The Importance of Target Audience for Website Design

Who are the faces behind the clicks on your website? Is your site catering for their needs?

Whatever the target demographic for your products or services, it’s good business sense to understand what makes them tick. That way, you can use all the design elements at your disposal to plan a site that truly captures their interest – converting clicks into sales. Find out more about creating a target audience for your website design.

Why design for a target audience?

Everyone’s different. But in general, we can group people according to things like age, gender and interests, to build up a picture of the type of products or services they will like. The more specific you can be when picturing the people who you’d like as your customers, the easier it is to target them effectively, with marketing aimed squarely at what they like and want. The better a website is at understanding user needs and solving a problem, the more likely it is to get results for your business – whether that’s an enquiry through your contact form, an online sale or a like on Facebook.

User personas

It can be easier to understand your target audience if you imagine individual “personas”. These are imaginary people who are the typical users of your product or website. For example, if you are selling educational toys for toddlers, you might have a number of different groups using your website:

• Parents of children under 5
• Educators and childcare professionals
• Friends and family looking for Christmas gifts

For each persona, it’s important that your website can appeal to them and give them what they are looking for.

How to target your website design to your audience

When designing your website for a target audience, your own personal preferences need to take a back seat. Although it’s great to have a site that you love the look of, it’s more important to serve up a site that your customers will respond to. For example, if you are designing a website for a funeral home, bright colours and animated images wouldn’t be suitable.

There are many different elements of web design that need to be carefully considered in order to build up a brand identity that fits your business. These include:

• Colour
• Typography
• Photographs and other images
• Layout and navigation

One useful way to get an idea of what your target audience might like is to check out the design elements used by competitor sites. Another is to do some simple user research: ask a small sample of people in your chosen demographic to use your website and tell you what works for them and what doesn’t.

Website accessibility

Simply put, website accessibility just means making sure your website is available to everyone. These days it’s required by law. But depending on who your site is aimed at, you might need to do more than the legal minimum. For example, if you have a website that’s likely to be read by people with learning disabilities, it’s good to keep it as simple as possible to navigate.

Get a site tailored to your customers’ needs

At Lemongrass Media, we can help you to create a website that really works, both for your users and your business. Find out more about our corporate website design services and contact us on 0800 690 6250 or enquiries@lemongrassmedia.co.uk.