Like your car, if you business presence is out of alignment with your customers, it will not move forward in a straight manner. Instead, you will find yourself fighting to stay on the the road heading in the direction you desire. Before you create a website or update your existing website, take some time and get very clear on these key questions:
What does my business do?
Write it out as fast as you can. List all of the features you offer. When you are satisfied with your draft, tear out the page, put it off to the side and start page two. For every feature you listed, list the benefit to your customer. If you have more than one type of customer, then make a third page just for them. The difference between a feature and a benefit is that a feature lists the fact and the benefit paints the full picture. For example:
Feature: “I tailor dress clothes”
Benefit: “I transform your wardrobe into a professional confident image that will help you be successful in the world.”
Who does my business serve?
It’s important to get very clear on who your business serves. As equally important, be open to other segments where your product or service will be used. Having a blanket approach strategy in your marketing plan will likely result in frustration while your dollars are going toward inefficient marketing channels. Once you discover who your business serves, learn how to create a buyer persona, and take the time to conduct an empathy map and a customer journey map. These maps can provide keen insights and uncover effective strategies for reaching your ideal customer.
A great overview and additional resources on Empathy Maps and Customer Journey maps are online. There are high quality free resources online to help you with this step.
What? LinkedIn article (with how to video)
Why? Fullstory Blog
What problem(s) does my business solve for my customers?
After identifying your customer and understanding their day, how can your business help address their painpoints? Maybe you have prepackaged meals to go and can save local families time because they don’t have to go to the grocery store, find their meal ingredients, stand in a long checkout line, and then go home and prepare their meal. Highlight the benefit of saving time in this case. And don’t forget to look at each and every add on service or product you offer.
Your website should not only reflect the benefit to the customer in the design, but the keywords that the customer will use to reach you need to be identified so that you can use them to gain traction in the SEO arena.
Once your business presence is fully aligned with your customers, you will experience a much smoother drive down the road to entrepreneurial success. Advertising dollars will be well placed and spent and your customers will be happy they found you!
