If there is a successful company in your field and you need a website, why not just make yours like theirs? They are successful, so wouldn’t you be successful as well by following their design? Aren’t you trying to appeal to the same customers? Don’t you want to be where they are?
No. That’s a really bad idea.
You want your website to be better that your competition. You want you website to stand out from the rest. You want your website to be designed specifically for you.
Here’s a few thing wrong with just doing what the Leader is doing.
- They may have a horrible website. Believe it or not the biggest supplier of widgets my have gotten that way from years in the widget industry, a great widget, luck, traditional marketing, or a variety of other factors. A successful company may have a horrible website because they don’t need it drive business.
- A big or old company may have a large bureaucracy that stifles new, innovative ideas. A small, nimble company may have a better chance of having a great website.
- It’s illegal. You can’t just copy a website. There is such a thing as intellectual properties. It’s certainly not ethical.
- It looks desperate. If you came out with a new cola and just made it look like Coke, it looks like a knockoff.
- It’s lazy.
- Your company is different. Perhaps the leader emphasizes their history, but a new company may want to focus on innovation?
- You goals are different. The big company’s website may just be there for provide general information. If everyone knows them, their website doesn’t have to be a marketing piece. Perhaps your website will be the first time a potential client has heard of you.
- You will never be a leader if you only know how to follow.
- Your site will just get lost in the shuffle.
- It’s a waste of time, money, and an opportunity. By just copying another’s solution, you miss an opportunity to have a unique solution. You are spending the money to build a website…You might as well have your designer actually think about your brand.
Sure, there may be some things to be learned from your competition. There may be some features and sections that will work on your site. Some industry leaders have great websites. Some owe their success to their websites. The problem is that people get blinded by the success of their competition. It’s better to step back and look at your goals in terms of your customers and not just your competition.
So don’t follow. Make your own path. Have a marketing firm look at your goal, your brand, your potential customers, and create a solution that fits.
