Beating the competition is an unavoidable hurdle for businesses of all sizes. However, competition shouldn’t be a bother for business owners but rather a call to hold yourself up to the highest standards and thrive. Today’s business world has become highly competitive with the influx of technological tools and the internet’s proliferation rate. Here are some effective ways to beat the competition.
1. Define Your Brand
As a company, your brand is who you are. Renowned business leader Jeff Bezos defines a brand as what others say about you when you’re not in the room. Your brand can be that unique factor differentiating you from other companies. It forms a huge part of how your company expresses its value to customers and other stakeholders.
Businesses can integrate their brands into their online marketing and communication efforts. Your brand can also communicate its value by printing your logo and brand identity elements on custom socks, t-shirts, brochures, etc. Branding is an abstract activity, but these elements can bring it into living color.
2. Personalize Your Business Strategies
A study by Forbes indicates that about 70 percent of customers feel frustrated when a company’s ads have nothing to do with them. Why? The bar has been set high, and customers know what they can get from other brands. If your brand doesn’t increase its chances by letting them feel special, customers see that to be settling for less. Personalization efforts can be as simple as using deep-learning algorithms to attach customers’ first names to your greetings when addressing them.
3. Set Competitive Pricing
To beat the competition is to offer more than they can offer the market. Competitive pricing aims at positioning your products in a way that gives you enough visibility. Suppose you’re one of four companies making socks for the same market. Setting your price the same as theirs means customers now have to think about comparing, which might not favor you if you’re the newest addition.
Perhaps, you can cut production costs allowing you to lower your price. This attaches a cost-saving incentive for customers to choose your brand. Note that competitive pricing isn’t always a price cut issue. It pays to understand your audience and how your pricing will affect their purchasing decisions.
4. Engage In Data-driven Marketing
Attracting and retaining customers becomes harder as your target audience becomes larger and more varied. The best way to reach them is to leverage data for effective marketing decisions. Data-driven marketing involves harnessing analytics from your communication platforms to understand customers’ perceptions and interests.
These insights add a level of certainty to your marketing efforts and help improve your return on investments.
5. Be Innovation Conscious
The authors of Blue Ocean Strategy, Renee Mauborgne and Chan Kim argue that the best way to beat the competition is to identify new markets and establish yourself earlier than it becomes cool to do. The book references business giants like Amazon, Airbnb, etc., and how their growth stems from starting in uncontested markets.
Eventually, the brand becomes synonymous with the market as the largest player. Generally, businesses have various ways to beat the competition. Beyond these tips, it’s crucial to consult credible consultants to help you differentiate your brand from the others.
