Competitors in business is inevitable, and a lot of industries are already saturated.
So, in order to help your business, thrive and rise above everyone else, you need to learn how to set yourself apart from your competitors somehow.
With that said, here are five simple steps that you can take to do just that.
1. Pay attention to your competitors.
This does not mean that you should focus on beating your competitors or finding every single wrong that they do and badmouth them to your prospects and customers.
Instead, this means that you should watch closely the marketing strategies that they do and assess what works and what doesn’t.
There are so many things that you can learn vicariously from your competitors, and there is no harm in observing.
2. Create a competitive analysis.
After you’ve observed and gathered data about your competitor’s market performance, you can now create a competitive analysis.
This analysis will help you identify who among all your competitors are the most powerful and evaluate the factors that make them successful.
If you don’t know how to create a competitive analysis, there are many samples and templates you can find online.
3. See what they bring to the table.
It’s crucial that you know what your competitors are offering their customers and what you do and don’t. This is one area where you can differentiate yourself from them.
For example, if most of your competitors offer a buy-1-take-1 promo during summer season, perhaps you can offer a 20% discount on particular products that you sell.
4. Create solutions to your customers’ problems.
Your customers are actual people with real-world problems. Make sure that you find out what those are and not assume that you already know them.
You can conduct surveys or interviews in order to gain honest answers from them.
Then, you can begin crafting ideas on how your product or service can help solve their problems.
5. Listen to feedback.
Customer feedback is a powerful tool that can help your business thrive and rise higher in the game. Your customers who tell you about the things they like as well as the things they don’t like about your product or service can really give you a perspective on what’s missing and needs improvement.
Also, listening to your customers can naturally encourage them to become loyal to you because you make them feel heard and seen.
