Should I describe my differentiators on my website, or will the competition copy from me?
I'm launching a website with some features that are different from my two competitors. One of my competitors established a website in 2008, and one launched in January. A friend told me not to publish the differentiating features on my website because the other two will copy them (like Facebook supposedly did to Google+). My friend said that my competitors will have more impact with these features because they have been in business for a while. My friend suggested that I shouldn't release the new features on my website so if competitors check me out they won't take me seriously, and I can introduce the new features later.
I'm nervous and scared because this is my first website launch. I'm a new company with a very low budget and high motivation. Do you have suggestions for what I should do, and how to alleviate my fears?
3 Answers
Release a site that has a clear competitive advantage. Your site must be better than your competitors in some way, and enough people must care. If you got that, you're good to go.
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At the same time though, I would argue that one can't be completely focused on feature competition. I believe that doing what you do, extremely well, can be a competitive advantage in and of itself. When competing with bigger, better funded companies, focus on the fundamentals, and focus your efforts on doing just a few things, very well. – Bwasson 12 years ago
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I never said "more features", I meant better in some way. If you do only one thing but do it better than anybody else, you're good. – Alain Raynaud 12 years ago
Alain gave a very useful advice.
Some more things to ponder - Do you think Facebook is more popular than google+ because former copied few features from later? or put it in another way, Do you think google+ would have been more successful if Facebook hadn't copied those few features from it?
Moreover, most of things we create on web already exists somehow, somewhere, in some form. All the great ideas are out there, for free, on our neighborhood blog. It's all about execution. If you have passion for the features you've developed, I am sure, you will find your TRIBE. And you will be successful.
Go, launch!! All the best.
@Afnan, if your website offers unique and competitive features then actually you have an opportunity to claim a competitive edge over your rivals. But since you are about to launch your website so I will advise you to have an SEO rich and human friendly website at first and then ethically promote your competitive features in the first tier among your targeted markets/communities to grab some serious attention.
Put simply, if you product is scalable, offers unique features and resolves issues of the targeted community in the real-time then don’t think twice; you will get attention from the market.
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thanks @usman Sarfraz – Afnan Bashir 12 years ago
