Just Say “NO!” to cookie cutter websites!

Imagine going into a gourmet bakery looking for a specialty cake to find out they just can’t do the flavor or shape you want. I doubt you’ll ever go back. Although this may not seem like a big deal when you look at it from a baked goods perspective, it becomes a big deal when it involves your online marketing efforts.

Let’s say you’re the head of marketing for a growing company and in need of a new website with an e-commerce portal to sell your company’s products. Though your website design will be pretty simplistic, your e-commerce will require some advanced functionality in order to sort, share, report, customize and sell your products.

You set out to find the right company to design your site, one with the necessary experience to develop the advanced e-commerce portal you require. Both small, local and large, national companies, specializing in e-commerce solutions, show interest. The small companies say they can build a custom site to accommodate your needs but it will be a bit more costly.

The larger companies say they can easily design your website, but they offer four package options for your e-commerce section. In other words, they will offer you one of their cookie cutter e-commerce packages, usually for a flat monthly usage fee. I imagine what they are not telling you is that the sites they design are all pretty similar as well. This approach allows the large companies to become larger because they can quickly generate site after site after site. So just like the cookie shop, if you choose one of these large companies, you are likely going to get a site similar to all the others they have done. No custom orders accepted.

If you are looking for a website that looks and feels like everything else on the web, it’s easy to go with one of the lesser expensive, national companies. Plus, it’s a large, national company, they must be doing something right, right?

But who wants a cookie cutter? You want your organization’s website to stand out from your competitors, right? You also want your website to be easy to navigate and attractive. So a larger investment with a local firm that knows who you are and what you want AND can deliver a custom site, might offer you the greatest ROI in the long run. Not to mention, visitors are more likely to return to a site they deem reputable, attractive and easy to use.

With the amount of food we have around here you might think Synapse is a bakery, but we definitely are not. We are experts in the design and build of custom websites. Locally-owned, we are as passionate about growing your business as you are. We deliver best-in-class websites that achieve measurable results for our clients.