Case Study: Reaching New Audiences | Vickyevans.com
I built Vicky’s first website back in 2016 when she was launching her life coaching business. It was professional with a fun and approachable vibe which suited both Vicky and her audience at that time.
Fast forward to 2020, Vicky’s business has grown and developed, as many do, and her website no longer reflected where Vicky is at as a Coach, Speaker, and Facilitator.
What to do? It was a great website, getting lots of traffic and bringing Vicky business, BUT it only really spoke to one audience – individuals in need of a life coach. Personal coaching is one branch of Vicky’s business but she really wanted to grow the professional coaching side of her business too, however, her website simply didn’t speak to that market.
So where do you start when your business has grown into more than one audience or you want to access a new audience?
1. Stay with what you’ve got and hope it works for all your audiences?
I call this the ostrich approach – you really are burying your head in the sand and “hoping” it will work out ok. It may work in the short term but “hope” is not a strategy…
2. Maybe you make messages more general to include both audiences?
This is fence-sitting and I believe, the most dangerous solution. When you try to talk to two different audiences you don’t actually talk properly to either of them. One of the primary goals of your website is to connect with your audience – you can’t do this with generalisations and diluted messages.
3. Build a new website for a new audience.
If you have two very different audiences this is an option but proceed with caution. If your audience has the potential to expand beyond 2 this should be a no go. Unless it’s part of your growth strategy, you don’t want to create a new brand and website for every audience you might have!
What did we do with Vicky’s website?
We knew there was a problem because the website was not appealing to professionals looking for team coaching, we didn’t want to be wishy-washy and be too general, we didn’t want to build a new website because much of the content would be the same, it just needed to be positioned to appeal to two separate audiences. So we opened door number 4.
4. Create clear pathways for your audiences so they know where to go to get the information most relevant to them.
Vicky knew what she wanted but like many of us, she was challenged with getting those ever-important key messages to the right people.
Time to bring in the experts. I had worked with Angela Bensemann from Halo Communications before and knew she had the goods to get this project to the next stage so I suggested Vicky had a conversation with her.
Here is what Angela has to say about the project.
Shifting your positioning to appeal to a new client base
When your client base shifts – or you’d like it to shift – a review of your communications and marketing materials (including your website) is a must.
As a general rule of thumb, if your clients change your message needs to as well.
In Vicky Evans’ case, she wanted to add a new client sector but retain her existing client base at the same time she was looking to expand into the corporate sector to grow the business but to do this she needed to put more emphasis on the services she offers to empower teams to be more effective.
We worked together to brainstorm Vicky’s objectives, how she’d like to position herself in that market, and to drill down into her new audience.
I then recommended a two-tier strategy to accommodate both audiences.
For the corporate audience, it was all about researching their needs, tailoring the services to those needs, and adopting a professional marketing approach. It meant making sure there was a clear path on her website for these clients to follow and that what they saw was relevant to their organisations including the types of imagery, services offered, and testimonials.
We crafted some specially worded key messages to appeal to this audience and made sure to use a more professional tone and style on both the website and on Vicky’s professional marketing presence on LinkedIn.
We also refined the messaging for the individuals who continue to look for life coaching and personal development services and made sure to separate out the marketing to this client base from that to the corporate base.
Once Angela had worked her magic with Vicky’s words, we refreshed the website to cater to both audiences with clear pathways through the Workplace Wellbeing section and the Personal Development sections of the site. We reworded the general content pages to account for both audiences and made sure that there was a consistency of message throughout the site.
Now when Vicky reaches out to workplaces her website is a true reflection of the full set of services she offers and businesses and workplaces can easily find the information they require.
Between the three of us, we adapted Vicky’s website to be able to grow a new market successfully and ultimately grow her business. Job done!
“I couldn’t be happier with the results I am seeing in my business! “
Vicky Evans
Who is your website talking to? Are you clear on your audience and how you need to communicate with them? Are your key messages nailing it for your business? No to any of the above? Let’s have a conversation.
angela@halocommunications.co.nz