Why-choose-us pages

What a why-choose-us page is

A why-choose-us page answers one question: of the several firms that could do this job, why this one. It gives four or five reasons, each stated as something a buyer could check before they hire you, and each written so that the firm down the road could not honestly put it on their own site.

That last part is the whole test. "Quality, passion, integrity" are not reasons. They are adjectives every competitor already claims, which means they carry no information, which means a reader skips them. If your nearest rival could paste the sentence onto their site without lying, it is not a reason and it does not go on the page.

It is also not a comparison page, which names the alternative and concedes where it wins; this one names nobody and argues only from your own facts. Nor is it an about page, which tells a buyer who you are. This one tells them what they get that they would not get elsewhere.

When you need one

You need one when buyers are choosing between three quotes and yours is not the cheapest. That is the moment the page is written for, and the reasons on it have to be worth the difference in price.

You need one when you know exactly why your regular customers stay but have never written it down. Small businesses usually have three or four genuine reasons sitting in plain sight — a guarantee nobody else offers, an owner who attends every first visit, a stock holding that means no waiting — and no page saying so.

You do not need one if the honest answer is that you are much the same as everyone else and slightly cheaper. In that case say the price and say it early, and put the effort into publishing the numbers properly. A page of manufactured distinctiveness will read as exactly that.

What counts as a reason

A reason survives three tests. It is specific, it is checkable, and it costs you something to say. Here is the shape of the ones that pass.

• A policy you are bound by. A written guarantee, a fixed callout window, a replacement-not-repair rule. It is a reason because breaking it is visible.
• A constraint you accept. Taking only eight clients at a time, refusing jobs outside two hours' drive, quoting a single fixed price with no variations. Constraints are persuasive because competitors could copy them and choose not to.
• A qualification or a count. The certification, the licence, the years, the number of installations of one particular system. Numbers you can produce on request.
• A person named. Who will actually do the work, and whether it is the same person who quoted it. In trades and professional services this is the reason buyers care most about and hear least.
• Something you will not do. The jobs you turn down and why. Nothing makes the rest of the page credible faster.

Four or five is the right number. Nine reasons read as a business that has none, because a firm with nine advantages would lead with one of them.

What you get

The page copy. Seven hundred to a thousand words: the opening that names the buyer's real question, the reasons in order of weight with a short paragraph each, one piece of proof attached to each reason, and a closing action. Title tag and meta description included.

The reasons, ranked, with the rejects. Every candidate reason found, ranked, with a note on why the ones that were cut were cut. The rejected list is often the more useful half, because it stops the adjectives being reinstated six months later.

Short forms of each reason. One line per reason, for quotes, email signatures, proposals and the home page, so the same argument is made in the same words everywhere.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A family-run window and door installer in southern Ontario has a page headed "Why choose us" with six bullets: quality workmanship, competitive pricing, customer satisfaction, attention to detail, experienced team, fully insured. Every competitor within an hour has close to the same six.

An hour with the two brothers who run it produces four things none of the six mentioned. They will not install a product they do not stock parts for, which rules out two popular brands and is written into the quote. The brother who measures is the brother who installs, every time. Any callback within five years is attended within three working days, in writing, with no charge. And they refuse winter installs below a stated temperature, because the sealant does not cure, even though it costs them January work. The new page has four reasons and no adjectives, and the last one is what buyers repeat back on the phone.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What buyers compare you against, what your regulars say when asked why they stay, and where you lose. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope, price and dates settled before anything starts.
3. The reason hunt. A longer recorded conversation with whoever runs the work, plus your quotes, terms and warranty documents. Two to four working days. Most real reasons are already in the paperwork and nowhere on the website.
4. The candidate list. You see every reason found, ranked, before any page is written, and you strike out anything you would not want to be held to.
5. The draft and one round of changes.
6. Final copy and short forms. Delivered together.

One to two weeks from first call to final copy is typical. The reason hunt is the part that takes the time, and the part worth paying for.

What it costs

A why-choose-us page is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many people have to be interviewed to find the reasons, how much of your paperwork has to be read, and whether the reasons then have to be carried across other pages. The number is fixed in writing before work begins, and the pricing page sets out the four ways of working so you can see the shape of a quote.

What happens next

Three things tend to follow. The reasons want backing, so quotes from customers arranged against each doubt get gathered. When a particular competitor keeps coming up by name, the argument is rebuilt as a page that names them. And if the reasons contradict the sentence at the top of your home page, a value proposition settles which one is true. None of that is assumed. This page is a complete piece of work and stands alone.