Do you have a Purple Cow website?
This is the story that Seth Godin tells in his book, Purple Cow; you’re driving along and the countryside is lovely. Look! There’s some cows, bucolic and charming. And over there, some more cows. Eventually, you just don’t see the cows anymore. They fade into the landscape – which has gone from pretty to pretty boring.
But imagine driving past a purple cow. Now that would recapture your interest in a big way, wouldn’t it?
Godin uses the analogy to point out that in marketing, you are either extraordinary or you’re just invisible in the herd. In other words: be a Purple Cow.At its heart, Godin’s is the strategy of the outrageous and it has proven very successful with corporations like Hard Candy, Starbucks, and Apple.
Each day, online consumersclick through a lot of similar-looking websites. If you want to capture their attention, the key is to become a purple cow. Godin’s message is to start with products that are worth marketing and then make the marketing stand apart. Add sizzle with a style that is loud, yet passionate. Adopt a tone that is irreverent, fiery, and challenges the reader. A design that steps outside the expected with elements that are sleek, bold, and unique.
Playing it safe with your website’s design may end up making it indistinguishable from dozens of others. The benefit of drawing outside the lines is that you’ll be seen - and remembered. So why not adopt some of these techniques to set your website apart?
