Whatever industry you are in, the universal truth is that you’re most likely battling with competition fiercer than ever. No matter your product or service your clients have a dozen other options they are weighing, and your brand needs to find a way to stand out and be noticed. Thus, you need to know how to make your business stand out in order to get the chance to be taken into consideration.
Think about it this way. You have put in the time, knowledge, and skill to create the best solution for your customers. But only you and your existing customers are aware of this. So, how do you get new potential customers to find out about you?
Helping your customers know what makes your business unique and reliable is essential to thriving.
One thing you need to remember is that competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It only requires you to make your value proposition known to your prospective customers in a memorable way that resonates with them.
Here are some proven strategies on how to make your business stand out from the competition:
Establish a Memorable Brand
Your brand’s impression is made within the first 5 seconds. This means you have no option but to get it right from the onset. Your credibility will be judged just within those first seconds.
Think about your colors and brand design. Do they stand out from the competition? Do your color combinations set you apart? Can someone easily identify your brand from hundreds of others?
Having an eye-catching brand will help your business get noticed easier and, eventually, faster.
Besides these visual aspects of branding, there is the networking aspect of it. Create a network that can be trusted, this way you can be considered as an advisor or expert.
You can employ a guerrilla technique that involves making personalized connections with your audience e.g. through social media groups. All these efforts are meant to help you be unique and get noticed easily.
Establish a Strong U.S.P.
A U.S.P. means a unique selling point. Again, this is what makes your business unique. Your unique value proposition doesn’t necessarily mean product design or color or even product features. Rather, your unique selling point might be in your delivery, do you easily solve your consumers’ needs? Is your product positively disruptive?
When you properly understand your target audience, their unique needs, and their pain points then you will factor in all of these unique issues in your marketing campaigns and branding. And let them know clearly that their issues have been adequately catered to.
With this clearly reflected, you will stand out as a brand.
Customer Support Is Everything
What sets your business apart from your competitors is how you handle your customers throughout the entire process. Your customers are royalty, and you need to treat them as such. This applies to any kind of business and not just the service industry alone.
Always remember that when a customer comes to you, they expect to receive great service. The kind of human connection you give them is what you can consider the heart of your brand.
Don’t make the buying process a nightmare and avoid keeping them waiting. Always respond to their queries satisfactorily and on time. Remember to make them feel heard and well understood when dealing with requests or queries. This calls for frequent checks of your emails as well as social media messages.
Another way to ensure customer satisfaction is to ensure that your product offers your customers a unique and good experience so that they will always have great memories when they think about your brand. One way you can do this is by a personal follow-up to find out whether they were satisfied with the product or not.
When it’s all said and done, great customer service is one of the ways on how to make your business stand out. Offer them a quality treatment. You will end up retaining old customers and gaining new ones through the word of mouth.
Show Expertise in Your Field
When you gauge how to establish a professional reputation around yourself, you will automatically be different from the rest of your competition. This will also draw more customers towards your brand.
One way to establish yourself as an expert is to create stellar content in your blog showing off your knowledge in your respective niche. Offer solutions that are relevant to your clients or customers.
You can also guest post for reputable brands or publications that are aligned to your niche. Alternatively, because videos are viewed more today, you can create YouTube content showcasing your expertise.
If you have any certifications or awards and recognitions, highlight them to build credibility. This is definitely what sets you apart from your competitors.
Offer Tailor-Made Solutions
Most brands assume they are offering a solution that’s great. But what makes your business special for example is how specific your solutions are to the exact problems that your prospective customers are experiencing daily.
Engaging them is one sure way of finding out exactly what they need, ask questions, and listen to their comments and map out their challenges. Then craft suitable solutions and they will tell the world what makes your business special.
So, whether it’s through customer experience or your products and services, determine these individual preferences and leverage on these insights to offer personalized solutions.
This personalization leaves a distinct mark on your brand in your industry.
Understand Your Competitive Differentiation
Understanding your competition’s element of differentiation is key. What are they doing exceptionally well and what are they failing at? Do your competitors have a large clientele or do they seem to be busy? Remember this is not about snooping, it’s a way of understanding the market and its weaknesses and how you can use that to your advantage.
Improve on what you can and let everyone know about it. This is how to make your online business stand out:
Offer More and More Value
Consumers will always go where they get more value for their money. How do you increase value to your offer? There are several ways on how to make your business stand out from the crowd by adding value. Check the following simple tips:
- Add a little more for the same price, and no, don’t run at a loss, ensure it makes business sense.
- Offer better service and better product than your competition.
- Niche down to a sub-group of your target audience that’s not sufficiently catered for by your competition. There are always groups that are almost entirely forgotten, reach out to them and serve them.
- Partner with complimentary brands to add value to your product or service.
All these and more than you can think of is what makes your business unique.
Get Online Reviews
Online brands are often driven by reviews made by consumers. This is one of the ways on how to make your business stand out. Why? Because they offer a well-needed social proof to potential buyers that you’ve offered a great product, offered great service or support. And the evidence that you can definitely deliver on what you promise.
Online reviews are paramount as potential consumers are usually put at ease when they read authentic testimonies left by others.
“Over 80% of buyers search online for the products before they commit to purchasing it.”
For this reason, your online presence is more than essential. Invest in it and leverage on social media to draw more traffic. And after you’ve offered your best service possible, encourage them to leave reviews.
Admit and Fix Problems When Called Out
This is beyond customer experience, it’s more about customer satisfaction. You don’t want your customers to write you off for one little mistake. Remember, negative feedback spreads faster than wildfire especially thanks to social media.
If you will be required to go out of your way to ensure this does not happen, then please do so, irrespective of whether the fault was your or not. People prefer dealing with brands that will own up to their mistakes and take immediate action to mitigate the situation.
It shows that you value your customers and your brand. To add to this, it will foster better customer relationships in the future since they already have confidence in you. This kind of effort is what sets your business apart from your competitors.
Engage in Corporate Social Responsibility
Your responsibility as a brand does not end with customer satisfaction or employees, it involves giving back to society.
It is one of the ways on how to make your business stand out on social media as well as other media. This will happen easily because your worthy cause will stay in your customer’s minds, and it will boost goodwill. Therefore, besides standing out from the crowd, you will likely gain more revenue.
“92% of consumers are likely to support a brand that embraces corporate social responsibility than those that don’t. “
When they see that their money is well spent, they are encouraged to consider your brand more. Identify a cause that aligns with your brand and one that your customers would resonate with. It will show them that your brand shares their values.
Conclusion
What makes your business unique is a combination of more than just one thing. Having competition is good because it means several things. One is that your product or service is in demand. Two is that competition gives you a chance to keep improving on your craft in order to truly serve your consumers with the right solutions, and thereby keeping you relevant.
Learning how to make your business stand out is essential for your brand to thrive. Above are ten of the best strategies on how to make your business stand out from the crowd, they’re simple but effective. Try them.
