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Take a step back from your business and ask yourself” What do I
do that differentiates my business from my competitors?” Look at
both your products and services and how you sell and market your
offerings.
Differentiating your products and services from the
competition is one of the most important weapons in your
marketing tool kit. Yet many businesses do absolutely nothing to
differentiate themselves from the competition. Often they use
the same marketing tools and advertise in the same places as
their competition. To see what I mean take a look in your local
Yellow Pages. The result is that buyers and prospects cannot
differentiate them from any of their competitors so they buy on
price.
Imagine you are a computer or IT service and support company.
There are thousands around all offering software and hardware,
all offering maintenance and repair services, most backed up by
some form of Microsoft certification. How do your customers and
prospects choose you over the competition?
What could you do?
Firstly you need to develop your Unique Selling Point [USP].
Everyone says they are the best, or offer great customer
service, etc It has to be something different that describes
something special and different about your business.
Secondly, decide on the type of customers you want and target
your marketing activity at those specific segments. You may
decide that the customers you want are accounts with multiple
locations, or businesses with one location, small office/home
office customers, or home computers. Whichever, the message
needs to be different for each segment and the reasons they
purchase will also be different. What services will you offer?
What is different from everyone else? The key point is that of
course you are able to service all businesses, but if you can
make your service different and target a specific segment of the
market, price becomes less important because buyers are
attracted for different reasons.
Next look at other industries that are offering maintenance,
service and repair services. How do they market their services?
Are their any ideas that can be adapted from them to test in
your business?
Try testing a new and different marketing method
on a small scale each month. This could be direct mail, emails,
telemarketing etc. The important part though is to start small,
test and measure everything to find out what works for your
business and what does not. When you find something that works
you can then roll out on a larger scale.
Many
businesses are relying on one or two main forms of marketing.
They could be advertising, PR, referrals, direct mail,
telemarketing, web site etc. To really grow your business you
need to be combining several of these and use them
simultaneously.
You should be constantly trying to think up fresh ways of
adding value for the service, improving the range and getting
close to your customer’s needs. One of the hardest tasks of
marketing is to make sure you are remembered. If your product is
the same as everyone else’s only heavy promotion and deep
pockets will draw customers in.
Highlighting the differences between you and your competition
is key to standing out from the crowd and being remembered.
About Gareth Morgan:
Gareth Morgan heads GAP Management Ltd. He has a wealth of
commercial and business experience and a practical approach that
enables him to add real value and benefits to his clients. As
head of GAP Management Ltd he has been associated with many
start up successes and the on-going development of established
businesses
Use GAP Management to help you use ideas and strategies to
attract new customers, generate more sales from existing
customers, and to increase sales and profits.
Call Gareth Morgan 01226 290288 or email gareth@gapmanagement.co.uk
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