One website, different customer groups

Start with what each customer needs to decide

An enquiry from someone who already knows your work can be brief. Winning a first-time buyer means answering questions your regular contacts no longer ask.

Prioritise the work you want more of, while giving valuable existing customers an obvious way back in. Equal space for every group is unnecessary. Someone returning for a phone number should be able to get it without working through the sales explanation again.

When designing a website for multiple audiences, compare the buying situations before dividing the site into audience sections. Check how people arrive, what they already know, what they need to verify and what happens after they enquire.

“Business customers” is too broad to settle those decisions. A facilities manager commissioning unfamiliar work and an experienced procurement manager can need very different explanations, despite both being business buyers.

Mightybytes' audience-planning guide makes a useful distinction between the audience and its goals. One group can visit for several reasons. Your customer labels should help people find information, rather than make them learn how your sales team categorises them.

Example: a signage company serving businesses and shopfitters

Consider a fictional commercial signage company that wants more direct work from established businesses opening or refitting premises. It also wants to keep supplying shopfitters. Both groups buy signage made and installed by the same company.

For this example, the direct customer knows the premises and brand requirements but has no production drawings. The shopfitter has approved artwork and a project schedule. Those are the differences to plan around.

The comparison changes the explanation and enquiry context. It does not create two different signage services.

The direct customer's route

Start this visitor on the main commercial signage page. Explain what the company makes, where it works and how a project progresses. Show who handles artwork, site information, approvals and installation, with the actual inclusions made clear.

A photograph of a finished shopfront helps, but a short project description answers more. Did the customer supply completed artwork, or did the signage company develop it? What did the company manufacture and install?

That detail tells a buyer without drawings whether they can start a conversation now. The enquiry should let them describe the premises and what they need help with. It should not require production specifications they came to the supplier to work out.

The shopfitter's route

A shopfitter with project information needs to check capability, responsibilities and availability. Give them a clearly labelled route to those details, such as a “Working with shopfitters” section on the same service page.

Explain what can be supplied from existing drawings, what still needs checking and which project details the team needs before quoting. Let the shopfitter reach that section directly from a relevant link, while keeping the rest of the service and project information available.

The completed work can be the same proof used for direct customers. A project description that identifies the company's part in the job is useful to both.

For this example, start with one commercial signage page, shared project evidence and a shopfitter section. Both enquiries can reach the same team. The different routes help people arrive with the right context; they do not require separate websites, portfolios or contact systems.

Decide whether a separate page adds enough

A separate audience page earns its place when buyers have a substantial set of different questions that a short section cannot answer clearly.

For the signage company, that could mean detailed information about working from supplied drawings, dividing responsibilities and coordinating installation with a shopfitter. Keep it as a section while those answers are brief. Recommend a dedicated trade page when the distinct detail needs room and helps a buyer assess that arrangement.

Keep the company information and relevant project evidence shared. The new page should explain the trade arrangement and link to those sources, rather than maintain a second version of everything.

By contrast, if both customer groups need the same service description, projects and contact action, keep them together. Different headings above substantially identical text do little for the buyer.

A practical test is to ask what the separate page would answer that the shared page cannot handle clearly. If the only answer is “this one says builders”, reconsider the split.

Also check whether the apparent difference is really familiarity. A first-time shopfitter may need more explanation than a direct customer who has ordered signage before. Make the useful detail available to either. Avoid forcing visitors to choose a category before they can see the service.

Once that decision is made, carry it into your website page plan. Record the common service page, any distinct audience page and the reason for it. Audience count and page count are different things.

Give the homepage a priority without closing other doors

If direct business customers are the priority, lead with the service and the questions they need answered. Keep a recognisable route for shopfitters without asking every visitor to choose between two audience labels before seeing any useful information.

Some people will arrive directly on a service page, project or trade section through search, a recommendation or a link. Those destinations need enough context to make sense independently, plus clear access to the rest of the site.

Existing customer support, staff information and recruitment also need sensible homes when relevant. They do not all need a place in the opening sales message, but their links should remain easy to find.

The full opening-to-contact hierarchy belongs in the homepage content plan. Here, settle who takes priority and which other routes must remain visible.

Try both routes before committing to the structure

Ask people who resemble the intended customers to use the proposed pages or a simple prototype. Give them a real task without telling them which link to choose.

For the signage example, ask one person to find out how to commission signage without finished drawings. Ask another to assess the company for a project with artwork already approved. Start each at a plausible entry page, rather than always at the homepage.

Watch whether they can:

• Identify that the company handles the required work.
• Find who is responsible for the parts they need help with.
• Locate relevant evidence, then explain why it is relevant.
• Find a way to enquire without supplying information they do not yet have.

Ask them to describe what they expect the company to do next. A confident click into an enquiry form can still conceal a misunderstanding about the service.

If both people use the shared page successfully, keep that route. If one gets stuck on a missing answer, add the answer where it belongs. Recommend another page only when the content and task warrant it, rather than treating every hesitation as a navigation problem.

Your sales team can help check the assumptions against actual enquiries. Separate what customers have said from what the team thinks they will need. The detailed questions, response responsibilities and contact options belong in the website enquiry planning guide.

Bring those routes into the wider website planning process. Record who arrives, what they need to understand, which content stays shared and where they can act.

Our web development work includes working through the website's pages, content and functionality before design. Bring the buying situations your team encounters, including the work you want more of and the relationships you want to retain.