Plan ahead - Save Time and Money

Simply put, the goal of marketing is to communicate the benefits of a product, service or project to absolutely everyone who could be interested in it. Sometimes the 'it' needs better definition. Sometimes, the producer of the 'it' just needs help understanding, elaborating or communicating the benefit. Starting a marketing strategy by establishing a clear understanding of the 'it' will help make your path to your goal easier.

Often, I'm brought into a project to build a website, and I start with the next step in defining a marketing plan - understanding your audience. This requires brainstorming and research because you might not be aware of ALL the potential audience. To help discover this, I ask my clients these questions?

1. Who do you want to visit your site?
2. What do these people look like? What do they read, movies do they watch? Do you have any idea where they live or what age or gender they are? You can do a little brainstorming on this question: write freely, speculate, guess, and then read this list over, and put a star by things you feel certain about.
3. What questions will these people want answered when they visit your site?
4. What other information would you like visitors to find on your website: (if this is NOT the same as #3, then why would a visitor be interested in this. Or if it's important, how can we ensure the visitor's interest? )
5. What action do you want visitors to your site to take? (Ask for more information, place an order, send an application) How do you prefer to be contacted? (phone, email, etc) and what info do you want them to give you when they do contact you?