07 April 2010
, Author - Allan Kent
Sean D’Souza wrote an interesting article (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10631575 ) in the NZ Herald on March 12th , speaking about what it would be like going to a restaurant and having pre dinner drinks, entrees, main courses, desserts, cheeses and coffees all coming up all at once!
Sounds unbelievable that this would actually happen in reality doesn’t it – but we do see this in marketing, especially with websites. Too often website pages, especially main landing pages are overly cluttered, with too much information presented at once – so much so that the viewer has trouble focusing or finding what he wants. When that happens it’s all too easy to click away and find another site that is easier to view.
If you have a diverse range of products and services and especially if you have different target markets, don’t try and be all things to all people.
Consider segmenting your market and presenting a separate marketing message to each of these segments.
Well known New Zealand winery, Villa Maria has done exactly this separating out their business groups, namely Villa Maria (www.villamaria.co.nz ), Villa Maria Concerts (www.villamariaconcerts.co.nz) and Villa Maria Events (www.villamariaevents.co.nz ), presenting targeted marketing messages and branding to each of the relevant markets. And even more importantly, they separate each of their independent wine labels into satellite sites so they can target the content and marketing message to the particular consumers of the wine (www.eskvalley.co.nz ).
In Villa Maria’s case this segmentation has been made so much easier and cost effective because each of their sites sit on the same back end or content management system (CMS). Initially one website and CMS was built and then additional satellite sites were added. To the website visitor and Google, each site is completely unique, from its look and feel and content, to its own unique, and non related URL. However, behind the scenes at the Villa Maria Head Office, all sites can be managed in-house through the same administration controls within the CMS.
In addition, the use of satellite sites has led to significant savings for them. The cost of building the satellites was much reduced because the structure was already in place, and importantly, any of the additional modules purchased, such as e – commerce, were available across the site network. Villa will shortly be rolling out 2 more sites on this principle.
So, to conclude, don’t fall into the trap of serving to much up in one place. Think about separating things out a bit more. If your website company offers the benefit of satellite sites, and you do have different target markets for different areas of your business, seriously consider using this approach.
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