Be the black sheep

The article below is just a small glimpse into our new book. If you want to learn a lot more about Marketing Strengths and Differentiators, click here to check out the book now. 

Many entrepreneurs attempt to define their competitive advantage, their secret sauce. What makes them different from the jump when they are just at the beginning of their business journey. In reality, most entrepreneurs misidentify this and through trial and error and meeting and learning from challenges. Along the way are able to more accurately define what differentiates them from the competition. 

Reflection can keep us motivated and help us push for our dreams. It’s good to have high self-esteem, but we also must be realistic in what we want to achieve. For example, at some point, a marketer — whether the owner of a business that provides marketing services or a member of the marketing department of another type of business — will figure out that they are better at providing after-sales email services rather than general content writing. That marketer will then focus on maintaining staff and specializing in the tools needed to provide after-sales email services instead of writing generic content. That can provide the reality check that strengthens the business in general and its marketing process in particular.

Just like focusing on one main goal can help you increase your results. Understanding what your marketing Strengths and differentiators are can be transformative for your business. Use the information below to help you more accurately identify your top two or three differentiators. The factors that make your business unique, so you can use them to stand out in a sea of competitors. Competitive differentiation is a process that helps buyers distinguish your firm from similar ones. And gives them a compelling reason to select you.

Find your differentiators

You don’t have to be radically different from your competitors (although if you are, so much the better). Rather, you need to find something about your business that you can own and make a distinctive part of your brand. To engage with your clientele, you have to provide and promote differentiators that they care about. 

There are multiple ways to find out what your customers really think to find your differentiators and where your customers think you stand out.

1. Create a short survey.

   The areas you want to focus on are improving the customer experience, product and service satisfaction, and what inspires customers to come back and refer friends. As you craft 10 to 12 short questions, keep in mind that they should lead to answers you can’t easily get in person or online.

2. Analyze your marketing results.

   Customers leave behind digital breadcrumbs that offer insights into what they want. In email, look at your open and click-through rates to see which content strikes a chord and what’s falling flat. Most of the popular social media networks offer free insights into performance, so take advantage of Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and other such tools to see how you’re doing.

3. Ask customers how you’re doing.

   When customers are at the cash register or come to your website on a regular basis, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. When you do, be explicit by letting them know that you’re looking to grow your business and would love their honest feedback about what you can do to improve their experience and keep them coming back to your company.

4. Get internal feedback.

   A lot of knowledge is in the brains of your colleagues. Ask them questions and challenge them to help you make your marketing better.

True differentiation takes place in the mind

It happens when a person connects your firm with an idea; when they think to themselves, “Ah! [Your company name here] — they’re the firm that’s known for ________.” If your prospects fill in the blank with something that’s both relevant to their businesses and not associated with your competitors, then you have created a powerful competitive differentiator.

Armed with this information, you’re ready to put a plan in place that not only scales your marketing strengths, but also scales your business. Since repetition is the key to remembering, reiterate your main differentiators in your social media profiles, website, and newsletters.

A matrix can help you determine your differentiators. In the columns, list your competitors; in the rows, enumerate the differentiators. Here are ways that businesses find their strengths and turn them into differentiators. Consider these three categories and how you might be different from the competition within these parameters: 

1. Focus.

   Maybe your company has a global foodservice operator data set. Lots of competitors have a global database (not dedicated to foodservice) or foodservice data for certain regions.

2. Simplicity.

   Your competitors might have elaborate, fancy websites, but some are hard to navigate, and it can be difficult to understand what they offer. Keep it simple and logical — this makes it easy to convert leads. Use only one call to action on the landing page instead of 10.

3. Scalability.

   Maintain a focus on the things that can be scaled up by providing access to a monthly data set such as recurring revenues.

Use the above to help you more accurately define your marketing strengths and differentiators. Once they’re clear to you, lean into them and leverage them to make your business stand out from the pack. There is a lot of competition and noise out there but not many people say something truly different and interesting. So go ahead, be different! 

Become a Successful Scaleur

Scaling is a strategy that can only be mastered by a scaleur who is a dedicated learner and considers real-time business priorities. I hope the article above has helped! Marketing Scaleurs is a scaling company that helps entrepreneurs scale their marketing efforts. We’re experts in growth marketing, product development, and more, creating custom growth plans for startups, entrepreneurs and scaleurs in order to help them gain traffic, generate leads and increase their revenue. 

If you want traffic, leads and sales, get in touch and you’ll start getting results in no time!