Do you know who your audience is and have you designed your site for them?

I’ve talked about creating a profile of your ideal visitor in an earlier post on simple online surveys, so I won’t repeat the same ideas here. But the real task is to match your primary target audience to the style, tone and presentation of your website.

What do I mean by that? Well, if you were selling to children, you want cool and funky, or a website for seniors may be credible, relaxed with conservative colours or to sports men and women you could use sharp photography, action and strong colours. Put yourself in your visitors shoes and use your imagination.

Credibility is an important issue especially if you are selling products online. readers can be strongly influenced by a professional, well designed site. And knowing your readers is critical when you decide on the tone, pictures, headlines and content.

How are you going to make your point? If, it’s controversial, you might want big bold headline questions that provoke a response. You may want to educate your visitor, so the content is key, or you may want to entertain them with cartoons or drawings.

So what else should you consider?

• Make sure you have a demographic profile of your primary target audience, which, for example, could be football fanatics, between the ages of 10 and 25.
• What are your visitors opinions about your products or topic? What are their beliefs and behaviours? For example, gym members usually want to look good in their skin and are actively involved in healthy persuits
• What do your visitors already know about the subject? Are they experts or is this an opportunity to teach them. Are you offering them a solution to their problem or aiming your site at beginners?

And, just as important, what is your profile? How would you describe your personality, demographics, attitudes and experience? Are you a member of your target audience. It will help your ability to communicate your message if you are.

For example, are you cool dude, into gaming and surfing? If so, you’ll understand your audience if you want to sell them the latest gaming consoles, cheats and accessories on a funky, colourful, site with cartoon characters and action video clips.

So, compose an identity statement of who you are and what you stand for. Then translate it into colours, tones, typography and images. What kind of impression do you want to give? Big, subtle, refined, in-your-face? What is your style? What music would you choose? What period in history does your site favour?

Above all, make sure you choose a look and feel that matches your audience and yourself.