This is the last entry I’ll cross-post from the new “Websites that Work” series at my new site Heart of the Matter Design. Unfortunately, search engines penalize you for posting identical content in more than one place. So the Inspired Raw Design site will stay in place for awhile, but the blog won’t continue. I hope you’ll check out this series and follow the new Heart of the Matter Design blog.

Who’s Your Heart’s Desire?

No, not your dream date. Rather, the type of person you’d most like to work with. This could be your ideal client, the most important target for your nonprofit program or that dream funder. The purpose of defining your Heart’s Desire is so that your website speaks directly to her or him (I’ll use “her” going forward) and provides appealing information, features and visuals.

That helps you make the connection that starts a relationship. The better you address your Heart’s Desire’s needs, wants and wishes, the more enthusiastic she’ll be about taking action with you.

Not Everyone is Your Type

It can be hard to define your Heart’s Desire if you’re worried your excluding people. Don’t you want everyone to make the positive change you’re advocating, buy from your business or fund your nonprofit?

It isn’t likely to happen anyway. You may have heard the saying that you can’t be all things to all people. Guerilla marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson says that defining who you’re going to reach out to means you’ll be “saying something to somebody instead of saying nothing to everybody.”

Make it Personal

Write about one person. That will help you understand and empathize with her more. You may need to write several Heart’s Desire profiles and then see what’s common and different across them.

Nonprofit pros, you’ll likely want profiles for the people you’re trying to reach with key programs, for funders and maybe even volunteers. You might need different profiles for a few key services or programs you offer if they serve very different people. Businesses may want more than one as well. If you’re a life coach for teens, for example, you’d have a profile for the teen and one for a parent.

You’ll look at what’s common across the profiles to help develop the shared areas of your website and then use the differences to really hone pages that speak to just one audience. And the good news is that defining your Heart’s Desire will strengthen the impact of all your communications and even your programs and services.

The point is to craft a story about people in a way that brings them to life for you… so you can bring your writing and site design to life for them. You might consider doing visualization, looking at photos, drawing or other creative means. If you’re part of an organization, who else might join you in this activity?

What to Include

Describe your Heart’s Desire across the areas below. Think through all the questions. If you get stuck on any question, come back to it or skip it.

1. Demographics

• Female / male
• Age
• Education
• Income
• Family status (partnered? kids?)
• Geographic location
• Type of work (including stay at home Mom)

2. Attitudes

How does this person view the world? What does she think is most important in life? What makes her happy? What worries her?

3. Day in the life

What does a typical day look like for this person? How much time does she spend working? What happens at home? In the office? What hobbies might she have?

4. Relative to what you’re doing

Where is your Heart’s Desire on the behavior you’re trying to motivate? This is potentially a very powerful way to think about your outreach. It’s usually easier to attract someone who’s already very interested in what you do vs. someone who’s not even thinking of it.

Example

I’ve volunteered to staff tables for vegetarian advocacy groups at health fairs and outside the museums in Washington, D.C. What a difference! At the health fairs, I had many people eager to ask questions and take the vegetarian starter kits. By the museums, there was much less interest and even some hostile response. If I only had a limited number of hours to spend, where was I likely to have more impact? So a Heart’s Desire characteristic for veg advocacy may be someone health-oriented who wants to make the change and needs help on how.

No person or organization has unlimited time or money. So as you develop your Heart’s Desire, think about who’s most likely to engage with you.

5. Web usage

How much does this person use the web? What for? Does she or he surf, seek community via forums or just search out very specific things? Is this a Facebook / Twitter user or not? Does she use the web at home or in an office? How fast is her connection?

Take Action

This activity is a crucial part of developing a high impact website. It’s not easy, but it can be fun.

Allow yourself time to draft and revisit. If you have someone who can review your Heart’s Desire and give you feedback, that’s best. And if you get writer’s block easily or are just having trouble getting started, a neat site called Write or Die will flash lights and make sounds to urge you to move along.

Want to see a complete example? The next entry in this series will share my Heart’s Desire for Heart of the Matter Design. Please join me there for more to-the-point information on designing websites that work.