Competition in business is good. It helps you innovate, remain vigilant, and create better products and services. However, if your competitors get far ahead of you, you can end up losing a lot of business and customers to them. If you are ready to develop a plan to beat other competing businesses, the following tips will help you.
1. Develop Real-World Customer Personas
Let your marketing department move beyond tracking the purchasing behavior of your customers. Invest the time, effort, and resources to uncover your customers’ social, family, and career preferences.
The information you gather will help you refine existing marketing plans and develop new strategies to relate with your clients.
If you know how your customers interact on social media and their timing for making purchases, for instance, you can use the information to extend their lifecycle. And take them beyond making a few purchases to become lifetime customers.
2. Study Your Competitors
List out your main competitors and analyze what they do to acquire and retain customers. Classify your competitors into three groups using Pareto analysis. Focus on beating the top 20 percent of your competitors that get 80 percent or more of the business in your niche.
Study these competitors’ marketing methods. How do they market on their website, blog, social media channels, and offline? How do they use business cards to market to their clients?
Don’t stop studying what your competitors do, find out what they don’t do. Fill the gaps you discover to give your business a competitive advantage.
3. Discover What You Do Differently
Use your uniqueness and areas of strength to stand out from the crowd. There are many things you do well in your business. For instance, you may use sustainable, eco-friendly products, processes, and practices.
You may also provide products and services that have regulatory endorsements or influencer support. Use these to your advantage. If you notice that price is a major competitive weapon, create price discounts for your products and services.
Let your customers know that you offer the best quality at relatively low prices. Or show customers what they stand to gain from buying your products with a longer lifespan instead of buying cheaper products that will not last.
4. Expand Into New Markets
To outpace your competitors, constantly look for new trends and opportunities for business expansion. You can enter into new markets in two ways – by marketing new products to your target demographic or by marketing the same product to a new demographic.
For example, if your target demographic is men between the ages of 35 to 50, you can market it to men who are between 25 and 35 or older men who are between 50 and 60 years.
Also, if you were focusing on the B2C market, you can add a B2B market segment. Find out if institutions and businesses can also use your products. Becoming one of the first companies to enter a new and profitable market segment can put you far ahead of your competitors.
5. Pamper Existing Customers
While you pursue new markets aggressively, don’t forget to take good care of your present customers. Set aside a percentage of your marketing budget to nurture existing customers.
You may invest in a loyalty rewards program to compensate repeat buyers. Reward them with gift cards, coupons, discount vouchers, and special awards.
Don’t stop there. Ask your existing customers for referrals. Reward all the customers who refer their friends, fans, and family members to your business.
6. Invest in Partnerships
Reach out to other businesses that can help you reach new markets. Create mutually beneficial links with other businesses.
Invest in partnerships that help both businesses to reach new clients, boost brand awareness and make use of each other’s strengths. Joint ventures can lead to greater innovation and help you develop products that you can create while working alone.
Rising above your competitors in business is not a simple task. However, with the right strategies, you increase your market share and boost your profit. By developing customer personas, discovering your strengths, understanding your competitors’ weaknesses, venturing into new markets, caring for old customers, and creating new business partnerships, your business can take a significant leap ahead of your competitors.
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