Ebusiness 101 Part 2: Defining Your Audience

by Ramon Sanchez

Published on this site: August 8th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Carefully defining your audience before conducting any marketing or advertising efforts can save thousands of dollars and hours of wasted efforts. Audience research and awareness also helps you organize and design your website to appeal to this demographic. Your audience is anyone who uses your site from reading it to ordering on it and navigating through it.

Start by defining personal aspects of your audience to reach specific answers that can further your business.

Identify the following:

1. Their sex (percentage of male and female)
   
   
2. Their age (the dominant age range and categories)
   
   
3. Their technical ability
   
   
4. The number of years they've used the Internet
   
   
5. Their primary language
   
   
6. Their buying motives (economy, efficiency, durability, performance, labor- or time-saving, construction, operation, ease of repair or installation, availability, quality craftsmanship, etc.)
   
   
7. What emotions cause them to buy (need for security or convenience, curiosity, pride of appearance or ownership, prestige, fear, need for individuality, need for recognition, etc.)
   
   
8. How much money do they earn each year, and how much of this is disposable?
   
   
9. How much money do they spend each year on products similar to yours?
   
   
10. Where do they live?
    
    
11. Do they shop online? If so, how often?
    
    
12. Do they watch television, read the newspaper or search
    online?

From these questions, you can deduce the most effective means of advertising and promotion. You'll also identify the best way to reach into their pocketbooks using the right copy, design and user navigation. Will they see a Google AdWord ad if you started a campaign? Do they want a hip, creative or bare bones design? Will your site be compatible with their browser? The answers
should unfold.

When you're just starting out, your audience demographic data is often based on your own instinct and research. As you develop your business, conduct user surveys to fine-tune the actual figures. Then repeat this step every one to two years to ensure you're always marketing and selling toward the right clientele.
Stay tuned for Part Four: Setting Your Business Structure in this ten part series.

Ramon Sanchez writes about E-Business. For more great articles on this subject, come back to http://wwsw.Vasrue.com. Articles are published weekly on Travel, Real-Estate, E-business, Credit and a host of other great topics.