Starting and operating a small business isn’t easy; there is a lot to think about. Not only do you need to research the market, develop the product, and source investment, but you also need to market the product to the right target audience. Find out how to beat your business competition.
- It’s important to identify your direct competition and monitor any changes they make
- Find the three unique advantages your business has over others in your niche
- Analytics software like Amazon Repricer is indispensable for making better margins
Identify Competition
Before you get started on your journey toward global success, you need to know the competition. Understanding your market and where you are positioned helps you make intelligent decisions on price, value, and investment. It’s important to be realistic about your position in the market; there’s no point in a local coffee shop competing with Starbucks.
Research the local area as well as your online competition to get an accurate picture of what they are charging and what services they offer. This information can be used to create favorable market conditions for your small business and helps you to define your unique attributes. Remember, understanding the competition is an ongoing effort; research them continuously.
Define Advantages
Depending on the nature of your business, you may or may not use a unique selling point. Unique selling points are often used to define the advantage one product has over another, but businesses also have unique attributes that make them stand out from the competition and thrive in tough market conditions. These can be thought of as the “three uniques” of the brand.
The three uniques are the three stand-out features of the small business. An example might be an airliner that offers discount prices, a free choice of seating, and additional baggage allowance – these unique features might well swing a customer’s decision when choosing an airline. Spend some time thinking about the features that make your business more unique.
Use Analytics
With so much commerce online these days, you should take advantage of the latest digital tools to monitor the competition and adjust your unique attributes. Analytical tools use algorithms to identify patterns of behavior in businesses and customers. Analytical tools can be used on your small business website, on search engines, or on retail platforms such as Amazon marketplace.
Amazon’s marketplace is probably the largest online retail platform, so the competition is fierce. Not only that, niche products and stores are finding it harder to stand out from the competition. Perhaps a digital tool has the answer? With margins becoming tighter all the time, it can be hard to change prices accordingly. Find out about what amazon repricer can do for your business.
Customer Alignment
It’s easy to get caught up in running your small business and forget about the core reason you exist in the first place – the customers! Always keep your customers front and center when you are strategy planning to ensure you are always delivering the right results and the best value. Understanding why your customers come to your business is the key to delivering top services.
What brings customers to your business? Does your product make their lives more convenient and happier, or do you offer a service that people rely on? If it’s that later, you can’t allow customer dependence on your service to influence your standards; if anything, you have to work harder to maintain them. Keep your customer pain points front and center of decision-making.
Customer Retention
Winning customers is one thing; retaining them is another. Some businesses think of customer retention as just as important as customer acquisitions – what is the point in expending resources on winning new customers when you can’t hold onto them? Instead, find a balance between winning and retaining customers and beat the competition through quality services.
If you can provide your customer base with long-term value, they are more likely to stick around. Remember, A customer that is already on your email list is easier to market to in the future. Send them regular updates and targeted advertising for your seasonal products, and they will remain with you instead of shifting to another business in your niche offering better value.
Conclusion
It’s becoming harder to stand out in small business markets. If your market is saturated and your bottom line is suffering, make sure you have a strong understanding of your direct competition and the core attributes of your business that will help you stand out to customers, new and old.
