Geeky Web Design Part II – Who Are These People and What Do They Want?

This week in our website redesign saga, we try to answer the question: Who are these people and what do they want from me anyway? (You can catch up on Part I here)

I came across a theory that says people will do business with me if I can be the resource that finally answers the questions that visitors can’t get answered anywhere else.

Running with that for a bit, I decided to categorize web visitor types, and investigate what each category would want answered that they couldn’t easily find elsewhere, building off of four major personality types.

Site visitor categories would be things like Relocation Buyers, First Time Buyer, Those Just Looking, Move-up Seller, Investor, and so on. We’ll stick with 4 personality types, calling them Methodical, Spontaneous, Humanistic, and Competitive.

Let’s look at a Relocation Buyer – someone who has probably bought a home before, is moving to the area but is not very familiar with it. In my experience, this person is usually already convinced that they need an agent, and usually comes to me already pre-qualified for a loan.

We follow this with a big brainstorm list of things that category of site visitor might like to see, just to get all our ideas out in one place. For our Relo buyer, it’s things like examples of typical costs and who pays them, explanation of local real estate taxes and auto registration, how to finance a home here if the existing house hasn’t sold, local attractions, more specific items like that. These are items that span many personality types and categories.

This was a more difficult exercise than I had anticipated. For example, I don’t get those Spontaneous types, those fast, emotional decision makers. I’m a Methodical. I understand the Competitives, and somewhat less so the Humanistics, but for the life of me, I can’t wrap my mind around what the Spontaneous-es want. Which means I probably won’t easily attract or work well with them anyway. It’s okay. I don’t want a site that sets expectations that I will be one way and then I’m totally different in person. However, I’m not going to neglect that personality type as we’re all most likely at least a little bit of each.

So now we know the various types of information and features that I need, and how to present it in different ways to attract a larger audience. Now, I can start framing paths for these various scenarios. I know that on a market stats page, I don’t need a big link to testimonials. I know that anytime I offer or describe a service, I need to quickly and clearly describe the advantages and link back to a guarantee.

This would be the framing of the site – figuring out how someone might enter the site, what information they want and how it should be presented, and eventually presenting them with a call to action that is a tangible reason to return to the site, to build a trust relationship with me, and want to work with me.

Man. It’d be a lot easier to come up with some fantastic feature list and pass it off to a developer! I am convinced this is time well spent, however.

What about your website? Who is your clientele and what do they want? How do you answer the WIIFM for them?

I’m running with the idea that answering questions that can’t be answered elsewhere will make people want to work with me: an implied quid pro quo. Does this make me a useless bag of information? Am I really adding value, answering a need, becoming useful? Or was Mom right about not buying the cow if the milk is free?