A common theme among business owners is that they dislike their own website. They know it needs attention. Often, they don’t even know what is says.
Websites have changed since the early days of website design, from online versions of brochures and company catalogs to adding more catchy graphics.
But there’s one thing that gnaws at company leaders about their websites – lack of differentiation. No amount of cool graphics, snazzy photos, or creative layout can overcome a forgettable message. Some pages titled “why do business with us” neglect to convincingly answer the question.
Companies frequently tout the same products or services as their competition – which presents a web message with little or no differentiation. Some companies do integrate company data into their websites, but this is rarely targeted to why prospects should buy from you. Most often the data points are variations on the theme of “we’re big.” These are “vanity metrics.” (See our blog of February, 2024). Our research has shown that prospects rarely value your size or age, or the number of locations or customers you tout in their buying decision.
Peter Drucker, management icon, once summed this up by saying “Ninety percent of the information used in organizations is internally focused, and only ten percent is about the outside environment. This is exactly backwards.” Unfortunately, most sales and marketing messaging comes from internal opinions.
There is always a hierarchy of criteria that motivates customer buying decisions. Learning those drivers is the first step toward differentiation. Since 95% don’t know their customers’ top buying criteria, as revealed by 20 years of our research. You are almost always assured to be different when your message focuses on what buyers actually value most.
However, you must excel operationally at those criteria and collect data points to prove that excellence. Your goal is to build confidence and reduce risk in their buying decision.
Websites that differentiate don’t have to be complicated. In fact, some of the most effective ones we’ve seen have their quantified value proposition on the home page, above the fold. That’s differentiation.