In the world of business, competition is everything. How you stand out among your competitor companies and brands will say a lot about your products and services sales. Proper competitive analysis can help you determine your company’s position. You’ll be surprised that 90% of Fortune 500 companies already use competitive intelligence methods to gain competitive advantage
(source: https://www.evalueserve.com/blog/competitive-intelligence-statistics/).
But the real question is how to make your business more attractive to customers. If you’re looking for answers, this think piece will help!
1. Improve customer service
The most underrated trick of standing out among other companies is focusing on customer care.
Remember, your customers are your biggest allies. How they perceive your brand can make or break the entire company.
So, always focus on providing the best possible customer service, not just to your existing buyers but also to new ones and potential buyers.
If you have a physical store, ensure enough customer care representatives to help out someone in need.
On your website, provide a customer complaint or help section where they can write any issues they’re facing. Then, make sure that every issue is resolved as soon as possible.
2. Look at pain points
Simply put, pain points are the areas customers encounter when purchasing from or using an existing company’s services.
If you wish to be more attractive than your competitors, you must first analyze the pain points of most customers.
For example, suppose you have a grocery store, and your competitor stores offer only offline purchases or high payments for home delivery. In that case, you can launch an online platform where your store workers deliver fresh grocery items at low prices.
When you bring out something new, customers of your competitor brands and companies will also take notice and be interested in your offerings.
3. Make a good website
In today’s era of rapid digitalization, offering your customers an online experience becomes important. You must have an interactive company website with a good SEO ranking.
Even if you are active on social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, a specially-made company website can help you look more attractive than others. However, making a good website isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Ensure the site is filled with creative pictures of your products and the writing and captions are clear and legible. You can even add the company’s mission and vision statements to appeal to your customers.
4. Choose your niche
Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t help your company when you try to serve everyone.
If you try to cater to a wide range of populations of varying genders, age groups, professions, and concerns, you won’t have a proper company identity, which will eventually slow down your progress.
Customers want to associate with a company with a strong brand identity. So, if you cater to only a few, you’ll automatically become more desirable and appealing.
For example, if you wish to open a clothing store, you can start by selling exquisite, high-priced clothing. Even if you don’t have many customers, your brand will be premium.
5. Network Differently
Networking is a big part of any marketing strategy. But if you follow your competitors’ conventional methods, you’ll perform the same way.
So, it’s time to notice the kind of marketing and networking they do and add your twist to each.
For example, while other companies are distributing paper-based business cards to customers and business partners, you can stand out with an electronic business card or NFC chip-based one.
These cards look classier, and your customers will be more impressed with your networking methods. Moreover, you can also fit in different links and information, something that paper cards can’t do.
6. Create a good culture
Believe it or not, company culture matters much more than you think. If your company is a safe space where every employee feels safe and respected, you can be sure that your business will soon do wonders.
Word-of-mouth marketing is a big deal, and most of it starts with office employees themselves. However, you have to take active steps to ensure that your company is upholding its mission and vision.
For example, you can conduct reward systems for the best-performing employee every month. Or you can send every team member a small token of appreciation when they do a good job.
Conclusion
These are just a few ways you can shine brighter than your competitors. When you start applying them, it’ll only be a matter of time before people consider your business their first choice!