Should I Create One or Two Websites for My Business? One product. Two target markets. How many websites should be created? Ask Entrepreneur's branding and marketing expert solves the equation and shows how one size can indeed fit all.
By Karen Tiber Leland •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I am about to launch a custom t-shirt printing business. The technology I will be using is unique in that I can profit from printing one shirt as well as printing multiple shirts. For this reason, I can market and sell to individuals who want one custom shirt with anything they want on it as well as businesses who want large quantities of promotional shirts. Since I have two target markets, should I create two different marketing campaigns and two different websites? Or should I direct all my customers to one website?
People often come to me for branding and marketing advice already having created two, three or even sometimes four websites. In most cases -- as in yours – building more than one website is a waste of money and marketing effort. Unless you have two totally different businesses or brands, your best bet is to drive all traffic to one site. However, since you do serve several different markets, by all means create a dedicated pathway on your site for each one so customers can easily find the information they need. I often encourage my clients to think of this in terms of customer buckets; it's best to create a different informational bucket on your home page for each distinct market you serve. For example, I work with small business on marketing and with Fortune 500 executives on personal branding. My website clearly spells out a path for each, so potential customers can easily find the information that applies to them. Similarly, my suggestion is that you create one website with several different information paths (i.e. buckets) to serve your various markets.
