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Marketing Considerations Before Designing Your Website
So you want to start an online retail business. You have figured out what to sell, how to get it, how much to buy and what price to sell for.
Now you need the selling vehicle, your website. Before you plunge in and either develop a website on your own or spend a lot of money working with a website designer, you need to take the time to understand what it is that you will need so that when you do put your website together, either on your own or with someone else, you will end up with the site you want. That first step is called making a marketing plan.
Your market plan starts with the identification of your target market. Rather than believing that the market for your jewelry is all women who wear jewelry, define your market more closely. Why? If the market is all women who wear jewelry, you will find yourself with a number of problems out of the gate such as:
- The very broad term jewelry is probably not a search term you can compete on in the search engine arena.
- Your website may have to be translated into multiple languages and be able to operate in a variety of currencies.
- When you try to find all women, you will find that the huge all-women sites are so busy that you will have a very hard time standing out and getting noticed.
So, let's try again. If you are located in the UK, you may want to target UK women for now. That is not to say that your market will never change, but it is a manageable place to start. Chances are, your jewelry will not appeal to every woman.
For example, unless your jewelry is pretty unusual, you are not all that likely to get the Queen's attention. That is a silly example but you can see where this is going. Think about price. If you are a moderately priced vendor then your target audience might be women who have good taste on a budget.
Now let's think about what your jewelry looks like. Turns out, the pieces are extremely dainty and rather small scale. That may mean that you are not going to attract plus size women because the jewelry would look out of scale. You may not attract teenagers because teens and young women are often looking to make a bold statement. Hmmm, maybe your audience is the petite woman who wants lovely style at an affordable price. Now we are getting somewhere.
What does this mean about the way your website should be created? Here are some possibilities:
- The site should reflect your jewelry's character so it should not be out scaled and outrageous, rather attractive and inviting.
- The shopping cart should be set up to trade in Euros or pounds and your shipping methods should be the most attractive for shipping within the UK (consider offering free shipping).
- The photos of women wearing jewelry on your site should reflect your audience, petite women in stylish dress with fabulous, complimentary jewelry.
- The pricing should be immediately available because you are selling at a good, moderate price for the value of the look you are helping to create.
Just think where you would be if you had already paid someone to make a website for you, without going through this thought process. It pays to do the planning first.
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