Outshine your Competitors even in a Saturated Niche
What makes your business, not only different, but better than the rest in your niche? And what can you do to increase your chances of getting picked by wandering consumers rather than the competition?
In this guide, we’ll talk about all the necessary strategies you can use in order to outshine those customer-grabbing businesses. Oh, and by the end of it, we’ll show you a method used by Fortune 500 companies that made them who they are now so that you and your team can leverage that into your business objectives.
Strategies For Beating Your Competitors
1. Have a Unique Selling Proposition
What do you sell? Now, how is it different from your competitors? And how is that difference a better solution for the consumers? Oftentimes, business owners ask just the first two questions. But they’re forgetting that the customer is still king and their problems are still the #1 priority. Hubspot quoted it perfectly when they said “Don’t solely rely on unique differentiators — because a unique product today is the norm of tomorrow”
It’s great to be different. You stand out from the crowd. Back then, UAG made phone cases that don’t just look good, or be safe from 5-foot drops, but they stepped it up with up to 10x the height. They not only gave the consumer a unique product, but also a more beneficial one. They played the imagination of customers who think they’ll drop their phone off a cliff and still have it survive unscathed. This is a good example of what a USP should be.
So, let me ask you again. How is your product/service unique and better?
2. Focus on one thing, then take another step after
We all dream of having that omnipotent brand that caters to everyone, whether its Coca Cola, Google or Nestle. But the truth is, we aren’t there yet. And they weren’t too when they started out. Remember that when a consumer looks for a product/service, they want the best in that regard, the master of one instead of the jack of all trades.
Only when you’ve built a strong reputation for that niche should you focus on the next one. Entrepreneur quoted a book named Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less and said it beautifully. Stating that focusing all your energy on one thing begets a higher success rate. “Go small”, then build up.
3. Price intelligently
Pricing matters, it’s just business 101. Yes, we know the “why”, but now let’s explore the “how”. Pricing your product or service isn’t just about market research or competitor analysis. It’s about learning how your consumers think. You know the drill, customer avatars, demographics, psychographics, behaviours and all that jazz.
But there are other ways to price. And here are the top 3 ways to go about it, depending on your target audience.
4. Market Penetration pricing
The most popular strategy businesses use in order to cut through the competitive noise. By lowering the price at the start, you gain tons of customers who enjoy an affordable buy. After gaining a significant amount of purchasers, slowly rise up the price until it meets your product/service’s quality.
5. Decoy Pricing
A strategy that gives the consumer more options, but actually reducing it to one. Imagine buying popcorn before going to the theatre. A small container costs $6 and a large one at $12. Normally the better option is the $6 one. But what if another size popped in, the medium container at $11. Now the $12 one seems like a better deal, it’s like a “steal” price.
Implementing this strategy employs a similar approach as marketing penetration pricing. Wherein a cheaper product is introduced to attract cold audiences while a more expensive one is for your returning customers who enjoyed the product or service.
6. Premium Pricing
While it may seem counterintuitive, a premium pricing strategy may be your way to win consumers. By pricing high, you are essentially telling the audience that your product/service is luxurious, high quality, and unique. But when doing this, make sure that you dress to impress and not have a product that looks like the rest.
7. Provide Solutions Even After Customer Acquisition
Sometimes, the best way to beat competitors is not being first, but being better. And the one way of attracting (or retaining) consumers is through good customer service.
Here is a list of benefits your business can reap from good after service:
- It builds reputation
- It accentuates your brand’s personality
- It builds a connection
- It’s a great way to generate referral sales
- It leaves a mark on your customers (reducing the competitor influence)
8. Keeping On Testing
There is a multitude of strategy combinations you can implement to outplay your competitors. And oftentimes the first few ones will fail, but, as we all know, business is about adaptation. And the key is to test, test and test. Professional PPC marketing agencies often deliver quality results in a quicker fashion due to their expertise. Businesses often hire these companies to mitigate expenses in the long run.
What Is Competitive Intelligence
Also known as corporate intelligence, competitive intelligence is the collection, analysis and implementation of competitor, market, and consumer information for the purposes of gaining a competitive advantage. Used by 90% of Fortune 500 companies in the world, this research-intensive strategy forces the market share into your favour through data exploitation, whether it’s for short-term or long term goals.
Online, there are multiple ways to gather data. They in could be in the form of:
- Industry reports (Such as data from Statista and other research-based platforms)
- Social Media
- Financial Reports
- Software Tools
- Competitor’s website & following
- Niche consumers
Competitive Intelligence is not complex, but it’s difficult and time-consuming. When deciding to implement this strategy onto your business, consider digital marketing agencies that offer free competitor analysis reports such as Contevo to lessen the workload for your business.
But if you’re willing to do this method on your own, here are the five steps of accomplishing competitive intelligence.
1. Learn your Market
Whether it’s market size, growth, range or customer demographics, knowing about all the nitty-gritty is a great starting point. SEMRush’s definition on this goes into detail how graphs and charts can easily show you the scope of a niche.
This is where the customer avatars, psychographics and behaviours come in. By analysing your market, you gain confidence in business actions exponentially better than before.
2. Discover the Marketplace Products
The step is all about research and development. Finding the strengths and weaknesses of a niche product or service can give you an edge through better problem-solving products. There are dozens of SaaS tools on the internet to get started. Some are more useful than others but nonetheless, they have variations of which, works best on different types of businesses.
3. Look for your Major competitors
Research them through press releases, niche awards (ex. baby products Australia award) and even Facebook’s Audience Insight tool. Analysing their strategies and website can greatly enhance yours through differentiation and solution enhancers.
4. Evaluate your standpoint
Knowing where you are in the myriad of brands can give a sense of control over what you can do and who to compete with. If you’ve been in the industry for quite some time, the best way to go about this is through analysing the market share. Which percentage do you fall in?
By doing this, you can determine your standing compared to before and act accordingly. In line with that, you can also see which competitors drop in ranking and capitalise on it. There are tons of ways to take advantage of market share and it’s for you to decide on how to adjust your business goals for it.
5. Implementation of analysis
Now that you know everything about your niche, it’s time to put these data into action. By being up-to-date with all these trends, you can adjust to move more aggressively with your promotions or recede to dampen market crisis impact. Having more control and competitor knowledge means that your business objectives will be met in a consistent and efficient manner.
Final Thoughts
There are numerous ways of how a business can out-compete its competitors, whether through selling a unique product that solves consumer problems better, intelligent pricing, focusing on improving one product/service or implementing competitive intelligence.
Despite all these solutions, the main caveat is to put your customers first. The biggest advantage a brand can have against its competitors is the effectiveness of its product or service in solving the consumer’s problems.
