Create a relationship to a target audience
With your target audience you have some kind of relationship. You
project that you have a particular role and that they also have
a role. Easy roles to imagine are
are
sales assistant/customer
teacher/student
billboard/reader
doctor/patient
It is easy to characterize these four relationships.
The assistant helps the customer find the needed items
and gives advice.
The teacher lays out the plan for the student and assists her/him in achieving it.
The billboard displays information in brief form and the reader figures out how to deal with it.
The doctor prescribes a course of action that the patient follows.
If you disseminate area restaurant information and imagine
you and the viewer to be in a doctor/patient relationship, you will
be very prescriptive. If you view the relationship as assistant/customer
you will be helpful with comparative information. If you view the
relationship as teacher/student you will set up goals for the readers
and show them how to achieve those goals.
Create a mission statement for your site
The mission statement should be short, naming the audience, relationship,
content, and goal of the site. For the restaurant sites here are
two mission statements that will result in very different sites:
- In order to assist parents in choosing a family restaurant,
this site will list the décor including play areas, menus including
kids' menus, typical meal cost, and location of all family restaurants
within a 75-mile driving area.
- To prescribe a restaurant for a couple with a specific ethnic
or ambiance eating desire by listing several types (Greek, Egyptian,
romantic, neighborhood) and evaluating each on a 1-5 scale in
terms of food, décor, service, and cost.
As you can see the mission statement causes certain types of content and approach and eliminates others. Parents who want some burgers and ice cream with their preschoolers are not going to read the second site, and empty nesters are not going to read the first site.
