7 Ways Your Small Business Can Gain a Competitive Advantage
November 27, 2017
In marketing, one of the things we focus on is competitive advantage. It’s vital to have an advantage over your competition, but developing that advantage in a way that’s clear to consumers isn’t easy. Here are some tips on how to stand out in a competitive marketing environment.
It’s a simple enough question.
Why should a prospective customer choose you instead of your competition?
The answer, however, is anything but simple. In a world where consumers have so many viable options, getting them to say yes can be an elusive goal.
Sometimes the answer comes clear. If you have the best quality at the most reasonable price, shoppers will recognize it.
But more often, you’re competing in an environment where advantages are slim. Your advantages may not be apparent, or your offer may be so similar to the competition that for all intents and purposes it’s the same.
But even if that’s the case, you still have to answer the question. You need an edge, something that triggers the all-important yes.
Here are some important ways to gain an advantage and win out over the competition.
#1. Have the Best Online Reputation
Today, consumers compare reviews on most products and services they’re considering. If you’re at the top of the heap in terms of your ratings and review comments, it gives you a strong competitive advantage.
In some cases, like Google Home Service Ads, reviews even affect your visibility in search.
Reputation management is now a vital marketing tactic. Not only do you need to earn positive reviews with great service, you also need to make sure they appear across multiple review platforms.
In the same light, a negative review profile puts you at a distinct disadvantage. It’s a problem that can jeopardize your business.
To get the most out of reviews, elicit specific comments from customers that reflect the most important aspects of the value you deliver. Use testimonials on your website that feature full names and pictures of actual clients. For example:
Consumers today want to know what your customers have to say about you. They trust this content, and they expect to find it. Make sure you are top rated in your market.
#2. Develop a Clear, Specific Value Proposition
Your value proposition is the content where you most directly provide an answer to the question of why a consumer should choose you. This is where you make your case.
Even if your service is basically the same as dozens of other providers, you have to create a message that distinguishes you from the competition.
Maybe you have a slight price or delivery advantage. It may come down to customer service. Perhaps you have a unique specialty or work better with a particular type of customer.
When you develop a value proposition, you answer the unspoken question on everyone’s mind: What’s in it for me?
Without this, you’re just a face in the crowd.
#3. Be the Best Information Resource
The internet is the information superhighway, and consumers ride it with a keen eye for businesses that offer unbiased, useful information.
Often referred to as content marketing, developing informational content through blogs, videos, and social media gives you a competitive advantage in multiple ways.
First, when you fill information gaps that help people solve a problem, you earn trust. People feel like you’re doing them a favor, and even feel a sense of obligation to work with you because you helped them.
Appliance Parts Pros does an excellent job of providing information on their YouTube channel. They provide clear do-it-yourself instructions. Offering their products is a natural part of the info they provide, and doesn’t feel pushy or manipulative at all.
Take a look at your industry or market. Are there information gaps that tend to cause hesitation with buyers? If there are and you fill them with the highest quality, most useful info, you create a powerful competitive advantage.
#4. Be Likable
This is a competitive advantage few businesses consider in detail, but its impact is huge.
People buy from people they like. They are drawn to brands they have a sense of affinity with.
The question businesses face is how to use online marketing to create a “likable” presence. The distance digital mediums create between people make this seem impractical.
But it’s really not. In fact, there have never been better ways to use marketing collateral to create a friendly relationship with prospective clients.
Think no further than having Facebook “friends” or the personal touch of Instagram photos. Have you told your Snapchat story today?
Social media is a great opportunity for a business to express its personality. You can be personable, funny, even irreverent if it’s done with some taste. If you can get people to laugh, you’ve helped your sales cause.
It’s also useful to create a voice for your website and other marketing collateral. Voice is the personality that lets visitors know there are warm, funny, caring people behind your business content.
The internet is full of dry, uninspired business content. Most businesses think they have to be dull to sound professional.
Putting some personality into your content is an effective way to be more likable, which is a big competitive advantage in a room full of dullards.
#5. Segment Your Target Audiences
Most smaller businesses have a marketing campaign. It targets their ideal client, with a value offering on their best service.
Notice the singular in that sentence.
Create a big competitive advantage by running marketing campaigns. Target prospective clients with your best services.
Digital marketing is simply not one size fits all. People respond to content that is reflective of their lifestyles and specific to their needs.
In other words, if someone searches for “healthy snacks for truckers”, they want to see content that connects directly to that search. If a homeowner wants a deal on a water heater replacement, they’re more likely to convert on a landing page that specifically has a deal on water heater installation.
Likewise, it’s powerful to segment campaigns based on demographics. If you’re targeting baby boomers, you won’t do well with banners that feature people in their twenties.
Smaller businesses skip campaign segmentation because it requires more work. Which is why it gives you a big competitive advantage when done with precision.
#6. Use Data Effectively
One sure way to mediocrity is to make a basic effort at setting up an advertising campaign, then forget about it.
You can’t set-and-forget your marketing and expect to be competitive today. Digital activities leave a trail that marketing can track. That data identifies what works and what flounders.
Use data to:
- refine your copy
- select the best images
- improve your layouts
- split test ads and landing pages
- test and compare offers
- improve calls-to-action
- refine your target audiences
- test demographic and interest targets
- measure engagement and conversion rates
Data analysis does come with a number of caveats:
- You must understand and be able to use the analytics software that captures the data
- Getting a clear picture of actionable data can require long time-frames
- Data analysis requires training and expertise
- Data is not, strictly speaking, predictive. It tells you what happened, but not what to do.
There is a big competitive gap between businesses that use marketing data effectively and those that do not. It’s a precursor of businesses that have long-term success and those that are short-lived.
#7. Swim in Blue Water
Another competitive strategy is to make the competition irrelevant.
If you’re going to jump into red, blood-soaked water infested by competitive sharks, you’ll need to use the ideas we’ve outlined here – and then some.
But if you have an innovative idea that’s new to the market, you can find yourself swimming alone in the blue sea. In this case, you may not have any direct competition.
However, you still have the marketing challenges of creating awareness of your offer and persuading people it’s worth it for them to try. This is equally challenging to going up against an established competitor. Your biggest obstacle is discovering if there is a market need; discovering there isn’t one is the number one reason new business ventures fail.
It’s rare to come up with a product so innovative there’s literally no competition. And if you do so successfully, competition from imitators will follow.
Conclusions
Jack Welch famously maintained:
If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.
Business is fiercely competitive. Even if you’re not the competitive type, you have to get after it to succeed in the business world.
Your direct competition is desperate to turn a profit. They want your clients. Expect them to advertise aggressively and low-ball on price if they’re trying to establish themselves.
But the truth is, most businesses compete against themselves. They handicap their marketing because they underinvest. They settle for average when it comes to customer service. Their value messaging is vague, the calls to action unpersuasive.
If you have a great product that really helps people, you have the most important competitive advantage in place. Use the marketing tactics we discussed to make sure the right people know about you, understand how you can help them, and are motivated to work with you.
Get Plans and Pricing Below
Get the know-how to get ahead
Get business, marketing and sales tips written by experienced industry practitioners. 100% free. Cancel anytime.