Is Your Business Blinded By Familiarity?


Last summer I was contacted by a business that said they wanted to find a way to improve the effectiveness of their website.

I told them I would be happy to help them and asked them to answer two questions:

1) What did they mean by improving effectiveness?

2) Did their website tell their story?

They told me effectiveness referred to generating leads and told me the second question was silly. I asked them why and they told me it was silly because it was obvious what they did and the services they provided.

I asked them to humor me and suggested that familiarity with their products/services was creating blind spots that they needed to fix.

They assured me again that they had no doubt but said they would be willing to test my theory.

Did Their Website Tell Their Story?

They asked some friends and acquaintances who were not familiar with the business to take a look at the company website and were surprised to find out that these people did not walk away with a clear understanding of what was being offered.

What they learned from this experience was the website was not effective in telling visitors what the company offered.

It didn’t tell their story.

It wasn’t for lack of effort on their part either. It happened because familiarity can cause blind spots. When you know something inside and out it is sometimes easy to forget to include key pieces of information because you think it is obvious.

Yet what is obvious to you isn’t to everyone else.

Change Your Thinking

Sometimes the best thing we can do to help our businesses and ourselves is open our minds and allow for the opportunity to change our thinking about some things.

It doesn’t have to be a radical change either. Sometimes all that is needed is a simple restructuring of how you look at things.

When it comes to websites and encouraging prospective customers to respond to a call-to-action or at least to ask for more information simple is good.

Make it easy for them to understand you story.

What do you do? What do you offer? Why is it valuable.

Share the features, share the functions, share the benefits.

Don’t let familiarity prevent you from being open to recognizing not everyone can see what you see or knows what you know.

What do you think?

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By Joshua Wilner

Hi, I am Josh Wilner and I am happy that you have decided to visit my corner of cyberspace. I am a writer/marketer/friend and family man. My professional background includes more than twenty years in working with businesses to help them do a better job of connecting with their existing and prospective customers. More specifically I have worked with companies of all sizes from the Fortune 500 to the new start up to help them build, develop and grow their social media and marketing plans. I love spending time with my family and friends. I enjoy music, reading, writing, playing sports and laughing.

4 comments

  1. Valid point and well stated. It’s easy trap to fall into and I think we fall into it in all walks of life.

    Reply
    1. TheJackB – Someone complained that this page doesn’t tell you what to expect to find here in this blog so I aim to rectify this with the next line. I am a father who writes about life, parenting, business, politics and fiction. I don’t use an editorial calendar because I don’t map out what I am going to write that far in advance. The primary focus will be on things that relate to children and parenting. But the nifty thing about that is that encompasses a wide range of things. Sometimes I work with companies on their PR/Marketing efforts. If they provide products or services I will disclose it. Here is an incomplete list of companies that I am currently or have recently worked with: Nintendo, Philips Norelco, Subway, Frigidaire and Mattel. Want to know more about me, keep reading. If I wanted to provide a professional description it would looks similar to this: Jack has a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from California State University Northridge. He has been writing for print and web publications for more than twenty years, covering a wide range of topics including: business, technology, parenting, politics, education, sports and religion. That is far too serious so I prefer to use something like: The Jack B. is a writer and author of 39 unpublished books and three screenplays. A former athlete and would be superhero he still fights for truth, justice and the American Way. Though he may look like a grown man, don’t fool yourself he is still a boy at heart. When he is not engaged in Walter Mitty like fantasies he is a husband, father and friend and blogs at TheJackB. Hmm…obviously I have since moved from Random Thoughts over to this place, but that is ok. This page is a work in progress which is a good description for me. I’ll probably tweak this on a regular basis so feel free to keep checking back in because you never know what might show up. I am a prolific writer and update frequently so don’t forget to scroll down the page to see what nugget of wisdom you just might have missed. Here is a short selection of posts to get you started. A Father Describes Parenting A Father’s Burden How Sister’s Helped to Train A Father of “Daddy’s Girl” Inside the Blogger’s Studio- A Dream, Er Nightmare The GermoPhobe What I Dream About I am In Love Becoming a Dad Dad’s Most Important Job A Decade of Dad Grandpa Donuts Why Your Post Sucks and Everyone Hates Your Blog A Letter To My Children- Things That Matter A Letter To My Children-2011 Dad Balances Fear Versus Reality Q&A With Daddy Blogger JackB Save The Last Dance For Me- 75 Years of Marriage An Uncertain Certainty Four Generations & A Wedding The Best Thing My Father Ever Said To Me 1 Foolproof Way To Become a Better Writer The Story Of A House- The Final Days He Died A Hero Twenty-Five Links That Will Make You A Better Writer/Blogger Thanks for coming by, I hope you like it. If you want to reach me use the contact form or try talk-to-jacknow-at-gmail-dotcom You can also find more information by clicking About Me and reading my profile there. Also, I encourage you to sign up for my newsletter using the form on the top right hand side of the page.
      Joshua says:

