Amid the intense competition in the business world today, companies aim to capture the attention of potential customers and persuade them to try their offerings by highlighting their distinctive strengths and differentiators. While many companies opt to simply declare their competencies on their websites, more nuanced approaches can have a great impact.
Creatively positioned written, visual and audio website content, in addition to an inviting, easy-to-navigate user experience and user interface design, allow businesses to better communicate their outstanding attributes to their target audiences. Here, Forbes Agency Council members share how a company can demonstrate its strengths organically via its website homepage and leave a lasting impression on visitors.
1. Focus On Visual Storytelling
Employ the power of visual storytelling and a carefully crafted strategy. With these elements, your website can effectively communicate your organization’s strengths to visitors from the moment they land on your homepage. – Danielle West, CAYK Marketing
2. Display Concrete Examples Of Your Expertise
Use real success stories, captivating visuals, glowing testimonials, interactive demos and user-friendly design. Showcasing concrete examples, visually appealing content and intuitive experiences will allow visitors to discover and appreciate your company’s expertise and unique offerings organically. – Hasan Saleem, DSS MEDIA
3. Create An Engaging Experience With Content
To showcase a company’s strengths and differentiators on its website without stating them explicitly, use visuals, interactive elements, user-generated content, case studies and videos. This creates engaging content that allows visitors to experience the company’s unique features and builds trust and credibility with the audience. – Muhammad Eltiti, BOOST
4. Briefly And Clearly Outline What You Do
Have a very clear message outlining exactly what you do in as few characters as possible. This should be followed by case studies or images to showcase your products in line with your brand and unique selling propositions. – Sam Hurley, NOVOS
5. Play To The Audience
We live in a society of instant gratification—one where a 10-second video is now a snooze-fest. So, why haven’t brands adapted how they tell their story? Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and think about how they would consume that content in their daily life. If video resonates with the audience, produce it. Visuals? Design it. Are they tech-savvy? Make it interactive. – Allison Minutillo, Primacy
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6. Let Other Voices Establish Your Credibility
There’s a reason why those in the entertainment industry—from Hollywood studios to book publishers—use blurbs on movie posters and book jackets: Every company can talk about itself, but that message is more powerful when it comes from others. Use testimonials, case studies and industry accolades to credential your message. Distill the comments and deploy them using text, video and visuals to keep users engaged. – Tripp Donnelly, REQ
7. Adopt A ‘Less Is More’ Approach
Be direct with messaging and branding. Craft a clear value proposition; embrace a simplified design; use distinct branding elements; include direct calls to action; highlight concise benefit statements and create a visual hierarchy. This focused approach captures attention, communicates strengths succinctly and enhances the user experience. – Bryanne DeGoede, BLND Public Relations
8. Showcase The Faces Behind The Brand
Use clear messaging, imagery and content that speaks directly to your demographic. Humanize and showcase the faces behind the brand and their expertise to build trust. Write blogs to show you are speaking to that demo and use press logos to position your brand as a trusted source. – Jessica Kopach, The JKO Agency
9. Highlight What You Can Do Better Than Competitors
Learn about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Then write about the things that you do differently and better than they do. Most companies try to educate visitors about why they need their services. This is a huge mistake. By the time someone gets to your website, they know why they need your services. The key to everything is to explain why they need your company and only your company. – David Gaz, The Bureau Of Small Projects
10. Use Your Clients’ Words To Promote Your Unique Value
Use your clients’ words to promote your unique value. Your audience knows that positive reviews and testimonials about your products, services and the customer experience you provide are far more reliable than any content you’d write about yourself. Plus, your clients may describe what you do in ways you might have never considered. Apply their perspective to give potential buyers helpful insight. – Scott Greggory, MadAveGroup
11. Address Your Customer’s Pain Points
Focusing on addressing your customer’s pain points in your homepage content is a great way to highlight your solution’s strengths and differentiators, because it directly tackles their challenges. Merely emphasizing features and strengths won’t resonate if you neglect customer pain points, which shows a lack of customer understanding or, worse yet, a lack of customer-centricity in your company culture. – Steve Ohanians, Clear Digital
12. Put Your Value Proposition Front And Center
A clearly defined value proposition is the most powerful marketing asset a company can place on its homepage. Too often, brands describe the features of their product or service, not the benefit it provides to its customer. A well-written value proposition should quickly convey specific customer benefits. Substance beats style every time. – Shanon Marks, Agency 39A
13. Show, Don’t Tell
Capture your audience’s attention and convey your strengths without explicitly stating them by showcasing customer testimonials, success stories and visual representations such as infographics or other thought-provoking imagery. Highlight awards and industry recognition or craft a compelling unique selling point that implicitly communicates what sets your company apart from competitors. – Ashlee Piga, Lotus Digital
14. Use Short Video Testimonials
Video testimonials in fun and new formats, such as short TIkTok-like clips, can show how you are different. Promote a book or an executive brief touting your strengths to show thought leadership. – Christine Slocumb, Clarity Quest Marketing
15. Give Examples Of What Not To Expect From You
We very often are defined as much by what we are not as by what we are. Giving examples of what not to expect from your business can be a powerful, honest and extraordinarily credible and endearing way to differentiate your solutions. For example: “Are we the fastest? No. We believe in thoughtfulness in everything we do. When you rush, you make mistakes, which often leads to bigger challenges.” – Josh Yudin, The Academy of Marketing
16. Spark Emotions Before Explaining Offerings
Because the independent financial advisors my agency serves are providing trust-based services related to their clients’ hard-earned money, it is important for homepage visitors to see that the firm understands their concerns, works with people just like them and has not only expertise, but also a passion for solving their problems. Sparking emotions before explaining services and solutions works. – Marie Swift, Impact Communications, Inc.
17. Feature Case Studies, Testimonials And Results
Let your clients and customers tell people what your strengths are. Show results that your competition isn’t able to achieve. That will differentiate you. Everything else is noise. – Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync & EPL Digital
18. Incorporate Interactive Elements
A great way to showcase your company’s strengths is by incorporating interactive elements such as animations, charts or 3D models. They’ll provide an engaging experience for your website visitors while also showcasing your key differentiators in a unique and visually compelling way. Leveraging these elements can make complex information more digestible while enhancing the aesthetics of your homepage. – Adam Binder, Creative Click Media
19. Validate The Return On Investment You Can Provide
Hit them with your strongest stats that validate the ROI of your solution or services, and make the numbers pop with a graphical layout. Include peer-to-peer type quotes and videos from your customer champions, with a focus on how your solution solved their pain points. List the top industry awards you’ve won, logos of any noteworthy clients, and media brands that have covered your company. – Jodi Amendola, Amendola Communications
20. Create An Interactive ‘Success Stories’ Section
A compelling way to subtly highlight a company’s strengths on its homepage is through an interactive “Success Stories” section. This section features real-life examples, enriched with multimedia elements that showcase the company’s impact. The intuitive user interface and subtle animations enhance user engagement, providing an authentic presentation of the company’s unique qualities. – Daniyal Zafar, Zap Media
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