With just under 30 million small businesses in the United States, many businesses struggle to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
How to make your business stand out from its competitors
In doing so, they aren’t able to effectively connect with their target audience, resulting in poor sales.
Thankfully, there are ways to make your business stand out from its competitors and increase your chances of long-term success.
Target a niche
You’ll have an easier time attracting new customers and retaining existing customers by targeting a niche.
As explained by Chron, niche businesses focus on a specific type of product or service.
Instead of a retail sports store, for example, you can target baseball.
When a baseball player is given the option of choosing between the two, he or she will probably buy products from the latter.
Review operational and management practices
When was the last time that you analyzed your business’s operational and management practices? Many businesses rarely, if ever, look at this information.
You can set your business apart from the rest, however, by taking a closer look at your operational and management practices.
There’s even audit software available to assist in this process.
It can help you identify compliance issues, allowing you to correct them before they turn into a bigger problem.
Offer exceptional customer service
Another way to make your business stand out from its competitors is to offer exceptional customer service.
Far too many businesses are focused strictly on making profits and don’t care about their customers’ satisfaction.
If customers aren’t satisfied, however, they may choose a competitor.
A study conducted by JD Power, for instance, found that poor customer service is the number one reason customers switch banks.
Whether you run a bank, retail store or any other business, though, you should provide exceptional customer service.
Find out what your competitors are doing
Try to get into the habit of analyzing your competitors on a regular basis.
Find out what products or services they offer, how much they sell them for and how they run their business.
Using this information, you can make your business stand out from the rest.
If a competitor offers the same product or service at a lower price, perhaps you should lower the price of your product as well.
Remember, you need to give customers a reason to choose your business, and this is just one more way to help you achieve this goal.
Encourage customers to leave online reviews
Statistics show that 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews.
As a business owner, you can use this to your advantage by encouraging customers to leave reviews.
Assuming you have a Google My Business listing for your business, customers can rate and review your business here.
And once you’ve acquired enough reviews, your business will stand out from its competitors.
Provide valuable educational resources
Consider publishing high-quality content online that’s useful and valuable to your business’s target audience.
Even if it doesn’t drive any direct sales, it will distinguish your business as a leading authority.
In turn, the next time a prospect needs a product or service offered by your business, they may choose your establishment instead of a competitor.
Stand for a cause
Finally, take a stand with your business by supporting a cause.
The pet food company Pedigree, for instance, encourages the public to adopt homeless dogs.
For every new Facebook fan Pedigree attracts, it donates one bowl of dog food to various animal shelters.
The company says it hopes to attract 4 million Facebook fans, which would provide enough food to feed every dog in stuck in a U.S. shelter for one day.
Summary
Innovation is a shared characteristic among successful businesses.
Those that innovate and differentiate themselves from their competitors will experience more sales than their counterparts that simply copy other businesses’ activities.
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