Part Three: Homepage Re-Design – Understand Your Competitors

Some would argue that it’s important you understand your competition before your audience. I think it depends on the level of understanding you need. In many cases, you must first fully understand your audience before you can even begin to understand what your competitors are doing right (and wrong).

And so it’s with that sentiment in mind that we open up the third part in our homepage re-design series – understanding your competitors.

Having a solid comprehension of your primary competitors’ movements, philosophies, strategies and tactics, audiences, and offerings is essential at the most basic level of marketing. You can’t beat what you don’t know.

By knowing the competition – especially on the web – you open yourself up to two important avenues: imitation or creative distinction.

The art of imitation may sound cheap, but it’s a very valid method of crafting the ideal homepage. For starters, by researching the homepages of various competitor web sites, you can see what kind of conventions they’re adhering to. Chances are, if these conventions line up across your competitors, then it’s a good thing to imitate for your own homepage.

For example, if you’re a bank and all of your competitors have an account login box at the very top of their homepage, you should do the same. The reason is because visitors have come to expect the login box to be prevalently displayed in this upper area. Subscribing to this convention will cut out some of the thinking processes for your user and create a seamless experience.

Three major banks follow the “login box convention” (in exactly the same place, too):

• Bank of America
• Wells Fargo
• Wachovia

Imitation can also reveal how you should label your navigation, what kinds of content and media you should showcase on your homepage, and how to call attention to a particular action you want users to take.

Creative distinction on the other hand sounds rich and meaningful. No doubt, you want your organization to stand out in a bright spotlight that accents the unique attributes of your products or services. That’s what creative distinction is all about. Doing something different or wildly radical to your homepage and web site that draws attention and business.

It can work but it’s risky.

To do something unique on the web may require that you break conventions. And as time-crunched users go, this can be a bad thing. If you give up user experience for even just an ounce of cool creativity, you may wind up alienating visitors.

But done right, creatively can take you a long way. The key is to understand when it’s appropriate.

If you’re in an industry that demands creativity, that’s a plus. If you can do something creative without harming the user experience, go for it. If standing out from the rest is essential and creativity can do that for you, try it out!

Here’s a fictitious example for the banking scenario. Let’s say you’re a small community bank and you absolutely have to stand out from the rest in these troubled times that banks are having. One creative approach would be to feature on the homepage “in the community” videos showing how the bank is responding to the community’s concerns over the banking industry.

Maybe it’s cheesy. But it’s just an example of stepping out from the grind of things and doing something that others aren’t.

Finding competitors to compare your organization with can be as easy as a Google search or as extensive as full-blown marketing research. For simple searches, I usually check out the local trade associations and Chambers of Commerce.

During the comparisons, you can quickly make notes in a spreadsheet or you can go as far as having a dedicated document for each competitor. It really depends on how quickly you need the data and how important the data is to your online presence.

Stay tuned for the fourth and final post in this series: Updating and Fine-Tuning Your Homepage.

2 Responses to “Part Three: Homepage Re-Design – Understand Your Competitors” (Leave a Comment)

1. Carlos Thomas says:

   January 13, 2009 at 9:02 am

   Creativity is a requirement. So is differentiation. To paraphrase Seth Godin, being different may be risky but not as risky as being the same.

   This is not say throw all conventions out the window, but I would recommend to come up with ideas for your website before looking at the sites of your competitors. Imitation is so much easier than creativity. Don’t stifle the process before you even begin! Once you get your ideas down on paper (or bit), then you can take a look at competitor sites, but always think about what sets you apart and how to convey that.

   Reply
2. clecompte says:

   January 15, 2009 at 9:48 am

   Carlos, I agree completely. You have to take a chance and differentiate yourself. It is risky, but then again, risk is what pays off.

   My belief is that your web site should be a careful balance between risk and conventions. You want a web site that achieves results through risk-taking, but you also want a site that is usable and coherent a la conventions.

   Great points, thanks for reading!

   Reply