The main problem with making your business stand out lies in the fact that people always focus on two aspects – price and service. Sure, these two things are by far the most important, but they are definitely not the only factors out there. If this was all that matters, then no niche would ever be truly segmented. What you would get instead is one or two power players per industry. Fortunately, there are so many ways for your small business to stand out and here are some of them.
#1 Specialize
One of the things you could do is specialize within your niche and try providing a single product or service to your audience. This kind of exclusivity always comes with a greater level of trust. Why? Well, because your audience believes that if this is all that you do, you have to provide better service than a business with a more diverse offer. Moreover, this will allow you to focus on this one task, which will make your overhead lower and your quality of service higher. Once you take off, you might choose to differentiate, yet, there’s no real reason why you wouldn’t want to carry on down this path.
#2 Boost your curb appeal
If your company has a headquarters, try making it as presentable as possible. For starters, make it as neat as possible, decorate it with corporate markings (colors, flags, and logos) and watch it do wonders for your reputation. Keep in mind that persuading a person to work with you for the first time might be quite complex, however, they have other ways to make an estimate of your efficiency and professionalism. Your office is one of them. If you don’t have a headquarters (due to having an e-commerce platform or online business) you need to focus on making your website as presentable as possible.
#3 Outside of the box marketing
The next thing you need to understand is that due to the fact that everyone is using digital marketing, this won’t be a great way for you to show how you’re unique. This, of course, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it, but only that you need to find a way to include a couple of more creative methods (even some old-school ones), as well. Promotional materials always provide an outstanding ROI, even though they’re no longer as popular with startups and SMBs as they used to be. Same goes for telemarketing, especially if you get 1800 numbers for your company. Lastly, you can always go with some guerilla marketing, in order to really make a difference.
#4 Try storytelling
Telling a success story is always a popular method, however, it’s also something that requires no small amount of skill on your part. What we mean by this is that you need to learn how to tell it. For instance, while they do like winners, most people aren’t really able to relate to supermen. Instead, they want underdogs, someone like them, someone whose story could, one day, mimic their own. Moreover, they like hearing about themselves more than they like hearing about you. This is why you need to make a customer a protagonist of your story. With adequate storytelling methodology, this shouldn’t be that far out of your reach.
#5 The customer is not always right
At the end of the day, when it comes to providing a service for your customers, a lot of companies use that old saying – the customer is always right. This is a devastating mentality that has no place in the modern business world. First of all, going the extra mile and bending over backward to accommodate everyone who has a complaint aren’t the same thing. Second, customers value integrity. Finally, you owe it to your team and your brand to protect them from unjust accusations.
Conclusion
Making your business stand out in a positive way isn’t an action but a never-ending process. Still, even if this is something that you need to work on for years and decades, it doesn’t mean that postponing it is a sensible decision. The sooner you start, the sooner the results will come.
Dan Radak
Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and a regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.