The goal for any business in its embryonic stages is to ensure that it stands out, because if you want to get more interest in your company, you have to distinguish yourself in terms of your product, your distribution channels, service, reputation, relationships, and costs. So what are the best ways for you to ensure that you are standing out in the right ways?
Differentiate Your Strategy
The reality is that, in order to be different, it doesn’t have to be in terms of how you present yourself to the big wide world. Many businesses can offer similar types of services, but there are a number of strategic planning practices that may benefit you because if you start to do things differently, this helps you highlight your strengths.
Sometimes, your strength is the differentiating factor. Therefore, if you are utilizing the best marketing tools to guarantee that you are streamlining your services, or have a direct line to your ideal customer, you get to grips with how getting the right customer doesn’t necessarily involve you following the pack. When you look at what your competitors are doing, if you want to differentiate yourself, you may want to focus on one aspect of your strategy and make it the best possible approach.
Create a Model According to Your Values
Your business model goes all the way back to your business plan, and when you create something that truly aligns with what you believe in, and doesn’t focus purely on boosting profits, this can help you be a company with a unique stamp to the world we live in. This means that your customers will come to you, not just for your product, but because of the things you do and why you do them. There are aspects of the business model that can directly align it with your values, such as:
- Transparency with your customers.
- Not joining affiliate marketing programs, so you can remain completely objective.
- Aligning your business with companies or brands that have the same outlook as you.
It can be tough when we wholeheartedly endorse a similar company because they are, for example, operating with a sustainable mindset, but when you are trying to differentiate yourself from what is out there for the sake of your customers, that unique business model goes beyond your business plan and should align with the things you believe in.
Challenge the Status Quo
In order to differentiate yourself, you could go in the opposite direction. When there are established thoughts and expectations within your industry, you can go against the grain and this will set you apart from everything and everyone. What does it take for your business to put a spin on things?
You don’t have to set the world alight with something that has never been done before, it can be a very simple approach to ensuring that you carve a niche. For example, food businesses that do exclusively gluten-free or vegan foods in many areas of the world are still going against the grain. Sometimes, it’s not about creating a revolution on the grandest of scales, but it can be about the small victories that allow you to disrupt the common way of doing business, and for any company that’s looking to do things differently, yet may have concerns that this can be to the detriment of getting a customer, those quiet revolutions can make a massive impact over time.
Improve Customer Feedback
Even if you do everything you can to be different, it doesn’t mean everything you are doing is good. It’s critical that we look at what the customers say and understand how to fine-tune our strengths and weaknesses so we can get creative and innovative, therefore, differentiating ourselves from the crowd and offering a solution that customers really want.
Feedback is about allowing our customers to be unflinching in what they truly think of us. When it comes to customer feedback, it can relate to the products, or as we’ve already touched upon, the service, relationships, reputation, distribution channels, and price. When customers give you feedback in any of these 6 areas, working to improve upon these allows us to create a win-win scenario for us and the customers.
Narrow Your Target Market
Products and target markets are inherently linked, but we can do other things to make sure that we specialize in a specific niche that appeals to customers. It’s about solving the common problems that our customers have and being the best at solving them. But we also need to make sure that we solve their solutions quicker and with better results than what others are doing.
When we start to narrow our target market and provide a solution to their unique situation, it will forge stronger relationships and increase revenue at the same time, which means, before we utilize marketing tools, we utilize analytics to ensure that we develop a buyer persona so we can market at the right times of day and give them the things they want to see, but don’t yet know it. The solution is about solving the problem, and once we do this to the right people, we are creating a competitive service that focuses on a very narrow target market. Many businesses worry that they cannot create a worthwhile business with a very narrow target market but in order to remain competitive, you’ve got to understand your needs in relation to the products that you are offering.
Be an Expert
When you are an expert in your field, you will build a reputation that brings customers to you. We can spend a lot of time looking for the right people, but we must also look inwards. We can create a reputation as an expert through a number of practices that are all easily available to you:
- Your blog posts.
- Books or ebooks.
- Developing training for your employees.
- Providing a variety of informational products.
If you want to be different, you’ve got to have that belief that what you are doing goes against common wisdom. It can be so easy to play it safe, but if you want to truly make an impact, you’ve got to have the courage to be different.