If you want to blend in with your competition, do what other people do in choosing how to design their website: buy a template.
If the sales text says anything like, “will help you stand out from the competition,” the reality is the opposite. Stock templates help you blend in, not stand out. That’s because most people want the website deal, the shortcut that leads to their one-of-a-kind dream website at a fraction of the cost. It’s also because in order to attract mass appeal, the template has to be generic in nature.
Once you buy a template, you’re stuck with whatever idiosyncrasies the template ships with. Changing those elements is difficult and expensive. But that’s not the worst of it. The worst thing is that no stock template is designed for your brand (unless your brand is designed to blend in, but then you have a much bigger problem).
The advantage of templates is price, but if your brand looks like every other brand, going with the low price option is, ironically, what you are encouraging others to do when they encounter your also-ran brand’s website.
Kelly Hobkirk - teaching marketers how to harness strategy, goals, reality, and purpose to connect and do better work.
Kelly Hobkirk has been helping companies succeed in creative ways for nearly 25 years. His work has been featured in Time Magazine, and books by Rockport and Rotovision. Get exclusive articles when you sign up for his monthly newsletter.