      Yeah, I think we are all subject to it at times.

      Reply

  2. Excellent points and great example, mate.

    A few years back, I worked for a start-up that was trying to challenge the likes of Hootsuite and Sprout Social when it came to social media dashboards. The CEO was forever changing his mind on what he wanted the platform to do, and this resulted in a frequently-changing and ever-confusing website/message.

    Meanwhile, on the marketing team, we knew exactly who it would benefit and how to tell that story. So, instead of a heavy website trying to be all things to all people, we created a very simple video, that showed each tool in the dashboard, and how that related to business goals.

    The result? Increased sign-ups and activations, and nary a website referral in place. So, yeah…. confusion and being too close to a product can be very dangerous bedfellows.

    Cheers, mate, good stuff.

    Reply
    1. TheJackB – Someone complained that this page doesn’t tell you what to expect to find here in this blog so I aim to rectify this with the next line. I am a father who writes about life, parenting, business, politics and fiction. I don’t use an editorial calendar because I don’t map out what I am going to write that far in advance. The primary focus will be on things that relate to children and parenting. But the nifty thing about that is that encompasses a wide range of things. Sometimes I work with companies on their PR/Marketing efforts. If they provide products or services I will disclose it. Here is an incomplete list of companies that I am currently or have recently worked with: Nintendo, Philips Norelco, Subway, Frigidaire and Mattel. Want to know more about me, keep reading. If I wanted to provide a professional description it would looks similar to this: Jack has a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from California State University Northridge. He has been writing for print and web publications for more than twenty years, covering a wide range of topics including: business, technology, parenting, politics, education, sports and religion. That is far too serious so I prefer to use something like: The Jack B. is a writer and author of 39 unpublished books and three screenplays. A former athlete and would be superhero he still fights for truth, justice and the American Way. Though he may look like a grown man, don’t fool yourself he is still a boy at heart. When he is not engaged in Walter Mitty like fantasies he is a husband, father and friend and blogs at TheJackB. Hmm…obviously I have since moved from Random Thoughts over to this place, but that is ok. This page is a work in progress which is a good description for me. I’ll probably tweak this on a regular basis so feel free to keep checking back in because you never know what might show up. I am a prolific writer and update frequently so don’t forget to scroll down the page to see what nugget of wisdom you just might have missed. Here is a short selection of posts to get you started. A Father Describes Parenting A Father’s Burden How Sister’s Helped to Train A Father of “Daddy’s Girl” Inside the Blogger’s Studio- A Dream, Er Nightmare The GermoPhobe What I Dream About I am In Love Becoming a Dad Dad’s Most Important Job A Decade of Dad Grandpa Donuts Why Your Post Sucks and Everyone Hates Your Blog A Letter To My Children- Things That Matter A Letter To My Children-2011 Dad Balances Fear Versus Reality Q&A With Daddy Blogger JackB Save The Last Dance For Me- 75 Years of Marriage An Uncertain Certainty Four Generations & A Wedding The Best Thing My Father Ever Said To Me 1 Foolproof Way To Become a Better Writer The Story Of A House- The Final Days He Died A Hero Twenty-Five Links That Will Make You A Better Writer/Blogger Thanks for coming by, I hope you like it. If you want to reach me use the contact form or try talk-to-jacknow-at-gmail-dotcom You can also find more information by clicking About Me and reading my profile there. Also, I encourage you to sign up for my newsletter using the form on the top right hand side of the page.
      Joshua says:

      I have had a similar experience with management that has the attention span of a gnat. It is a challenge to keep them happy and to make things work when they are forever changing their minds, especially if they are unaware of how crazy it makes people.

      Reply

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