It’s tough when you serve different audiences. How can your website copy and design appeal to different people with different goals, pain points and different reasons for being on your website?

In this blog post, we’ll tell you how.

An Example of a Website with Multiple Audiences

Let’s look at an example we’re all familiar with – recruitment agencies. They have to appeal to the candidates (the people looking for jobs and submitting their CVs) but also to businesses (the companies that are looking for the perfect candidates). We often come across businesses with similar setups. One of the first questions we get asked is whether they should create separate websites for the different segments of their audience.

So let’s answer that question first.

Should I set up separate websites for the different types of audiences I want to appeal to?

While we know of business owners with multiple websites, we also know that having just one website takes a lot of work! If you want your website to have an impact on your business you’ll need to add content and update it regularly.

And it’s not just about that.

You’ll also have to think about driving traffic to that content. Managing more than one website can be very time-consuming, so it’s something we always advise our clients to think through carefully before making a decision. Plus, having two websites potentially means creating and managing separate social media accounts. Is this something you could currently accommodate in your business?

When in doubt, here’s a quick question that should help you make the right decision for your business.

Does your offer need its own branding in order to appeal to the audience you’re serving?

If the answer is yes, then you need completely separate websites with different logos, branding, and content. But if the offer fits within your brand, then you could create an additional product within your business and ensure you direct the right people to the right places on your website.

Ways You Can Appeal to Multiple Audiences Using One Website

You’ve established you’re going to use one website for your entire business, so how do you appeal to more than one audience in the one website?

Use buttons on your home page

Your home page is what you use to signpost people so they can take the next step on your website. You’re the one who needs to direct all the traffic coming to your website, so imagine you’re stood there with your little (metaphorical) whistle directing visitors left, right, or straight on.

If you want to appeal to multiple audiences, you need to quickly get everyone to where they need to be on your website. Unfortunately, a lot of people get this wrong on their home page, but it’s literally the biggest and best thing you can do for your business when you’re serving multiple sets of clients or customers.

An easy way to do this to have clear call-to-action buttons.

So, using the recruitment agency we mentioned earlier as an example, you might have two buttons:

“Looking for an exciting, new career?” (for candidates), and
“Looking for the perfect candidate?” (for companies).

Your audience can then immediately identify which button they need to click to get to the right place.

Use Your Big Bold Statement

If you haven’t come across the concept of the Big, Bold Statement before, head over to episode 5 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast – Why You Need a Big Bold Statement and How to Create One. In the episode, we give you 9 different ways to create a Big Bold Statement.

But for now, let’s just say that the Big Bold Statement is a summary of your business and what you do. It sits in that very prominent first third of the home page – the area you see straight away when you land on the website. And it tells your visitors they’re in the right place.

Coming up with a Big Bold Statement when you have two audiences is slightly trickier. It means you’ll have to think about both of your audiences and give your Big Bold Statement a broader appeal. While we’d always advise you to be as direct and as specific as possible, if you have multiple audiences, you may need to think about a different way of communicating what you do that appeals to both sets of people.

Take us for example. We have two audiences, one that wants a done-for-you web design service costing upwards of 3.5k and ones that want to create a website themselves. Coming up with a big, bold statement for these two audiences was tricky. We came up with: ‘Make Your Mark Online, A Website You Can Be Proud Of.’  – it clearly says that we specialise in (websites) without being too specific to one particular audience.

Use the promo area

The promo area is essentially the area where you show your 3 or 4 key, main services, and people can click on them and take the next step to find out more about the services they’re after. Normally the promo area sits under the Big Bold Statement.

This is your opportunity to direct people where they need to go on your website. Take a look at Janet Murray’s website as an example, she has three key services – speaking, membership and consulting. These are completely different audiences but she uses her website to direct them where they need to go straight away.

But it isn’t just about your homepage. Let’s have a quick look at your other pages.

Follow the one-service-one-page rule

Should you have all your services on one page?

Of course, it’s tempting to fall into the trap of using the same page to suit all your audiences and talk in general terms. But you’ll find that if you do this, your website won’t convert as well. If you group all your services and your audiences together, your website won’t be as effective and may end up confusing your visitors.

So if you want to see results, it’s worth putting the time and effort into thinking about your different audiences and then writing specific pages for them. Every page on your website should be geared towards one particular audience segment. This is true of any website, but it’s even more important if you’re targeting multiple audiences. So, to direct people to the products and services that matter specifically to them, create a unique page for each service.

Using the recruitment agency as an example again, if you have a candidate looking for information about what jobs you have available, there’s no point in sending them where they can find out what you can do for companies! Don’t even show them that page – they don’t need to see it!

Focus on your audiences’ needs and problems

Each segment of your audience will have their individual concerns and problems they need you to solve. If you speak to them generally about how great you are, you won’t be as impactful. So make your content really targeted and specific. On each page, focus on the needs and problems your audiences are having and create content that’s relevant to them. Everything you have on that page needs to be geared towards that person – remove any content that isn’t specifically for them.

Think of each of your web pages as its own tool – almost like its own salesperson. You want to use your copy to convert these people to become leads. So be intentional and share testimonials and links to blog content that are relevant to the person who’s on that page.

So if I create different pages for different services, does each page need its own design?

Not necessarily. There’s no reason why you should have a completely different design for each of your audiences. In an ideal world, this might be nice and might work, but your time is precious!

We suggest that you keep the same design, layout, and structure, but make sure that the content and the calls-to-action are different and always speak to your individual audiences. You don’t have to make each page a different design, but you need to make sure the copy, the images, the testimonials, and the links to your blog posts are different.

Would you like personalised advice and feedback on your website?

We are still offering FREE website critiques every Wednesday, so join our Facebook group and put your name forward so we can give you feedback on your website.
And if you’re after more in-depth advice and personalised tips, we’d love to be able to work with you inside our membership Make Your Mark Online. This is our signature membership program, where we teach personal brands how to build and grow a successful business website. We teach you all about WordPress, SEO, how to define your personal brand, and build a website that you can be proud of.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post How to Appeal to More Than One Audience Using Your Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.