Website Marketing Tip: Does The World See What You See?

Business Identity: Does The World See What You See?

Most small business owners spend a lot of time thinking about what their business identity is. The important thing, however, is not what you think your business identity is, but what business identity the world sees when it looks at you.

John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing.com recently suggested an exercise that doesn’t require anything more than an Internet connection, word processing, and a few moments of your time. Here is Jantsch’s exercise, originally posted September 4, 2007:

“Go to the web site of your four biggest competitors, copy the introductory paragraph from their home page and paste each on a document. Now add the same from your own web site. Lastly, black out any mention of the names of the firms and pass this page around the office or to anyone familiar with your business.”

Have your associates and friends try to tell which description is your own. This might be difficult, but it shouldn’t be. Your business identity may be surprisingly and uncomfortably similar to other websites in your market. Perhaps you modeled yourself after a competitor hoping some of their success would rub off. But, if you are indistinguishable from your competitor, then customers have no reason to choose you over anyone else. To be successful, you must package what you are offering in a way that gives customers a reason to prefer you. Jantsch says, “You must get over the fear of being different and find a way to demonstrate that you serve a very narrow target niche, package your services in unique ways, provide an over the top experience, own a certain way of doing things, do something that someone wants like no one ever thought of - and then, proudly declare this difference in every fiber of your communication.”

I hope you will try this exercise. Apple Computers has already appropriated the slogan “Think Different,” and I think they were onto something. Let us know if this exercise helped you “think different” about your company.

[See MightyMerchant’s August 22, 2007 blog post about Jantsch’s interview with Eric Groves, Senior VP of Constant Contact.]

Social Bookmarking: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.