Unless you’ve delivered a cure for cancer, your business probably isn’t unique. Special? Really sure. Fabulous? Your mom, maybe. Uniqueness, however, is an attribute that very few companies possess (Gosh, that’s a lot of s). “Our site has to be unique,” you say. “We don’t want to look like anyone.” Nonsense. Uniqueness is simply oversold in marketing. Make sure it doesn’t look like you copied your competitor’s website. That will take twenty minutes to figure out and it’s good enough.
Companies are sold a bill of goods when they are convinced that their website must be unique in the known universe. This concept is reinforced by surfing the web and visiting many cool and cool sites. What they don’t realize is that those great sites often represent many months of effort and tens of thousands of dollars of refinement. That kind of expense is simply not justified for a young company trying to establish itself on the web.
My friend Joe likes to challenge me about my USP: my Unique Selling Proposition. I just laugh and say, “Joe, I don’t have to be unique. I just have to be the best person you know in my category.” I have to have a good reputation (capable) and be known for something (visible). This is especially true in the professional services industry, where most of our business comes from referrals.
Companies assume that their website must be completely different from all the others. They say it has to be unique, cool, sexy or whatever. Aren’t we forgetting the basics of marketing when we talk like this? Define your target market and speak to that market in a way that makes sense to them. A website is a communication vehicle. Websites about service companies, for example, need to establish credibility, inform and initiate contacts. That is all. People don’t buy services from a website, they research them. Your goal is to get them to pick up the phone or send you an email. That is all. Not to make you go, “Ooh, these guys have the best Flash banner ever!” A professional look, great content, and easy navigation accomplishes the goal.
“We have to have Flash,” you say. Why? Do your visitors expect flash? Do you want to see the shiny widgets rotate on the screen (after waiting for them to load)? Ok, maybe in the entertainment and gaming sectors, but not in business. If you’re spending money on search engine optimization, do you understand that Flash content doesn’t index well for search? Flash for flash’s sake can be just as annoying as having a sound loop on your site that starts automatically or that the user can’t turn off.
“But we are artists!” Surely those of you in the visual arts like graphic design and photography need to make sure your body of work shows up well. Make sure that the images on your website are of good quality and that the user can easily navigate the site. That has nothing to do with being unique, however. In fact, simple navigation and a decent slideshow are all you need to get the point across. Inventing a whole new way to navigate your website works against you if your visitors get confused. Stick to a logical layout and let users navigate your site the way they expect. In short, keep your website out of the reach of your visitors so they can focus on your product or service.
Fear of duplication is irrational. Who is comparing your website to another besides you? Your competition, maybe, but not your customers, and they are the people who matter. If you find a website template that you like, you may fear that others have used it and that will make you look like a copycat. Easy to solve: change the banner image at the top and voila – you have a different website. Even better, use a photo you’ve taken. Now you probably have a unique website. Besides, no one believes that those 20-somethings actually work for their company.
Don’t buy the single or failed hype. Find a good template for $50 and skip the expensive design project. It is very likely that he will change it next year anyway. When you make your first million, you can pay top dollar to have 17 shades of green on your website for all your friends to admire.