Understand Your Audiences

"Everyone" is not your audience.

A challenge in developing content for a university website is that we have varying audiences, with varying information needs and interests. We should try to understand each audience: Why are they visiting our site? What content are they looking for? What background knowlege do they already have? Then we should try to meet them halfway.

We say halfway, because you also have goals for your website. What knowledge do you want your audience to learn or take away? The number of credit hours required for your major? The ethos and vibe in your department/program, and how these inform your teaching and research? Or maybe you just want everyone to use the right email address so they quit calling your office administrator.

There's a sweet spot somewhere between your goals and the interests and needs of your audiences. You can move closer to that sweet spot by clarifying your goals and keeping your audiences front and center as you write and organize your web content.

Prospective Undergraduate Students

Prospective undergraduate students are by far our largest audience. Most of the higher-level W&M web pages are designed for prospective students, to support robust admission to W&M. Our pages in Arts & Sciences focus on the academic side: our liberal arts education, the COLL Curriculum, and the academic programs delivered by our departments, programs, and centers.

Prospective undergraduates start looking at colleges when they are 14 or 15 years old. They are asking more general questions: about W&M, about the different academic fields, and about themselves. They want to know if they'll fit in and whether a specific program matches their interests. It's likely this audience has only vague ideas of what it means to study your discipline at the university level. Lots of times, those ideas are wrong. You can start educating them as soon as they land on your home page.

Prospective Graduate Students

Prospective graduate students know a lot more about your academic discipline. They want to learn about your faculty research to find a good match with their interersts and a potential adviser. They want to know about outcomes: What are the careers and successes of your previous graduate students?

Parents and Friends of Prospective and Current Students

All students have some kind of support network. Parents, friends, and other advisers come to our websites to try and help their student figure things out. Most of the time, they're looking for the same information as the student. But they're usually older and more pragmatic, with their own ideas about the purposes of higher education. One of their frequent questions: "What kind of job can you get with that degree?"

Current Students

Current students likely come to your website to accomplish administrative tasks. They need easy access to forms, contact information, and how-to information about procedures. It's also true that In their first and second years, our students are still deciding about their majors. And while our students are smart and self-motivated, not everyone has the background to navigate our academic landscape to meet their goals. How can your web content help them out?

Current Faculty and Staff

People working at W&M also come to your website, mostly to figure out who does what, how to contact people, and how to accomplish admistrative tasks. It will really save you time if you keep that information up to date.

Faculty from Other Universities

Faculty from other universities usually are looking for peer information: colleagues, research areas, curricular approaches and offerings, and so forth. If you have an open faculty search, keep in mind that candidates are reviewing your website to get a feel for your department or program. And, of course, faculty have high-level knowledge about your discipline and higher education generally.

Your Alumni

To be honest, most alumni have no reason to visit your website unless you give them one. If you're in direct contact your with alumni through newsletters and email updates, consider how to integrate that content with your website. Include a link to a recent news story. Include a link to your Send Us Your News form – and follow up by posting their news to your web page or the next newsletter. Interacting through your website is one way to build and maintain relationships.

Prospective Donors

Make sure your Support web page reliably directs online donations to your designated W&M account(s). Your job is to

make the case for how private funding will benefit your department or program,
demonstrate accountability for how you use donations, and
thank everyone who contributes.

It's likely that prospective donors are alumni, and know quite a bit about you. But the knowledge of older alumni might be dated. Long-term or major donors are likely to expect some personal communication along the way. The A&S Advancement staff can help with this.

The federal Plain Language website has a good discussion about writing for your audience.
The Nielsen Norman Group has an interesting video highlighting the importance of faculty pages, especially to prospective graduate students.