How to Use Market Research to Improve Your Website
Your web designer will understand your vision for your website better if you can supply as much pertinent information as possible. Consider the target market you wish to view and use your website. Consider how you want these visitors to use your site. This information will not only have an effect on your web content but also how your site is presented to your target audience. When you have defined this, your web designer will be able to make recommendations on the most appropriate approach to get your desired result.
You will also need to define your brand and who you are as a business. This will help the developer create the most appropriate design that will engage your target market. The look and feel of your website will set the tone for your business. In the process, the user’s experience will be improved and your visitors will stay and read your content.
Before you start the creation of your website, doing your market research first would be wise. Market research is essential in any business because this allows you to better understand your potential customers. If you want to take your business to the next level you need to find out everything you can about your target market. Getting the answers to the “who, what, where, when and how” questions will propel your website success forward.
The conventional method to market research is conducting surveys. This research method will indicate the history of your business and aims to reveal what will make it more successful. If you really want to make the most out of conventional market research methods, you should look for more information wherever you can, including emails, notes from call centres, web blogs, online forums, chat rooms and product reviews, among others. This will generate a thorough picture of your market and client base. However, the problem is this kind of investment of time and resources is out of reach for most small businesses.
For small businesses, we suggest looking through your existing customer base and identifying your best ten customers. You should then write a profile for each of these top customers describing the following:
Who they are?
What is their age range?
Are they male or female?
What do they do?
Where their business is located?
What do they like to purchase?
Why they purchase from you?
How often will they purchase?
How do they prefer to be contacted (Phone, email, etc.)?
Describe their personality.
It is best if you speak with your customers to get their answers to some of these questions. What you think the answers are and what they think are often miles apart. Once you have the answers to these questions, look through them and find the common denominator among these customers. Write a profile of your ‘ideal customer’ based on the common denominators and base your website around attracting this kind of person. If you are brand new to business, find people you believe would be good customers for you and take the same approach outlined above.
If you have a researcher, business coach or mentor or some other form of relationship with a third party who can do the above research on your behalf, they often produce a better outcome. You may be too close to your own business and may need to take a step back to see things clearly. A third party is often better in guiding respondents through a questionnaire and then collating the information gathered from the given answers. However, this usually comes at a cost. If your budget doesn’t allow someone else to do your research, just be aware of the potential pitfalls and do your best to avoid them.
You can make your questions as detailed and specific as you are comfortable asking. There may be specific questions relevant to your industry that should be asked and others that are possibly not as important. When structuring your questions, start with general questions before proceeding to the specifics and try to make them as conversational as possible. It’s a good idea to be open and transparent from the onset, explaining that they are one of your top customers and you have some questions to ask that will help you find more customers just like them. There are really no stringent rules on what questions to ask, just make sure it doesn’t take up too much of their time. While asking your questions aim to:
- Keep the respondent in one mindset at any given time.
- Ask the easy questions first then the more involved ones and any potentially sensitive questions last.
- Phrase the questions so they don’t sound intimidating and are clear.
- Reward your customers with a small gift or send a card to thank them for their time.
The length of the questionnaire is dependent on the level of information you need to make good decisions. Be considerate and professional in your questioning process. Although some may only take five minutes, ensure that your questionnaire should never take more than 20 minutes to answer.
Competitor Research
Research what your competitors and related businesses are doing. Your visitor’s will have expectations regarding your business website based on what they have experienced with other sites, particularly those of your competitors. You should be gathering ideas for your website and start analysing the competition. The navigation, the content and the interactive functionality of your competition’s sites should be analysed closely. Take note of the language and style used as well as the design layout. This doesn’t mean you should copy them. You may be able to identify the weaknesses on your competitors’ sites which you can improve upon. You should also look across different industries that may service the same target market to see what you can introduce to your own business website. Think laterally.
