Would your guests look forward to coming back? Or did you open a bag of chips, provide red plastic cups for drinks, and trusted that visitors would figure things out for themselves?
Bringing together like-minded people who share common interests can make for a great event.
A great host works to make sure everyone has a good experience. First, they prepare a menu that offers a mix of foods and drinks to satisfy their guests. Next, they let guests know what to expect (relaxed or glitzy), which helps set the mood in advance. Also, if the host has assigned you seating, the goal is to match people with common interests to encourage the liveliest of conversations. Finally, they will also book entertainment with the audience in mind.
The guests will remember and discuss an enjoyable party experience. Moreover, future invitees will enthusiastically accept their invitations. After all, a good host covers the basics then fine-tunes the details to create an atmosphere that works for everyone. In short, the efforts made by the host make the experience memorable.
Proactive Or Reactive?
Change food, drinks, and entertainment to content like blogs, videos, white papers, and you’ll find it’s the same thought process. For example, how much thought did you put into each part of your site? Was your audience the main driver for each decision, or was everything there because you heard you needed something like a video, blog, or whitepaper?
Videos are great but are they the kind your audience likes? There is value in humor and education. And in telling stories about things that impact people’s lives. However, does the comedy match your audience? Are you teaching them something they can use today? Further, is the story relatable? Is the video’s purpose for you to say you have a video, or was it made to bring your audience value?
Saying all websites are just the same elements mixed in different ways is like saying chicken nuggets and chicken cordon bleu are both just breaded chicken. Basically, you can’t analyze the pieces without context. If you don’t consider the context and the audience, your conclusions will be misleading and, ultimately, useless.
Learn About Your Audience
Even within one target group, there will be diversity, but there are more commonalities. It is the shared commonalities visitors or guest share that is the heart of what you want to understand. Take the opportunity to learn what your clients like and don’t like, what they think and want. Use your access to your client to interview them, ask them questions. Find out where they go to get industry content.
Also, learn about your competitor’s websites. What do you, as part of their audience, like about their websites? Pay attention to what sites you return to and what pulls you back?
Also, explore what’s popular, both for your industry and in general. It is common for cultural and consumer popular trends to show up in B2B marketing. Ask yourself, are there things you can apply to your marketing, such as shorter videos, adding animation, or making an employee a star?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with content like humor. For instance, try parody if you think it suits your audience. If satire doesn’t work, try wordplay. It’s important to understand that even things that work will eventually run out of steam. And then it will be time to try something different. The odds are that if you create content, as a viewer, you think it is excellent, the audience will like it.
Something Worth Celebrating
In the end, much like an event you organize, your website should reflect your personality and sensibilities. At the same time, it’s like meeting someone new at the party that you want to know better. In this case you show your best side, charm, humor, intelligence, accomplishments, or just listen and have a great time together. Because having a great experience, you would like to repeat, is what a great dinner party is all about, as is a great website.
