What makes you different?

You might be talking about what you do, or how you do it, but are you talking about how you do it differently?

Earlier this week I was confirming a sponsorship for The Theme Foundry. I was responding to this question over email: “What are the key things you want me to say about your business?”. I gave it some thought and came up with the following:

• We’ve been selling WordPress themes since 2008 and have over 30,000 customers. We’re obsessed with building the best WordPress themes, and plan on being around for a long time.
• We work with world-class designers like Jon Hicks, Veerle Pieters, Dave Ruiz, and Ryan Essmaker. It’s rare to have your website template designed by one of the best in the world.
• We take pride in the details and value quality over quantity. That’s why we have a small focused collection of WordPress themes. We truly care about building great products.
• We’re an exclusive partner with the official hosted WordPress provider, WordPress.com, and we sell our themes on that platform. This means each and every theme goes through a stringent audit process from some of the best themers in the world. You can rest assured our WordPress themes are well coded and secure.
• We practice whole team support. You’ll get fast and friendly customer support in our Help Center from the people that actually build our themes. You won’t be interacting with a part time support rep. If you have a question about the new Backbone.js powered fast page loading in Collections, you’ll likely chat with Zack, the guy who actually built it.

After sending the email, I sat back and thought about it for a minute. Wait! Why aren’t we talking about this on our website!? Each one of these unique characteristics is a selling point. It’s a difference maker. It could convince someone our themes are right for them.

Sometimes you get caught up describing the product or service you offer and forget about what makes you different. It’s easy to forget, because to you, it’s almost too obvious. It’s ingrained in how you do things and who you are, so you tend not to think about it all that much. Instead, you’re usually focused on what you do or how you do it, rather than on how you do it differently.

If you’re a freelance web designer, and you routinely answer emails at midnight because you care about your clients, talk about it on your website. If you’re a photographer, and you upgrade your equipment every 18 months because you want the best tools for your craft, talk about it on your website. If you own a bakery, and you painstakingly source local ingredients for each recipe, talk about it on your website.

Every successful business has special qualities that make that business unique. Customers care about what makes you unique, because it shows you care about what you do. Start talking about these special qualities. It will actually attract customers that appreciate you and fit well with your business. If nothing else, it makes you memorable, which guarantees you don’t get lost among your competitors.

I’m now resolved to highlight our unique qualities on The Theme Foundry website. If you care about attracting more customers that fit well with your business, I’d encourage you to do the same.

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