do they live?
• How old are they?
• What gender are they?
• What do they do for a living?
• What is their income level?
• What is their education level?
• What is their computer usage level? How much do they use the internet?
• Are they married?
• Do they have kids?

2. Do your research. Talk to people who fall within the parameters of your presumed target audience and find out what their needs are, and if your product or service fits with them or not.

3. Ask around. Talk to friends and family to find out who they think would be a good fit for your product or service. Talk to others online, on Twitter or on discussion boards. Many times there are people willing and eager to help.

I know who they are – now what?

When you have determined your target audience, get to know them. Find out how your product or service most benefits your target audience and make a note to focus on those benefits.

You also need to understand the size of your audience. A marketing plan for a small group of people is much different than that of a large group of people.

Do research to find out what is appealing to them and how to leverage your marketing and design to appeal to them.

Let’s say you want to create a community website like myspace, only it is geared toward teenage girls – allowing them a place to collect their thoughts and share with their girlfriends without the worry of having their teenage counterparts seeing what they are talking about.

Some may feel that the best color for this website would be pink. But would it? Many girls get irritated at the fact that the color pink is always instantly assumed as a girl’s color, and, especially at this age, teenagers are looking for some independence. This may not be the color that appeals to the most teenage girls. Ask around in that age range and find out what colors are liked and disliked. Something like this may change every few years. Can you make your identity something that will be able to easily evolve with it?

Now that you know who your target audience is and understand them a little better, you are one step closer to an effective marketing and design campaign. Once you have a better idea of your target audience, you will be able to understand why your designer may have designed something a certain way.

You should also include information about your target audience in Requests for Proposals to potential designers to aid them in crafting a better design and giving you a more accurate price. A good designer will do their research, but any information that you can provide makes their job easier, and also what they provide more effective for your business.

1. Hire a professional web site designer who knows what they are doing and has proven themselves in the field.
2. Make sure the web developer you choose uses web standards compliant code.
3. Listen to suggestions made by your web designer and, when possible, implement them.
4. Trust your web designer.
5. If your site is not popular right away, invest more time and money in advertisement, not redesign.
6. Don’t give up on offline advertising.
7. Become informed.

For details about each one, visit the IQMZ blog!

So what can you do? Here are some suggestions to help your money go a little further and really get results.

1. Put together a realistic budget and be open about it.

While some people are afraid to put their budget out there in the open, you’re actually doing yourself a favor when you do. If you present your budget to them first, and it is under what they normally charge, they can decide if they still may be able to finagle some things and work within your budget. Of course, I stress that you need to still have a reasonable budget, and don’t be surprised if you may need to drop some of your planned bells and whistles.

2. Always communicate clearly.

Be specific about things that you like or don’t like and don’t be afraid to point them out in other designs or in our own. If you have your own vision for the project, be very descriptive. Don’t use subjective words. If you need to, sketch things out – we don’t care if you can’t draw. In many cases, it can help to communicate easier if you are explaining a drawing.

3. You hired the designer for their expertise…

So let them do what you hired them for. This comes in two parts: Actually taking a step back and accepting that they are the expert and recognizing their expertise – when they recommend something to you, for instance – and also not “checking in” on your project every hour of the day. Designers need time to work. Any creative needs uninterrupted time to do what they are best at. We ask that our clients schedule phone calls in advance, and we do not usually take phone calls that are not scheduled, particularly when in the middle of a project. This choice is made with our clients’ best interests in mind.

4. Let the designer come up with the solutions.

This is relative to number 3, because you hired a designer to create solutions for your problems. If there is something in the design that doesn’t necessarily work for your target audience, instead of suggesting a solution, tell them the problem. Chances are, they will come up with a solution that is better than you could have dreamed. Whereas, if you suggest something, that is what you will get – which may not be the solution that yields the best results.

5. Come to the table organized.

Create a plan for your company and stick to it. If you don’t have your own plan, be prepared to work with a business advisor or, if your designer offers consulting as well, be prepared to pay for them to get you organized. Any good designer will ask you to fill out an in-depth design questionnaire before they begin your project (unless you provide the needed information another way). If you’re not ready for this step, you’re not ready for the design phase. In order for a design to truly be effective for your company, you need to know many things, including what you want to achieve, your goals and objectives.

Q1. How do you want visitors to describe your business? List as many descriptive words as you can think of.

This question is focused on your customer’s view of your business, how you wish to be perceived. The more descriptive words that you can list here, the better. Since many descriptive words can be slightly subjective in nature, listing more will help the designer to get a better feel for what exactly you mean.

Q2. Describe your target audience. How old are they and what do they do for a living?

You’ll want to provide any information that you know about your target audience. This even includes how adept they are at using a computer. It may include very specific things such as the type of pets they own. This is all relative to your business, but it is a very important question and will have great impact on your design.

Q3. Who is your main competition and what do you do better and/or different than them? Feel free to comment on the design of your competitor’s campaigns.

List your key competitors and their websites. If you do something different or better than them, let us know so that we can focus on that difference. This will be something that really sets you apart from your competition. Think about why customers should choose you over your competitor(s). If relevant, you may comment on their design and things that you feel work or don’t work for it.

Q4. (A) How would you like someone to react when they first see the design? (B) What is the most important thing you want people to do when they see your design?

Part A of this question is all about their feelings when they see your design. You may want to create something surprising, or alarming, or on the other hand you may want something calming.

Part B deals with action. Do you want the person viewing your design to call you? Email? Visit your website? Fill out a contact form? Purchase an item? This should be whatever you think is the most important thing a user should do as soon as they see your design so that we can create a successful call to action.

Q5. What do you think is the most important aspect of your project? What should people notice first?

This is more of what the design should actually focus on. Is there a specific product you are trying to push? Is there a discount you want to offer? Perhaps you are offering a free download on your website, or maybe you want to focus on your blog.

Q6. Do you have official branding guidelines that must be adhered to?

If you have a brand developed and can provide us with guidelines to follow so that your website adheres to what is already established, please provide that information here. Some companies actually have a pamphlet describing brand guidelines that they can provide to designers to ensure that their brand’s integrity remains intact. Clients may provide this in addition to the questionnaire.

Q7. List a few designs that you like and what you like about them. If applicable, list features that you do not like about them as well.

We suggest that those filling out the questionnaire go to a few design galleries to see nice designs and list the ones that they like here. This gives us an idea of design styles and personal tastes of our client, which helps us to create a design that will be something they can live with as well. I find it especially useful to know things that clients don’t like about a specific design so that I can shy away from those practices. It also helps if you can provide reasons as to why you think a certain design style might be applicable to your project.

Q8. Personal Taste: What is your favorite automobile? Favorite musician (or music genre)? How would you describe your personal style and how would you like that reflected in this design?

While appealing to the target audience and getting them to react appropriately is the number one goal of any design, I still think it is very important for every business to incorporate the personal style of its principals into its design. This gives a unique and personal touch, and also enables the design to be loved and last longer internally.

After all, if you aren’t happy with your company’s design, you won’t be able to get behind your product or service 100%, and that will cause failure just as much as failing to communicate to your audience will.

However, there are cases where a written tutorial with visual aids helps to get new users started. We prepared a PDF tutorial going through the basics of getting started with Wordpress.

Getting Started with Wordpress