Feel like you need to beef up your website? You’re probably right! Your regular site visitors get bored if your website content is stale. And you want to be certain that you’re providing as much (or more!) value than your competition.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are 27.9 million small businesses in the U.S., and 78 percent of these are non-employers (or sole proprietorships). This solopreneur is one of those!
As the lifeblood of your organization, you must stand out above your competition. And since the vast majority of people turn first to their phone and computer to search out businesses for their needs, your website content and social media platforms are a huge part of the game. So what’s the easiest way to stand out?
[bctt tweet=”As the lifeblood of your organization, you must stand out above your competition–online!”]
Scope Out Your Competition!
Now, I’m not suggesting that you replicate your competition’s website. No way. Instead, look at what they’re doing and do it better. If you’re a fitness instructor, does your competition include nutrition tips to go along with his or her programs? What about printable class schedules? Or an online scheduling system? If you are an attorney, you can include articles and links that help to educate your clients about your area of expertise. Real estate agents might want to include tips for home décor or decluttering before listing a house. It’s not just about “selling.” It’s about providing value to your audience.
Set yourself up as THE expert in your field and provide enough value that your audience will come to you first for more information—or to buy something. You also want to make it easy for someone to choose you as their insurance agent, personal trainer, financial coach, what-have-you. And you do this by providing as much information as possible up-front so your audience isn’t left guessing about your products and services. So if your competition has something on their website that you don’t, it’s time to close the information gap!
[bctt tweet=”Be THE expert in your field and provide enough value that your audience will come to you first for more info!”]
Make a list of three pages or sections you see on your competitors’ websites that you don’t currently have on yours. It’s generally very easy to add pages to a website, even if a developer created your site. Write up some content (or hire it out to a professional copywriter) and start edging out the competition by providing more value when visitors stop by your website.
