It is important to define every one of your target markets. If you’re going to build this Web site, you might as well build it for all of your target markets. For each and every one of your target markets, you need to determine:
- Their needs
- Their wants
- Their expectations.
For each and every one of your target markets, you should also try to determine an appropriate “WOW” factor. What can you provide for them on your Web site that will WOW them? Your objective should be to exceed the target market’s expectations.
Your main target market might be your potential customer, but other target markets might include existing customers, or the media, or those who influence the buying decision for your potential customers.
When you look at—really look at—potential customers versus existing customers, you realize that what these two groups want and need from your Web site is probably different. Someone who is an existing customer knows your company. Learning about your products, services, business practices, and the like, is not a priority for this person. A potential customer needs to know about these things before giving you his or her business. “Customer” is such a huge target market; it needs to be broken down into segments. If you were a hotel, for example, your customer target market might be broken down further into:
- Business travelers
- Vacation travelers
- Family travelers
- Meeting planners
- Handicapped travelers
- Tour operators
- Golfers
- Outdoor adventure enthusiasts
- Eco-tourists.
You get the idea. You need to segment your customer target market and then, for each segment, you need to do an analysis of needs, wants, and expectations.