{"id":484,"date":"2016-07-25T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.websitemuscle.com\/?p=484"},"modified":"2016-07-25T10:00:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T17:00:59","slug":"why-follow-your-competitors-when-you-can-follow-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitemuscle.com\/why-follow-your-competitors-when-you-can-follow-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Follow Your Competitors When You Can Follow the Numbers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>When I meet with clients to talk about a website project,<\/strong>\u00a0I usually ask if there is anything they like or dislike about their competitors\u2019 websites. (Mostly I just want to make sure I\u2019m giving the client what they want.)<\/p>\n<p>Their answers are always different, and always interesting. Part of being a Web Designer &amp; Developer includes looking at design trends and conversion data to figure out why certain elements work and others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Data is everywhere, and the tools to track and collect data are getting better and better. We rely on data to design websites for businesses that improve their chances of gaining new leads.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding why designs succeed or fail helps me show clients how their website ideas might actually hurt their chances of engaging their audience and growing their business.<\/p>\n<h3>Don\u2019t Be a Puffy Donut<\/h3>\n<p>We\u2019re\u00a0big donut fans\u00a0here at Website Muscle. We\u2019re not snobs or anything, but we think the best donuts are the ones that have some substance and flavor when you bite into them.<\/p>\n<p>You know that puffy, sugar sprinkled donut that\u2019s mostly air inside? That one is always left for last because you know, as soon as you pick it up, that there isn\u2019t much to it.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t want your website to be that puffy, air-filled donut. If your website is going to help your business, it needs substance (functionality) and flavor (good design). To create that substance, we like to get to know you and make sure that our \u2018recipe\u2019 (haha) is a good fit for your company.<\/p>\n<p>Before we start, we want to know:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who your target audience is<\/li>\n<li>Where you get the most online traffic (mobile or desktop)<\/li>\n<li>What your most popular or profitable service or product is<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This type of information actually has a major impact on how I design pages. If you have a product that people love and it\u2019s your biggest seller, we want the user to see that first! A good designer won\u2019t make it difficult for users to find what they need.<\/p>\n<h3>Follow the Numbers, Not the Competition<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s leave the donuts behind and talk about motorcycles for a minute. Harley-Davidson, one of the most well-known brands in the world, has been in business since 1903. Now, my last name isn\u2019t Harley\u00a0<em>or<\/em>\u00a0Davidson, but I\u2019m pretty sure they haven\u2019t succeeded for 110 years by blindly and blandly following what their competitors were doing.<\/p>\n<p>As your website designer, I want to learn from your competitors, but ultimately improve on their choices. We want your company to be seen as\u00a0<em>ahead<\/em>\u00a0of the competition &#8212; in the best possible way, of course.<\/p>\n<p>Trying to copy your competitors\u2019 success by copying their web design may make sense at first, but your competitor\u2019s design might not even be the reason they are succeeding.<\/p>\n<p>An established audience or effective traditional marketing campaign might be powering their online success &#8211; and you may not have those assets for your own business yet. Improving on your competitors\u2019 web design with data-driven decisions, however, can give you an advantage of your own.<\/p>\n<h3>It\u2019s All About the Data<\/h3>\n<p><em>\u201cDon\u2019t focus on the competition; they\u2019ll never give you money.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>&#8212; Jeff Bezos<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My favorite thing about having all of this data to look at is that the numbers never lie. We don\u2019t need to make decisions based on guesses and hope for the best.<\/p>\n<p>We\u00a0<em>know<\/em>\u00a0that a design strategy based on data works better than blindly following a competitor because you\u00a0<em>think<\/em>\u00a0what they are doing is working.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t learn from the good things your competitors are doing. That\u2019s why we study design trends in addition to data &#8211; there\u2019s no wrong way to learn about improvements in web design.<\/p>\n<p>But when you hire someone to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.websitemuscle.com\/schedule-a-consultation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">build your website<\/a>\u00a0(or anyone else, for that matter) they should be able to explain the reasons for the decisions they make. If there are no justifiable reasons for our choices and we can\u2019t defend our work, clients might feel taken advantage of and we won\u2019t last very long.<\/p>\n<p>Numbers don\u2019t lie, and at the end of the day we want your numbers &#8212; for leads, for sales, for lunch budgets and holiday bonuses &#8212; to go up. By using data to guide website designs for our clients, we can lead businesses toward success instead of just following trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I meet with clients to talk about a website project,\u00a0I usually ask if there is anything they like or dislike about their competitors\u2019 websites. (Mostly I just want to make sure I\u2019m giving the client what they want.) Their answers are always different, and always interesting. Part of being a Web Designer &amp; Developer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-growth","category-education","tag-data-driven-design"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Follow Your Competitors Or Follow the Numbers? - Website Muscle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Data is everywhere, and the tools to track and collect data keep getting better. We rely on data to design websites that improve your company&#039;s chance to gain new leads. 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