Do You Know Who You 
Attract to Your Web Site?

There are five types of people that browse the web: (1) specific information seekers (2) current information seekers (3) bargain hunters (4) entertainment seekers, and (5) specific buyers.  By knowing who these types are, what make them visit certain web sites and not yours, you can then design your site to attract the type of visitors you want.

By combining your target market's buying needs along with knowing what type of Internet browser there are, you will be well on your way to structuring a web site or changing your web site so that it deliberately attracts the visitors you want – the ones that take the action you want.

Specific Information Seekers (SIS’ers for short). Specific Information Seekers can be turned into prospects with consistent marketing and trust building strategies. 

SIS’ers are usually searching for a particular piece of information.  If you have it, they will visit or stay.  If not, they want to find that out fast and then they are gone. This group is after timely and relevant information.  It is an either/or decision – either you have it or you don’t.

SIS’ers like to ask questions, usually diving right into the question, giving little or no background to the question.  If they have a deep sense that you have the answer they are looking for they will generate a quick e-mail or pick up the phone to call you.  They like to visit the FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages of web sites.  If you want to attract SIS’ers, track all the questions customers and prospects ask and, along with the answers, make them available on your site.  You can make them very happy if you place the answers in larger or bolder print than the question so it is easy to find and read.

SIS’ers like several different levels of information, each one detailing down.  They prefer an overview page and then a separate full description with detailed specifications.  Design the overview page for on-line reading (large font, plenty of white space, and fast language) and the other pages for off-line reading (printable).

They also like a changing web site.  If you show a “last update date” on your site, older than one week or if your articles have old dates on them, they usually will not even enter it.  First impressions mean a lot to them and determine if they will ever return.  Do not compromise the integrity of the information you provide.  Credibility is the second decision maker for this buyer.  If you are an affiliate just say so.  They don’t mind.

Their decision to buy is usually at the point when they feel you have what they need.  This group also reads everything thoroughly or uses a scanning method they developed on their own over the years. 

In a retail store, SIS’ers browse the aisles.  They only shop for something when they need it.  Retailers call these people aisle browsers.  They walk through a store, first checking the aisle platforms for bargains. 

Even though this group only reads what they need from a book, the next group, CIS’ers read the whole book.

Current Information Seekers (CIS’ers) are people who find everything interesting. They can be reading about Mars and next learning about cooking, and tomorrow they are totally into something different.  They purchase material based on whatever is hot in their life at that moment. Most of the time they over purchase material and get behind in their reading.  Yet, that backlog does not seem to bother them and they would feel empty without it.

CIS’ers read most of the newspaper and always read the whole book.  They want something interesting…something useful…something they would not have found on their own.  They want something that will give them an edge, an advantage, an insight, something unexpected.

Use caution with this group.  They will usually make suggestions that can lead you astray.  They also cannot understand why others pigeon hole (their viewpoint) themselves with their businesses.

To use this group to your advantage, define one or two topic categories that fit in with your niche and change that material daily or weekly.  In addition, since they are so busy running after the latest and greatest, you will need to make sure they are consistently aware of those changes – you need to send them the update.  They will find the frequent updates useful, interesting, and amusing even if they’ve heard them a million times before and they will return frequently.  This will keep you on their hot list and in their minds as a resource.

They will also compare you to one other competitor before buying.  If everything is the same and your shipping is 3 cents less they will buy from you.  However, they have to be exact offers.  If you have something that looks more attractive, whether it pertains to their needs or not, they will also purchase from you.

They are not a good group to get testimonials from unless they have used your material and it has worked for them in some BIG way.

This leads us into the next group, the group that chases free.

Bargain Hunters shop free for anything.  Converting them to customers is tough because of the "free blinders" they wear.  As long as they think they can find it somewhere free, they will keep searching for it.  Even if they spend 40 hours looking for it and the offsetting cost is $10. They relish in the challenge of finding it free.  They usually do not connect time with “their” money.  They like to brag about how they found it free.

