Why Isn’t Your Site More Exclusive? 5 Ways to Cut People Out and Boost Your Brand
January 24th, 2008 - Written by Gyutae ParkLearn more about Internet marketing strategy by subscribing to my RSS feed - free and updated daily!
When starting a new site, do you have a target audience in mind? Many webmasters don’t and easily fall into the trap of wanting to capture everyone and anyone they can find to visit their site. They think that the broader and more general they are, the more traffic potential they can achieve. This is a common misconception that actually leads to the opposite effect. A website without a limited target audience is a site without focus, community, and dedicated users. If you want to boost your brand and gain exposure in a particular niche, it’s important to be exclusive in who you attract and who you cater your content for.
As an example, how would you feel if I started posting images of what I had for dinner on this Internet marketing blog? If I were you, I’d seriously reconsider being a loyal reader and supporter. A site must have a focus and a goal. The moment you lose that and get off track is the moment you lose many of your readers.
Furthermore, people enjoy being exclusive and being part of a selective group. Prestigious university alumni groups, fraternities and sororities, country clubs, and fan clubs are all examples of this. By following this model and making your sites exclusive, you will build your brand and increase the perceived value of what you have to offer.
Below are some of the barriers you can utilize on your sites to ensure a positively exclusive culture.
Demographics barrier
Design your site for a specific demographic. A networking site for retired war veterans or an Asian American interest site for teens are good examples. Facebook was originally targeted towards college students, who then felt abandoned once the company went universal.
Interest barrier
Target your site for people interested in something specific. For example, a site featuring golf swing tips and a site dedicated to wine tasting both present an interest barrier.
Knowledge barrier
Go after groups with a specific level of competence on a subject matter. For instance, SEO newbies are better off reading a beginner blog like Learning SEO Basics before delving into more advanced topics covered by Rand Fishkin over at SEOmoz.
In-crowd culture barrier
If you’ve built a community around your site, there may be an in-crowd culture where frequent users know the inside jokes and all of the latest happenings. This kind of culture is great for creating loyal visitors.
Membership barrier
Having visitors sign up for (or pay for) member-only incentives is a proven method to increase perceived value and to make visitors feel like they are part of an exclusive group. Brian Clark created his new Teaching Sells program with this in mind.
Are you being exclusive in who you target with your sites? Sometimes limiting your audience can make you more of an authority and help your sites gain more exposure. Less is more.
What other barriers can you think of to benefit your sites?
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- 6 Reasons Why You Need User-Generated Content
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14 Responses to “Why Isn’t Your Site More Exclusive? 5 Ways to Cut People Out and Boost Your Brand”
I 100% completely agree. Choosing a more specific niche is definitely the way to go. After all, you can always expand out after you become an authority.
Keep up the great work.
Agreed
When choosing a niche, make sure that the niche is not too wide or too narrow. Too wide and you lose focus and too narrow, you might not get enough reader in.
Gyuate: Thanks for the link love my friend (smile)
I am reflecting on how simple and obvious these things seem to be to some, but how infrequently applied they are. I’m glad you’ve addressed this..
Concerning “Go after groups with a specific level of competence on a subject matter”..
The problem is..
There doesn’t seem to be ample resources for this, due to the fact that bloggers tend to get carried away because of their bursting desire to express their knowledge of SEO, which shows in their content terminology; aka newbie unfriendly SEO language.
If a site is specifically targeting newbs, then the language needs to be appropriate. We can always build another website to address the intermediate levels of SEO language to target that level in specific if we have that burning desire to express our knowledge more fully. Keeping in mind not to carry that intermediate language into the newbie arena and in essence, maintaining the niche love in each.
Of course, some SEO’s feel threatened by the thought of an influx of newcomers due to the effects that may (likely) follow upon their learning SEO..
Upcoming competition
newbies are likely to take lower pay to expand their resume’ which is loss of work for the seasoned SEO/M
As the newbie grows in knowledge and application, they too expand in their marketing arena’s once they see the powerful influence SEO/M application (Mor competition for the seasoned ones)
and so on..
Taking advantage of building a niche by approaching the SEO newbs, for me, has been somewhat pleasing yet also a hardship in many ways.
You know me to be within the social networking/media arena’s offering support of others and sending Sphinn and SU love to many..(now Digg, Mixx, Pownce, Twitter, Reddit..on and on)
But I have noticed that their actual reciprocation of the love that I dole out to them is not always present outside of a thumbs up or a Sphinn. In SU, for example..a thumbs up is not passed on to their friends “What’s New” box, which means I receive lower visibility than those I promote because I typically ‘review with a blurb’ as opposed to thumbing.
I am not complaining mind you..
But as far as sticking to approaching newbies..the big pups have very little use for it, therefore not seeing the need to invest much time in promoting newbie friendly environments, leaving the newbie lovers in the cold as far as networking/media is concerned. (did that make sense?)
Phew..I’m outta breath..(giggle)
Thanks Gyuate for the post and the love (wink) Keep up the awesome flow..
Cya!
i think a good webdesign is really important!
Yes.. Targeting niche is important…
I agree .. But I really like blog as hobby. My others blogz targeting manga fans.. Not so great traffic but must work harder.. Good tips..
Hi,
Thats why I have chosen a topic- Make money online. This topic will capture all sets of people right from 12 years to 100 years old people irrespective of sex.
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