One of the biggest challenges that businesses face is competing with bigger and more established brands in their industry. Understandably, customers tend to opt for a company that is well-established because they know what to expect and are likely to have a positive experience with the brand. This is problematic for new and/or smaller businesses, who often feel like they struggle to get their foot in the door. So, how can you make your business more competitive? There are a handful of strategies to try and combining a few of these could help you to start competing at a much higher level and become one of these well-established brands yourself.
Competitor Research
A good place to start is with competitor research. Every business owner should have a solid understanding of their competitors, including the businesses that are around them but also the industry leaders. There is a huge amount that you can learn through regular competitor analysis, including what their strengths and weaknesses are, which could help you to define a gap in the market – a highly effective way to attract customers to your brand.
Have a Clear USP
Leading on from this point, in order to stay competing with the bigger names in your industry you will need to be bringing something new and different to the table. Establishing a clear USP for your business will enable you to do this, which is why you need to think about what is important to your target customer and how you can differentiate yourself from the competition.
Use Deals and Promotions
It can be challenging for a business to get customers to take a chance on a new and/or small business, but often all it takes is a chance to convert a customer, particularly if you can provide an excellent customer experience. Deals and promotions are a highly effective way to get people to take a chance on your business, as everyone likes to take advantage of a good deal. This should allow you to convert a large enough group, which should help to recoup the cost of running these promotions and help you to start building a reputation for your brand.
Go Above and Beyond to Help Customers
Following this point, a consumer will always favor a business that goes above and beyond when it comes to customer service (and even be willing to pay more in many cases). Customer service is an area where many larger companies can struggle, so this could be a great way to make your brand more competitive and to build your reputation. Additionally, small touches like thank you notes and free samples can go a long way.
Use an SEO Agency
In order to compete, you need to be visible on the search engines and as close to the top as possible. Obviously, this is challenging as a smaller business, but you can see results when you use the services of an experienced digital marketing agency like ALT Agency. They will help you to climb up the rankings, which will direct more traffic to your website and position you among the competition to boost your profile and improve your reputation.
Influencer Marketing
Another highly effective form of marketing to use to make your brand more competitive is influencer marketing. The impact of influencers cannot be denied, so if you are able to get a person/organization with a lot of power and influence in your industry to recommend your business and products/services then you will certainly find yourself competing at a higher level. This is because it allows you to reach a much larger group, plus you will be getting recommended by someone that your target customer listens to and values their opinion.
Adjust Your Pricing Strategy
Of course, the price of your products/services will also have a huge impact on how competitive you are. It is a strategy that you need to be very careful with, but slightly adjusting your pricing strategy to attract more customers will be an effective way to be more competitive but you need to make sure that you will still be turning enough profit (this increase in customers should balance things out).
This post should give you a few ideas and hopefully show that it is possible to compete with the bigger, more established brands in your industry. It can be daunting for smaller companies, but with hard work, intelligence and effort, there are ways to compete at a higher level and attract your target customer away from competitors and to your brand.
