Webtivity Internet Marketing Blog

Value Proposition at its Worst

A colleague told me a funny and unbelievable story that sparked today’s blog post.  While he was leaving the office the other day he noticed a man standing outside the office next door.  Apparently the man was estimating how much it would cost to move their office to a new location.  As my colleague was walking to his car, the man yelled across the parking lot, “Hey, if you need to move I’m your guy!  I don’t carry insurance so I’m cheaper than everyone else!!”

I’m sure on some strange, distant planet that could be considered a value proposition statement.  I certainly don’t live on that world, and I think smart Earthlings would probably run in the other direction too.  How do you position yourself against your competitors?

Answering the question of what makes you better than your competitors should be pretty easy for business owners, CEO’s and top producers.  When going through the discovery process with many of our clients I sometimes find it more difficult than it should be to uncover strong value proposition.  Sometimes I’m met with negative tirades against competitors.  Most often I get the benign, “we will beat anyone else’s prices.”

Bashing your competitors makes you look petty.  And most agree that positioning yourself as “the cheapest in town” typically gets you a lot of customers who aren’t loyal to your company and/or don’t value what you do.

Having the ability to explain tangible and useful benefits to prospective clients is an extremely important ingredient for the success of your business.  To do an effective job you first need to pay attention to how your competitors advertise themselves.  Also, when new clients come to you from a competitor, ask them what your competitor did well.  Ask what made them leave your competitor.  And finally, ask them why they decided to come to your company.

Using this information will help you build your value arsenal and be prepared to knock it out of the park when asked the inevitable question, “Why should I come to you instead of your competitor?”

Here is the final piece that is most often overlooked:  once you have established your value proposition, get it on your website!  I sometimes get the most amazing elevator pitches when talking to new clients, but when I look at their website, none of that information is anywhere to be found!  Packaging your strongest value proposition and building it into strategic areas of your website will insure much better conversion rates.

Remember, getting someone to your website is only the first step—if they don’t contact you (or, convert) as a result of visiting your website you’ve just lost an important lead!

Learn more about Conversion Rate Optimization.

How many people does it take to build an effective website?

I frequently find myself having a conversation with potential customers about how many people it takes to develop an effective online marketing solution.  Many seem to have the impression if you know how to repair or network computers, then you must know how to design a website and promote it online.  The training required to be an IT professional is very different from the training for web design.  There are dozens of certifications one can obtain in the IT field and none of them are related to web design or internet marketing.

Since I worked in the healthcare industry and I think more people can relate to that industry, let’s think about it in these terms:  When you go to a hospital to receive care, how many people does it take to care for you during your stay?  Is there one person assigned to you who draws your blood, performs surgery, and takes a CAT scan?  No, individuals from various disciplines perform those separate tasks.  Why?  Partly because they were each trained in their specific areas to insure the best outcomes for each aspect of your care.

The same is true in most industries.  For example a company may offer plumbing, electrical and HVAC repair services, but they don’t send the same technician to work in each of those areas.  Instead they hire technicians who were trained and received certifications in each of those areas.  In our field there are three primary areas of expertise involved with creating an effective website:

• art/design
• technical
• marketing

Sadly many schools offering web design programs don’t offer a comprehensive curriculum which adequately addresses all these areas.  Most schools focus primarily on the design aspect (layouts, colors, etc.)  By necessity they do delve into the technical side, but tend not to spend significant time teaching students about search engine optimization and the more technical aspects of developing a website.  And many schools tend to spend even less time teaching basic marketing principals.

But think about it: your website is a primary marketing vehicle for your business — so if your website does not effectively communicate your marketing message and is not technically developed to current search engine standards, you are likely wasting a lot of time, money and potential.

That is why an interdisciplinary team can produce a much more effective online marketing campaign for your business.  You have the individuals working on your project who specialize in web design; those who specialize in the technical side of search engine optimization, and those who specialize in the marketing.  It is very rare to have all those necessities contained in one individual.

What’s that you say?  You need custom programming for your project?  Well that adds another discipline into the mix!  Programmers are trained completely differently from designers, SEO specialists, and marketers.

Understanding the people who make up our industry, their training and capabilities can make you a much more informed consumer when seeking an online marketing partner.