How To Stand Out Amongst Your Competitors
Estimates reveal that only half of all businesses make it through their fifth year, and only a third make it to their tenth. While there are many reasons for failure, a common one is getting lost within the sea of competitors.
We all agree that if we want our businesses to thrive, we need to find ways to set ourselves apart from the crowd. Making a name for your company can help lower marketing expenses, shorten sales cycles, and establish market dominance.
This article will give tips on making your brand stick out from the pack and becoming the obvious go-to option in your industry.
Giving Extraordinary Service to Customers
One negative review is all it takes to lose customers in today’s cutthroat marketplace. About a quarter (27%) of Americans say that poor customer service is their biggest pet peeve, and 90% of consumers say customer service is a factor in deciding whether to do business with a firm. That’s why your company should have excellent customer service as its foundation.
Regardless of whether you work in manufacturing, construction, or service, it is still important to provide a positive experience for your customers. It’s a mistake to think that providing good customer service only counts in the service sector. Customers have a universal standard for service quality and will not tolerate long wait times or unhelpful responses from agents.
Always give the same high quality of service to your customers. Keep your promises, make follow-up emails or calls, and set a benchmark for response time. Your customers’ confidence and loyalty will grow over time.
Determine What Makes You Unique and Capitalize on It
Differentiating yourself from the competition requires you to emphasize your USP, or “unique selling point.” It’s fantastic to have a service or product that beats the competition, but it’s even more crucial to have something different from the rest — for a good reason, too; that’s how our brains are wired.
Most of the information we take in our everyday life is filtered. Only the unusual or extraordinary captures our attention and sticks in our minds. That’s why while it’s crucial to meet or exceed the quality standards set by the competition, standing out from the crowd by offering something unique is even more effective in making consumers remember your brand.
Always Be Visible Across Multiple Channels
When a customer decides to go with a rival business instead of yours, it’s usually because they were more successful at maintaining visibility in the minds of potential buyers.
Because the media is so segmented, effective marketing in the modern era requires that your brand be present in more channels than ever. There are a lot of different forms of media that we have to contend with today, such as television, streaming platforms, social media, traditional print ads, radio, podcasts, YouTube, print magazines, and email. To stay at the forefront of your clients’ minds, you must be where they are.
Focus on a Niche
To please everyone is to please no one. It’s not cost-effective for your company to modify your model or strategy for a wide range of audiences. It also makes it more difficult for potential customers to determine if your brand is a good fit for them.
To stand out, it’s important to limit your target audience to a specific group of people. Learn as much as you can about your ideal customer, including their age bracket, income level, and purchasing behaviors. Doing so will make it easier to draw in new clients while keeping the ones you already have.
Provide a Guarantee
Everything you do revolves around the promise your brand makes to customers. If they don’t have confidence in you, they will not buy from you. Guarantees are a simple way to instill trust among your customers.
You should rethink your products or service offerings if you cannot provide at least some assurance of satisfaction. Unfortunately, guarantees are often overly complicated, diminishing their original purpose. Choose a guarantee you can fulfill easily and confidently stand behind.
Pay Attention to Reviews
Customers only want to work with the best companies; thus, positive reviews are a great way to set yourself apart. Considering that almost 90% of consumers place equal or greater trust in online reviews as they do in the recommendations of friends and family, it’s clear that if your reviews aren’t stellar, you’re not setting yourself apart from the competition. Here are a few tips on handling online reviews:
- Continually check your customer reviews: Discover the most popular review platforms your customers use to share their experiences with your company. There’s a good chance they will coincide with your listings on sites like Yelp or Google My Business. Monitor these sites to see feedback when it is posted.
- Get back to all reviewers: How you respond to customer feedback is another opportunity to set yourself apart. If you reply to customer complaints by actually listening to them, offering a workable solution, and then following through, you’ll not only gain back the reviewer’s trust but also the trust of prospective new customers.
Optimize Your Website
A website is essential for any company today, and the vast majority already have one. However, numerous issues discourage customers and prevent businesses from being discovered online. To set your company apart from the competition, you need a website that has these essential features:
- Don’t forget about mobile users: Google now prioritizes mobile versions of websites when indexing them. Your site’s Google rankings will suffer for searches linked to your business if your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices. With mobile devices accounting for 60% of all website traffic in 2021, you can’t afford to ignore this factor.
- See that it is user-friendly: The goal is for your site visitors to feel like they can easily find the information they need, whether that’s about the products or services you offer, your company, or even just how to get in touch with you.
- Make sure the site loads quickly: More than half of mobile site visitors will abandon a site if loading takes longer than three seconds. When customers wait too long for your website, they’re more likely to go with a competitor.
Establish Yourself as an Expert in Your Field
You can quickly rise to the top of your industry as a respected authority by leveraging your knowledge and experience. For instance, if you run a roofing company, you may answer frequently asked questions (FAQs), film and post instructional videos, and write blog posts about solutions to common roofing problems.
You can set yourself apart from competitors by providing valuable information to your customers. What’s more, your audience will come to rely on you, and they will think of you first if they have an issue down the road.
The Bottom Line
Standing out from the crowd and attracting new customers can be challenging in today’s world of seemingly endless rivalry. However, if you have a sound business strategy and marketing plan, you can set yourself apart from the competition and draw in and retain a steady stream of customers. You understand your brand and industry best, so use the tips we’ve given you here as a starting point and expand from there.
Sources
https://frontcore.com/blog/7-tips-this-is-how-you-stand-out-amongst-your-competitors/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/3-ways-to-stand-out-from-competitors/375931
https://flybluekite.com/how-to-stand-out-from-competitors/
https://localiq.com/blog/how-to-make-your-business-stand-out/
https://myabcm.com/know-how-to-stand-out-from-competitors/
https://blog.digitalj2.com/standing-out-from-competition
7 Ways To Make Your Business Stand Out In A Crowd Of Competitors (forbes.com)
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