user behavior - Website home page design when there are multiple audiences

I am in the process of creating a website which has two distinct audiences - in my case consumers and retailers. When I first started the process just a few weeks ago I had followed the then model used by PayPal who too have to deal with distinct audiences.

However, having Googled around a bit for what the accepted wisdom is when dealing with website landing pages for segmented markets it appears to me that the current belief is that one just directs the visitor away from the landing page to other, segment focused, pages ASAP.

I have to admit that I am having trouble buying that philosophy. To my mind it makes sense to provide at least some basic information - key benefits - for each segment on the landing page and then let viewers who linger long enough the opportunity to easily drill down to their own segment-focused page.

My own reasoning is that most first time visitors are liable to want to bounce away quickly and making them find and click on the segment page link is more likely to make them bounce than if they find enough to hold them on the landing page for a bit longer.

I'd like to have other views on this. What are the pros and cons of the

1. Drive traffic to segment-focused page ASAP vs


2. Provide some basic information - at least key benefits - for each segment on the landing page itself