Your Avatar
Your avatar describes your potential customers. When you design your site for customers or activists, for the people who are going to buy your products or services, or support your cause, it helps to have a specific image in mind.
How do you design a site, especially its content, to build relationships with potential customers or supporters?
Avatar is a technical name for what most people call an imaginary friend. This is someone whom you imagine; s/he is not a real person although you may base your avatar on one or more real people. The more you know about your avatar, the better. Work out what would motivate them to respond positively to your site and then write for them.
It is important to think of your avatar as a friend. If this person were your friend, how would you write to them? This is not a reason to be over-familiar but it is a reason to avoid jargon and corporate–speak. If your copy reads like a letter or an email to a friend, the chances are it will appeal to your site visitors.
You can have more than one avatar. You may find you have a number of potential markets, eg if you want people to write to their MP, you may need an older and a younger avatar. Older people might be more likely to write, they may be prepared to send a letter by post and be better able to relate to their MP. Younger people may rather use email or social media, they may be more reluctant or sceptical about writing and more forthright in expressing their views.
You might offer different incentives and resources to these avatars. Of course, you’ll have to work out how to get the right visitors to the right place on your site. So, a landing page for people who access through social media might suit younger people whilst a page accessed via flyers handed out at meetings might be designed for older people. But note this is not an exact science.
You could of course ask whether your visitor would rather use email or send a letter. As always, the rule is make a start and then figure out how to improve what you’re doing.
Do you have an avatar? How did you design him/her? If you have more than one, how do you manage them on your site?