15 Unique Content Ideas To Differentiate A Website From Its Competitors

Staying ahead of the competition is key in any market, and one of the best ways to stand out is through your company’s content. Since your competitors are in the same industry, however, it can be difficult to come up with truly unique content ideas.

To help you brainstorm, the members of Forbes Agency Council offered their best advice. Below, 15 of them share tips for creating content that will differentiate your company’s website from its competitors and help attract potential customers.

1. Infographics

I’ve always found infographics to be really valuable for driving traffic and links. Some of our infographics have taken one to two months to complete, but when they are really good, they drive traffic for years. – Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint

2. Internally Generated Statistics

Publishing internally generated statistics that can be used as research by other companies can be incredibly powerful. We have a client who regularly publishes data on hard drive failures. The data is unique to their business, but it can be used in purchasing decisions across industries. That content is consistently cited by new customers as the reason they found the client and trust their services. – Toren Ajk, TAC Marketing Group

3. Team-Focused Content

Shine a spotlight on your team members’ personalities. This is something your competition can’t replicate! Feature your strongest players on video, providing insights about your industry and solutions. The marriage of real-world experts, brand perspective and video can be a huge differentiator. Let your prospects connect with your people. – Bernard May, National Positions

4. Clear Calls To Action

Companies often have useful content on their websites, but far too many overlook one critical feature: clear calls to action that help visitors accomplish what they want. Whether it is connecting with a customer service rep, signing up for a demo or taking another action, if you make getting results easy for your visitors, they will more quickly convert into loyal customers. – Valerie Chan, Plat4orm PR

5. Video Case Studies With Downloadable Assets

A well-positioned case study that highlights who you help, how you help them and why you’re uniquely qualified to help is crucial. In terms of media, I suggest a short video supported by a downloadable asset. Differentiate your business, services or products in terms of delivering value to your audience. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about how you help them. Make that clear and consistent throughout. – Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync & EPL Digital

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6. Answers Your Audience Is Seeking

Simplify. It’s tempting to have multiple pages listing everything you’ve ever done, with information overload on the history of the company, growth story, etc., but pare it back. Identify what the audience wants to know and focus your energy on providing the answers. The rest is just space filler that weighs down your website and confuses your SEO. – Christoph Kastenholz, Pulse Advertising

7. Value-Added Features

Without value, your website isn’t worth much. You must provide value-added features, such as unique insight into your industry (e.g., videos or podcasts), custom widgets (e.g., car loan or ROI calculators) and automated forms (e.g., the ability to schedule appointments or sign contracts online). – Oganes Vagramovich Barsegyan, Digital Beverly Marketing Solutions

8. Interactive Content

Creating interactive content is a great way to add value while differentiating your company from your competitors. Some are entertaining, such as quizzes and games, while others are more utilitarian, such as calculators and worksheets. Done correctly, interactive content can demonstrate your company’s worth while creating a truly unique experience that generates leads. – Adam Binder, Creative Click Media

9. Humanizing Content

People trust people, not brands. So put the focus on people. Humanize your brand as much as possible. Highlight your team, the creators you work with and the audience that interacts with your brand. This will give your content exciting new layers and engage the ones who advocate for you even more, increasing your word-of-mouth and brand trust and attracting new customers. – Emilie Tabor, IMA – Influencer Marketing Agency

10. Guest-Contributed Pillar Content

With my clients, we’ve recently switched to offering podcasts, guest appearances in vlogs and interviews done by influencers within their target market. This is pillar content that can be repurposed into supporting elements such as blog posts, videos, images, quotes and micro-content on social media. – Stefan Katanic, Veza Digital

11. Podcasts

We like to have a podcast featured up front on the website in a format that goes beyond the company’s leadership. It’s an opportunity to provide a sense of thought leadership and value to those who visit the site. The key, of course, is marketing that podcast off-site so that you drive new engagement. If the podcast is done well, it should create a compelling reason for consideration. – Dean Trevelino, Trevelino/Keller

12. Testimonials

It is important to showcase how your business has contributed to your clients’ success firsthand via written or video testimonials. This gives more credibility to what your brand can do and, at the same time, lets prospective clients know their potential successes in partnering with you. – Adrian Falk, Believe Advertising & PR

13. Animated Graphics

Utilize fun motion graphics, similar to what you see in films. For example, take your website visitors on an interactive journey and lead them to a QR code that, when scanned, brings up a 3D image. – Danielle Sabrina, Tribe Builder Media

14. Personality-Driven Content

Every business has a distinct personality. You’ll stand out if you adequately capture that in the client’s first impression of the website. In other words, find your business’s niche and highlight it. For us, it’s our profile page, which takes a fun, personal approach to employee bios. It’s different, memorable and displays our personality. – Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions

15. Customer Stories

Have your customers tell your story. What if you created a website in which your whole story was told by happy customers through their experiences in working with you? People want to know what other people have to say about you, not what you say about yourself. If your customers lead the narrative, people will be far more likely to follow along. – Scott Baradell, Idea Grove

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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member