Add a monthly giveaway at your site and you will attract these folks.  It does not always need to apply to anything they are interested in – they want it because it is free.  They may print out a 200-page free ebook and still think it is a bargain because it was free.  They don’t make a connection to the fact that it costs paper and ink to print the document.

Catering to this group is playing with fire.  Yet, many web sites unknowingly do it. The upside is that they are easy to please.  Just offer them bargains.  The downside is that there is less than a 1% chance you will convert them to customers unless you offer them lots of free information for a long time.  Sometimes you hear them comment something like, “I’ve been checking out your web site for years and I’ve finally decided to buy from you.” 

Since “deals” travel fast, be assured that if you offer a deal they will pass along the message at lightening speed. 

Contests and games attract them as well as giveaways that accompany an order.  Adding lots of free bonuses to your deals work well with this web browsers.  You might want to make the bonuses available after a purchase.  You will also need to offer one or two freebies to get them to visit your sales page.  Pile it on, they do not know how to say no to them whether they need them or not. 

Like the Specific Information Seekers, Bargain Hunters also respond to detailed product information.  They also like to justify what they are buying to others. 

Bargain hunters are completely different from the next group.  The next group is usually in the teenagers to 30-year-old age range.  After that, another level of maturity kicks in and their thirst for entertainment has quieted down.

Entertainment Seekers get bored easily.  They browse the web frequently when they are bored. They need interactive games, interactive contests and flash.  You can attract them if you provide animation, sound clips, contests, games, screen saver downloads and the latest and greatest in technology deliveries.

They visit the horoscope, recipe, sex, drugs, and music pages frequently.  Usually they start with those pages and if they are still bored, they will do searches on favorite topics or return back to playing their computer games.  If the first page seems flat, they don’t even go past that page and assume the rest is boring as well.  The exception occurs if they enter and shift to Specific Information Seeker mode and need a specific piece of information

Bright contrasted pages, black backgrounds, and multi-colored pages attract them.  Holding their interest is tough because of the Internet's relatively flat presentation.  If you want to convert them to customers, your product has to offer them the same type of perceived entertainment before they will buy.  Use the same colors as well.

You will need to provide them with “advertainment.”  Provide advertising that sells your product while providing entertainment value – similar to the info-mercial strategy used in television advertising.

Unlike the next group, they like cleverness, but the next group is the one that most independent professionals want to attract.

Specific Buyers have something in mind that they want to buy.  This is a great group to cater too.  They demand an easy ordering process and fast delivery.  They want it now.  Make the benefits of buying very clear. 

Specific buyers like ideas and creativity.  Add a “what’s new” page or some type of interactive shopping helper (help them to make a selection) to your site and they love it.  For services, you need to offer a phone number they can call  (preferably 24/7) where they feel free to ask questions without obligation.

They also like to purchase things in complete packages – a package with all the answers to their challenges, one that gives them the A-Z and they do not have to look any further.  Because of this, they usually do comparison reviewing to find the A-Z package at a “reasonable” price.

Now that you can define who you are attracting or who you want to attract, keep in mind these five overall steps to continue bringing the visitors you want to your site:

There are FIVE steps to get people to buy on your web site:

1. Know your current customer profile well.
2. Know what they are looking for on the web and how they browse the web.
3. Choose the best approach to attract these buyers.
4. Deliver what you want to attract on your site.  Like attracts like.
5. Make it easy for them to buy from you.

Copyright 2003, Catherine Franz.  All rights reserved.

About the Author:  Catherine Franz has ten years experience helping businesses design their web site so they attract the right visitors/buyers.  She is also a Master in the Laws of Attraction and offers an introductory class to attraction.  Catherine offers a complimentary session to contact:  email or 703-838-0477. 

Catherine writes a monthly e-Magazine on marketing, attraction and writing as well as a daily marketing tip section at the Abundance Center.  For more information about the ezines, click here.