Understanding Purpose
In Short
- Know your audience
- Know what you are selling
- Know how you want your site to function
The purpose of your website is to sell something. Maybe not directly, but your website is an advertisement for your company. Like all forms of advertisement, the trick is to grab the reader's attention and keep it. While you should already know the purpose of your business, following the next steps may help in actually writing about it.
Determining Purpose
- What are you selling?
- To whom are you selling?
- How are you selling your product/service/information?
- How are users going to interact with your site to purchase your product?
- What is the most important information to get across in terms of selling this product?
What About Bob?
Bob is selling boxes and he is selling them to anyone who might need one (see Understanding Audience for specifics). His site is divided into categories based on age demographics, but he understands that many of those demographics overlap, so he appeals to several at once by using images to appeal to his younger audiences and technical details (such as weight and dimensions) for his older audiences.
Bob's plan is to have his website act like an online catalog from which users can purchase his boxes. He connects users with information via the navigation, slideshow, blogs, and newsletters. The newsletter signup is available throughout his site. His blog is also on his site and is easily subscribed to through RSS readers.
Besides selling boxes, his next item is informing users of custom orders. He achieves this in the same way: navigation, slideshow features, blog posts, and newsletters.