Stand out from your competitors
Far too many businesses simply follow their industry trends. They see a rival take an approach and succeed. But when they try it themselves, it falls flat.
We understand. It feels safe to follow the crowd. But it can be a trap. Just because it works for your competitors, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. All you’re doing is making decisions based on second-hand information. You don’t know why they chose that messaging, that design, or that pricing model. And it can leave you wondering why you’re doing everything ‘right’ but not seeing any results.
There’s a deeper problem, too
Customers need a reason to choose you over their competitors. And that starts with making sure you’re actually noticed in the first place.
It’s a well known psychological effect that people group similar things together. You don’t see individual grains of rice, you see them all as one. But put anything else in there – a raisin, a chocolate chip, an egg – and you’ll be able to spot it instantly.
It doesn’t need to be much. A red grain stands out in a sea of white. But if you look, sound, and offer the same thing as everyone else, you’ll just vanish into the group. So find the common traits that everybody in your industry shares and think: “Is there a way we can break away?” It could be your language, your colours, your features, your pricing model, or your marketing strategy.
Find your differentiator
What sets your business apart? How many things are truly unique to you? It could be anything, from your customer service to your culture. It might even be traits you didn’t even realise were important to you.
The key is that it needs to be genuine. To find that, we need to dig into your culture.
- Find the common trends. We start by looking at what your industry is doing and seeing whether there are any assumptions we can challenge.
- Speak with your customers. We run focus groups and surveys to find out their pain points and what influences their choice between you and your competitors. Is it price? Quality? Values?
- Investigate your business and culture. We speak with your teams, figure out your personality, and dig into what really sets you and your product apart.
- Put together a plan. We come back to you with practical advice and a strategy for how to stand out from your competitors.
- Create the pieces you need. We create the material you need to make sure you can follow through on that plan.
- Check it’s working. We set up how you’re going to track whether the changes have actually made a difference and revisit the plan if it hasn’t.
Have you got the right goal?
Standing out is clearly important. But is that really your objective? There could be something else going on.
Do you need to attract more customers? Once you’ve got their attention, you need to convince them to buy. Getting noticed is only half the battle.
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Do you need to keep your customers loyal? If people buy from you, but leave faster than you get new customers, you still won’t grow.
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Do you need to streamline how you work? The best strategy in the world won’t work if you don’t have the time to do it all.
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