Most business sectors are generally tough and competitive, and ‘mortality’ rates are unfortunately high for new businesses trying to establish themselves.
There’s plenty of choice for customers, and they’re being bombarded with a plethora of marketing and sales messages online and off, so it can hard to compete let alone stand out in certain markets – but it can be done.
- Niching
It’s possible – and maybe even essential – to find a niche and offer something specific to a certain sector of your overall market rather than trying to appeal to everyone. Tools and resources to help serve specific industry sectors such as POS (Point of Sale) systems geared towards fashion retailers and niche marketing methods help focus on specific customer types.
Be careful of trying to be a pioneer though: ‘niching’ is focusing on a specific area in a known market and becoming the ‘go to’ company in it as opposed to trying to enter totally new territory where there may be no viable market.
- Know your competition
This is vital: you must know who you’re competing with and what they offer; their strengths and weaknesses; where they are (online, local, national or international) and where there’s a gap in the market you can exploit.
Jumping aboard as merely a ‘me too’ operator will make it hard to gain a foothold in the market: you need to differentiate from what others are offering by finding the ‘pain point’ – the need your chosen marketplace has that isn’t being met.
Knowing and understanding your competition is ongoing; you need to constantly keep up to date with what they’re offering and how they go about it.
This can include how they market themselves, how they deal with their customers, their pricing strategy and more.
- Your USP (Unique Selling Point)
Armed with intelligence about your competition and the needs of your market, you need to establish your USP: how will you stand out from the competition and offer something they don’t?
It’s important to have a USP to get attention and gain traction; without one you’ll find it hard to succeed in competitive markets.
- Pricing
Vital to get right of course so as to be both competitive and profitable.
Beware of falling into the trap of competing solely on price: if you simply try to undercut the competition you’ll end up in a race to the bottom – someone somewhere will always beat your price.
Instead, ascertain what price bracket you’re in: many industry sectors have different price points and yours will be determined by your positioning. For example, if you provide top end watches in a higher price bracket you wouldn’t be trying to match prices in the mass market sector.
It’s important to price in alignment with your direct competitors of course, but you may be offering enhancements to make your product stand out such as longer guarantees or an appealing associated offer.
- Branding and image
A strong brand identity is important for all businesses – it’s not just the preserve of the major players with huge marketing budgets.
Some key ways to develop your brand:
- Website – preferably a bespoke designed one, not an ‘off the shelf’ type using a template thousands of others use
- Strong image – designs, colors and logos commensurate with your business offering. If you’re offering high end products then your branding should reflect this by creating a ‘luxury’ image
- Online – along with a web presence, develop an SEO strategy to expose your brand to your market
- Customer service – your brand is promoted by the way you interact with customers, so ensure your company communicates well and is pleasant to deal with
Into the future
Once established, it’s then a matter of maintaining and perhaps extending your scope. This comes through ongoing monitoring of your competition both established and new – and observing industry trends so you can respond and take advantage of developments.
