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It’s a harsh world in business and, unless you have a unique product, there’s a lot of competition to beat. If you want to make it, you need to set your business apart from all the others trying to do the same thing as you. There are lots of ways you can differentiate your brand from other products and companies, but you need to find the methods that are right for you. Often there is already something unique about your business that will help you stand out from the rest, but you don’t know what it is yet. You can find out how your company is different and how to communicate this difference and its benefits to your customers. Consider some of the following ways you could differentiate your company to improve your marketing and customer attainment.
Your Product
One of the ways you can differentiate your company is through your product. Can your product offer something unique or fashionable that is strongly associated with your brand? If people immediately think of your business when they see your offering or vice versa, then your product clearly sets itself apart from everyone else. You can also extend a product to make it better for the customer than it was before.
Packaging and Delivery
The way that you package and deliver a product or service can also help you to avoid being just like everyone else. That doesn’t mean sending your products out in attractive boxes, although that can be a way to add an excellent personal touch. For example, if you offer a service you could deliver and charge for it in a different way to the standard method. If services similar to yours are often provided on an hourly basis, you could offer it as a set package with expected outcomes. The way your customers receive your product could be just as important as the product itself.
Your Brand Personality
Sometimes it’s not the uniqueness of the product that helps you stand out, but the way you package and present it. Your brand personality and tone of voice are as much a part of your product as the physical item or service is. Developing a cohesive brand isn’t something you can do in just a few minutes, so make sure you read up on the essential practices before you start developing your brand. You can get plenty of tips from sites like The Brand Authority to help you create a professional brand that stands out from the others. Your brand needs to be consistent across the board, from your website to your customer service.
Find Your Niche
Finding a market niche certainly isn’t easy. You can come up with plenty of ideas that you think no one must have executed before, only to find that someone is already doing it very well. But if you can identify a niche that needs to be filled, you can carve out your own space and dominate that small corner of the market. This method is excellent for standing out from the crowd because you’re avoiding the crowd altogether. When you specialize in this way, you can often raise your prices as the first and best provider of a niche product.
Problem Solving
An interesting way to come up with a new product, and to find a niche that needs filling, is to come up with a solution to a common problem. In every market, you’ll find customers looking for a problem they keep coming up against, but you could even identify issues that people haven’t realised exist. Examine your competition to see if there is something that everyone else is failing to do. It could be up to you to take the challenge on. You might already have a solution to a problem, something that your customers notice that you do that other similar providers don’t. If you can find something like this, you can focus on letting your clients know that you do it.
Amazing Feats of Customer Service
Every business works on providing excellent customer service, but you could gain more traction by taking a more memorable approach. Many companies go out of their way to provide for their clients, offering things before they have a chance to ask for them. Take the example of a concierge in a hotel, who puts himself at the very beck and call of the establishment’s guests. He is always prepared to do anything that anyone requires. Great feats of customer service make great stories that you can share with your clients. They could be everyday occurrences or grand gestures. You might remember the UPS advert was very popular for Christmas 2014, when the company helped a little boy’s dream of being a driver come true.
Provide a Unique Reward
Part of good customer service is rewarding your clients. You can make sure that every visit they conduct to your premises or website is memorable by offering a unique perk. Perhaps you take all your clients out to lunch in the new year or send them a homemade Christmas hamper. Maybe you can give customers a gift when they refer someone to your subscription service or make a certain number of purchases. Tailor your offerings to your clients to make it unique, such as giving away a free vinyl with a subscription to a music service.
Go Big with Guarantees
Guaranteeing something big can be a risk, but customers often find themselves drawn to services making big promises. If you can offer a guarantee, perhaps with money back if customers aren’t satisfied, you’ll undoubtedly stand out. But make sure you only make promises you’re confident you can meet. You don’t want to have your plan backfire and create more unsatisfied customers than satisfied ones.
Differentiating your business from all the others in your market is all about finding what makes you unique. But once you know how you’re different, you need to ensure that you’re communicating this difference effectively. Don’t forget to use your unique selling point in your marketing and promotion.