Avatar News March 15, 2007

Written By:
Steph Kendall
Edited By:
Tara Topliff
Published By:
Avatar Ltd

Targeting Your Audience

Greetings Web Dandies,

We've been out and about recently enjoying the Indian summer with pursuits such as mountain biking, river kayaking and outdoor concerts. This month's offering from your sun-kissed, endorphin-laden Web crew is about how to develop content for specific target audiences. We suggest a way to prevent loss of business through overly aggressive anti-spam filters and offer up the latest serving of Web news in tidbits and sites of interest.

If you need to improve your Web site sales or performance, why not commission an in-depth marketing review from us? It's this month's special and you'll save 20% off the normal price. You'll receive a report packed full of suggestions on how to get better results from your Web site.

Finally, don't forget to make the most of our long summer days — clocks change this Sunday!

In This Edition

Developing Site Content For Your Target Audience

Developing Site Content For Your Target Audience

When you are developing the content for your Web site, it's important to have a good think about your target audience first. Think about what type of content you can create for them and think about some of the questions people ask you.

Content for difference audiences
We've had a think about a few different types of online businesses and the content they may need to display for their target audiences. Here are a few ideas:

For highly involved purchasing decisions
It's likely that a 'big ticket item' such as a car or large piece of machinery will involve a purchasing decision made by more than one person. Questions asked by this target audience may include: does it do what we want it to, is it the best product available, is this best value for us, how are we going to finance it, do we trust this company, do we get a free trial, how do we get one and so on.

Typically, this audience will be more interested in free advice than price promotion, so content for this style of Web site could include:

For small un-involved purchasing decisions
Smaller purchasing decisions (for a gift, DVD or book for example) may be influenced by many of the same thought processes as for 'bigger ticket' items, but less is at stake and often only one person will be shopping. Your shopper (your audience) will tend to be more susceptible to price promotion. Content for this style of Web site could, therefore, include:

For holiday accommodation
Purchasing decisions for items such as holiday accommodation are likely to involve many of the thought processes already described, but they are also emotionally led decisions. People need to know about your accommodation, but they also want to be seduced by the thought of it — so the style in which you write your content is also going to be important. Content for this style of Web site could include:

For every type of business, Web site content should help the target audience answer their questions and remove any barriers to taking the next step. So have a think about what your target audience will see and read. Take time to make sure you look and 'sound' your best and double check that what you're saying is appropriate and easy for your customer to understand.

As part of our free Web site design quote, we talk to you about developing the best Web site content for your target audience. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Site Marketing Review — Special Offer

Increase Your Sales and Improve Your Web Site Performance

Want a better understanding of how your Web site can market your business to maximum effect? An Avatar in-depth site marketing review of your Web site home page (plus one sub page) aims to give you a better understanding of how you can improve your Web site marketing and your sales. The review includes:

A site marketing review normally costs between $240-$360+gst and takes us between two and three hours to complete. Until the end of April, we are offering a 20% discount on all site marketing reviews. To take advantage of this offer, please contact Michael.

Preventing Loss Of Business Through Anti-Spam

This month, a quick reminder for you to check your spam folders regularly. Some anti-spam filters, such as the Xtra Anti-Spam Filter, can inadvertently send genuine business emails to your spam folder, which means unless you specifically go looking for them, you're unlikely to find them!

Scan your spam folder for:

One of our clients recently reported a loss of business because their anti-spam filter was a little too aggressive. It can pay off to check your spam folder, so we suggest that you make a 'note to self' to look on a regular basis. If you are regularly getting valid emails from business contacts going to your spam folder it is definitely worth contacting your provider to find out how to prevent this. An intuitive spam filter should be able to 'learn' which emails are valid and which are not.

View more information on our preferred anti-spam filter, Rocket Spam.

Interesting Tidbits

Sites of Interest

Here's a selection of sites we've designed, updated and/or marketed recently...