and it's a fair point...
If you're a in car sales, then you would put your cars onto a website which gets the most traffic like autotrader. If you're doing short term rentals then maybe AirBnB. Similarly, Rightmove if you're an estate agent. The last few years have seen the rise of these online market place websites whose names have now become synonymous with the product itself. Then you have social media platforms which are like the market place for socialising and where brands and businesses can 'find their tribe'. As a property investor, I cannot think of the last time I intentionally went to an estate agent's website, and only ever end up there as a result of being redirected. So why is that? The product I am after (i.e. information) has been aggregated into these online market places. I think it is fair to say that in some industries (i.e. the ones mentioned above), the original intention and form for these individual websites have less relevance when put up against the platforms out there. In other cases, regulatory and legal requirements mandate company websites to host key information which needs to be freely available at all times. But this is not the case for all businesses. So does that mean only a small number of businesses actually a website?
Just like money has evolved from barter to metals to cash and now potentially to Central Bank Digital Currencies, websites need to evolve too.
The strength of websites like Rightmove is also just the angle that can be used to help the evolution of websites. Having helped to design trade surveillance systems for various investment banks, it became apparent that some of these large surveillance vendors thrive on conformity (i.e. one size fits all). One system, the same work flows, the same layouts, with thresholds added in to set risk to appetite. This works well for the vendor designing and selling the system with minimal deviation from a road map and all the banks following the vendor way of doing things, but this totally lost the fact that bank x does business one way and bank y does it another way. A corporate client may choose bank z over all others because of reasons that are not on paper and you just cannot fit that into a vendor defined process. The uniqueness of how these banks did business can quickly be lost to being forced into the workflows and ways of doing business as all the others.
And while online market places are great places for 'information', they do not capture your unique approach or way of doing business. This, I believe is the evolution websites need to run with. When I started Grey Car Design during the lockdowns of 2020, I realised that the online shift will move into overdrive and the internet may just become an even more crowded place. Even more people will be driven to these online market places where everyone is forced into conformity where stand out factors are simply the price and product and that's okay if that is all a business is based on. If you want to bring your your unique brand and message, then it is now more important than ever to leverage your website to differentiate yourself.
Questions like the following can all be starting points for how to make your brand stand out:
Why should clients work with you?
What is the type of client you are looking to work with?
Your area(s) of expertise
Pain points you can solve
How your product helps
Case studies
All wrapped in your unique branding.
Your unique messaging and value add to your customer outside of these market places is what will get your audience to your website. As a property agent, can you help landlords remain compliant? As a car sales business, can you help with reviews for cars for people in different circumstances?
If your business is just known for a product or price, then once a competitor outdoes you, do you think you will be remembered?
If you have something more to offer, there might be some customer-stickiness that lasts beyond the details presented on online market places.
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