Four ways to make your business stand out

Setting yourself apart so that your (potential) customers find, like and trust you, is a process that starts at the very base of your small business marketing.

Let’s look at four ways that marketing will help your small business stand out from the crowd.

The right point of view

No customer, no business.
Everything you do should be with your customer in mind. Hence the first step to be different and standing out is to understand your customer in-depth.
Listen to how they describe their problem and what they long for as solution, because it holds the key too stand out and win more business.
Getting to know your customer intimately goes beyond the hard facts (demographics and psychographics). It is also about their needs, fears, pains, goals and dreams. It is about making sure you are not operating under assumptions but that you take steps to validate whether your assumptions are solid and your audience has the problem you want to build a business around.

Keep them out of a coma

Your core marketing message  (a.k.a the answer to the question of what do you do?) is how you attract your ideal clients. It is explaining what you do, for whom, with which results in such a manner that the right people for your business say:  Give me your card!

I could elaborate hours on this, but allow me to illustrate it with this example.

Imagine a networking situation:

[Me] -What do you do?
[Person 2] -I am an accountant

The conversation enters in a coma state and, in my head, I am figuring out ways to keep it alive.

Now consider this:

[Me]-What do you do?
[Person 2]-I help entrepreneurs [who] to save money on their taxes and other company expenses[what] so that they have more resources to invest in their growth [results].
[Me]-Wow, tell me more – How do you do that?

The difference is, in the first case, Person 2 is focusing on the process. In the second, Person 2 focuses on the benefits for his client. And that is where most of us go wrong: we tend to bring the process forward because that’s what we do for a living. That’s what makes us who we are. But clients do not care about secret sauce. They care about the outcomes.

Your message, or your client attraction message, trickles down to the rest of your business communications. If this is out of tune, your ideal clients will miss you. And if this is out of tune, it will reflect on the other areas of your small business marketing.

Show them to the sunny side of the street

Your solution takes your clients from A to B. As mentioned above clients are seeking a solution or a transformation, not a process. When basing your communications too much on the how -like the modules of a course, the bonuses, etc.- instead of on the path to transformation, you are missing a great chance to stand out.

Creating a graphic of the logic pathway including the transformations along the road shows your clients that you understand their needs and that your solution is the right one for them. Showing them how you get from the rainy place to the sunny destination, provides a significant competitive advantage and market distinction, which will make you stand out.

The image below illustrates how I take my clients from feeling frustrated with the result of their marketing efforts to be crystal clear on what they have to do to get results. It speaks by itself!

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Climb the right mountain

All businesses have competitors. Competition is not just another business that might take money away from you. It can be another product or service that’s being developed and which you ought to be selling or looking to license before somebody else takes it up. But this is one side of competition, you need the customer’s perspective.

In the mind of our potential customers, you are competing against the solution they are using nowadays. It might well be that they do not compare you to someone who you see as a competitor.

For example, I am a marketing consultant who helps service based entrepreneurs to market themselves better. My competition is most probably not another coach or another course, but having to figure marketing out on their own. When talking to them it is of essence that we figure out what have they tried so far. In other words, we need to make sure we are climbing the right mountain.

Knowing who your actual competition is, can help you to make your products, services and marketing stand out. It will enable you to set your prices competitively and help you to offer your client the best solution.

And don’t just limit yourself to what’s already out there today. Be always on the lookout for possible new competition.

Standing out in a crowd of competitors, and attracting the attention of an audience that is constantly bombarded with messages is no easy task, and it’s getting more difficult all the time. Making sure the difference starts from the very core of your business marketing will help you in the long run.

How do you want to stand out?

Create a visual representation of your signature solution?
Develop guiding lines to make decisions about your products, services, messages?
Develop the base of your brand visual representation?
Create a solid foundation for your business?
Know what to write in your copy that attracts the right clients for your business?

Book a call with me and let’s find out how I can help you to market your business with ease.