Getting customers in a very competitive market requires developing strategies and tactics that helps to separate yourself from that very competition that is present in your niche. Everything from offering a different type of customer service, to the uniforms that you and your employees wear, to your pricing, and the type of promotions you do, all of these helps in separating yourself from the pack.
The competition is like a mountain, you’re never going to beat it, you’re only going to get efficient at climbing it. Developing a system that helps you climb that mountain of competition and maintaining that system is key. If you think of a company like Apple, their strategy and their system and the way that they get new customers in a very competitive market, is through innovation. This company creates new, and amazing products that grab our attention. Overtime it’s become Apple’s brand.
How to get new customers in a very competitive market
Every single vector in your business can be differentiated in a way that enables you to offer something new in the marketplace. And what do I mean by that, for instance the way that you advertise. Let’s say you are advertising on the radio, or you advertise on television, or perhaps you’re using billboards. Now your competition is doing the same thing, and so if you want to differentiate yourself, you might instead of doing 30 second commercials, you do 5 to 10 second ads that are impactful.
On the radio these ads may include a very memorable jingle, so that when listeners hear this multiple times they can’t get it out of their heads. On TV, you may use the same character again and again, which helps you to impress that image on your viewers mind. Think about the Progressive insurance ads and their ‘Flo’ character. If you’re advertising through billboards, look at your competition, and then make yours drastically different. Do this consistently and you will find it easier to get new customers in a very competitive market that you may be a part of.
Lead generation strategies in competitive markets
I mentioned looking at the vectors in your business, and seeing ways that you can differentiate in those areas. And in any business we have a lot of different points, and when we are looking at strategies that you can implement creativity is your greatest asset. Creativity is doing something different, if all of your competitors are doing sophisticated ads, make yours simple. a white background with black text. Voila! You’ll be surprised at what that can do, just that separation, and simplicity. It’s drastically different.
Here is another thing that you can do to differentiate yourself, target a smaller amount of people. If you think about it, in a business you have a spectrum of customers who engage you, what if you began to focus your products, your services, and your messaging towards a defined and smaller set of customers. In this way, you can focus and align more toward your most profitable customers, thereby appealing to customer set that will be coming to you as opposed to you trying to go to them.
For instance Walmart is focused on helping cost-conscious consumers save money, and they do a very good job at that. They’re not trying to target rich people. They are targeting nearly 90% of the population, but that’s what they do, they are big enough to do that. Now if you’re reading this you’re probably a growing business, you’re not as big as Walmart, so you want to look at your customer matrix, in order to define who you should position yourself towards.
There’s a great deal more you can do to separate yourself in a competitive market call, everything and including content marketing, specialized service, considering different advertising channels, and the list goes on and on. The key is to review your competition, and then try to do something drastically different or that positions yourself in a different light with your target customers. And it doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to be different.
Looking for more ideas? Reach out to us, we can have a chat and give you some strategies and tactical ideas for your specific business.
