Homepage Hang-Ups - Mistake #2 - Not Being Different From Your Competitors

[Tracy Oliver]

So, you know the importance of having a web presence and have had a
website designed for your offline business. That's great. However, if
your website design and copy are very similar to those of your
competitors' websites, you may be costing yourself money.
This mistake is common because so many people understand the need to
do some competitive intelligence before they take their site live, but
they spend so much time looking at the sites of their competitors
that, when it comes time to design their own site, they have so many
ideas floating around their heads - things they saw on their
competitors' sites - that they have nothing original to put on their
own site.
If your website looks and sounds like those of your competitors, you
run the risk of not being remembered when it comes time for your
customers and prospects to search for a place to buy the product or
service you offer at your business.
The solution to this problem lies in the old adage of "all things in
moderation". In other words, visit your competitors' sites and see
what your competitors are doing so you have an idea of how to design
your site and what to write on its pages. But don't stay on each of
your competitors' sites so long that you're no longer able to come up
with unique ideas of your own.
In fact, one thing I like to do when doing competitive research is to
make a list of the things my competitors are doing and then, when I've
finished looking at all of the competitors' sites I'm going to
analyze, I look at my list and try to list an opposite action or idea
for each thing I wrote down.
Some of the "opposite" ideas will seem crazy and probably won't work,
but some of them will actually stand out to you as ideas and actions
that you could use to differentiate your site from those of your
competitors.
The most important thing about standing out from your competitors is
that you remain authentic. You are a unique individual and your
business is just as unique as you are. If you weren't the one running
your business, it wouldn't have all the nuances it has because of what
you've made it.
So, whether you use my "opposite" idea or some other way of coming up
with how you're going to make your site stand out, make sure you're
being yourself at all times. If an idea for your website goes against
who you are at your core or goes against your values and morals, don't
use it.
You want to stand out from your competition as being a unique business
that can offer your prospects and customers something your competitors
can't, but you never want to do that at the cost of not being the
"you" that you were born to be.