6 Ways to Stand Out From the Competition for Small Businesses
It is harder than ever to compete with every other business in your sector as a small- to medium-sized business. Finding new ways to stand out can be challenging, especially when you have other tasks to take care of daily.
Differentiating yourself doesn’t always mean completely reinventing the wheel. Sure, having something truly unique to your business will help, but you can also set yourself apart in other ways.
There are many aspects of your business that you can optimize to help you separate yourself in the eyes of customers.
In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of 6 ways to stand out from competitors if you’re a small business. Improving in these areas will help you convert more leads, increase your local market share and dominate your city!
6 Tips on How to Stand Out From Competitors
- Offer 11-Star Customer Service
- Promote Your Customer Reviews
- Reward Your Loyal Customers
- Create an Online Presence
- Be Consistent With Your Branding
- Align With Social Causes
1. Offer 11-Star Customer Service
Do you know what’s better than receiving 5-star customer service from a company? How about 11-star customer service?
In today’s competitive market, one of the most important things for a small business to focus on is the way they treat their customers. When 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels a business treats them, providing excellent customer service is key to standing out.
Your customer service should go beyond solving problems when they arise. You should proactively ensure that you satisfy your customers at every step of their buying experience.
For example, provide them with the right information in the right place when they are researching your brand; train your employees to properly help customers when they are in your store and follow up with your customers to check they are happy with their purchase.
As a small to medium-sized business, you cannot afford to give your customers a poor experience when 60% of them stop doing business with a brand after only one poor customer service experience.
2. Promote Your Customer Reviews
Once you’ve perfected your customer service, you’ll get more positive customer reviews for your business. Sharing your reviews to promote your reputation is another way to differentiate your business from your competitors.
Customer reviews are important because they help customers trust your business. 90% of them think that reviews and referrals are more important than any information provided by a salesperson.
Ask your customers to leave a review if they have the time and most of them will happily do so if they are satisfied with your business. Once you start getting all these positive reviews, all you have to do is share them on your website, your social media, and even around your store!
According to online review statistics, potential customers read an average of ten reviews before committing to a service provider, so make sure they can see all your 5-star reviews!
3. Reward Your Loyal Customers
Getting customers to come to your store is only half the battle; once they leave, you need to make sure that they come back! Although your business might be the best at what it does, customers are curious and they may want to explore other stores.
So how do you increase recurring revenue and motivate customers to come back? Reward them! 83% of consumers say that loyalty programs make them more likely to keep doing business with the same company.
This is great news for you! By implementing your own loyalty program, you can keep your customers loyal by rewarding them.
For example, a points system allows customers to earn for every dollar they spend or through a punch-card system where every purchase of a particular item counts towards a free one down the road.
Additionally, consumers spend 66% more on businesses they are loyal to. Not only will your customers keep coming back, but they will also increase your revenue with each visit!
4. Create an Online Presence
A very important way to differentiate yourself from your competitors is to build a lead generation website and have a trustworthy online presence.
While most businesses now a day have a simple website, it is important to beyond that. You should focus on building a website that is optimized for a smooth user experience and one that makes it easy for your customers to find the information they are looking for.
According to Google, 97% of potential customers search for local businesses online. If your customers are online and your online presence isn’t as strong as your competitors, you won’t show up and will miss countless revenue opportunities.
Improving your online presence will allow you to connect with a wider audience so you can grow your business!
Make sure your business is on Google with all of your correct contact information. Additionally, having a well-developed website will add credibility to your business and give you control to display the information you think is relevant to your customers.
Take this Electrician Salary Guide from Jobber, for example. As a business who provides a field service scheduling app and software, they know that electrician business owners want to stay up to date on what to pay their employees. Knowing this, they’ve created content on their website to reach their audience with the information they’re interested in.
Finally, have fun with social media! Post nice pictures of your products on Instagram. Interact with your customers on Facebook. You don’t have to have an overly complicated social media strategy when you start out, just give your customers an idea of what your business is all about!
5. Be Consistent With Your Branding
Branding is an important concept for any business because it enables you to develop a relationship with your customers. Branding gives your business personal qualities for your audience to identify with.
Having a strong and distinct brand creates a positive impression on customers from the first moment they are introduced to you. If your brand is well-developed, it will help customers engage with you and see you as more dependable.
Things like the colours you choose, the tone in your messaging, and your logos are all part of your branding. Over time, customers start to associate those things with your specific brand if you use them correctly.
It is important to choose brand attributes that are cohesive with your goals and to use those attributes consistently. The more your customers see your brand’s attributes, the more they will associate those with your business.
Some businesses try to reinvent themselves every year, making it hard for customers to relate to that brand when it regularly changes. Successful businesses make sure that they stay consistent with the following: they use consistent brand colours in everything they do visually, the tone of their messaging is consistent in ads, customer engagement, and any other messaging they put out there, and the messaging itself aligns with their goals and values.
6. Align With Social Causes
A final way to make your business stand out is by associating with a social cause that resonates with your customers.
In today’s market, 92% of customers develop a more positive image of a company that supports a social or environmental cause than of those who don’t give back.
The cause you support should match your company’s values; otherwise, people will realize you are only doing it for your benefit.
The best way to approach this is to think about what is important to you and what you’re passionate about. Once you have something in mind, find ways your business can help that cause.
For example, if you think businesses should be environmentally conscious, take steps towards that. Use recycled materials, switch to LED bulbs, minimize the amount of waste your business produces and encourage your customers to join you on your journey to making a difference for the environment.
The Benefits of Standing Out
As you’ve read above, there are many ways in which you can differentiate yourself from your competitors.
You can offer stellar customer service, promote your great customer reviews, reward your loyal customers, create a strong online presence, stay consistent with your branding, and aligning with a social cause.
If you focus on optimizing all these aspects of your business you should see an increase in the number of leads you’re getting, greater relationships with your customers, and an increase in revenue.
All of this will help you gain market share and grow your business along the way!
We hope that you have found these useful and that you have a better understanding of what it takes to differentiate yourself from your competitors in today’s market.
