With thousands of businesses in different sectors, it’s quite difficult nowadays to set yourself apart from the crowd, with seemingly every marketing stunt executed and every sale funnel explored. Nonetheless, finding something that separates you from your competitors can be the differentiating factor between businesses that make it and those that don’t. Failure to find that quality that discerns your brand can mean a slow death to your venture. Here are six tips on how to make your business stand out:
Build a Luxury Brand
It may sound counterproductive, but making your products/services more expensive can, weirdly enough, be what makes it stand out from competitors. You might think that lowering the prices of your goods is what could earn you that positive attention. But in the long run, cheap offerings might also create a public perception of a cheap brand. Instead, create products that can be sold at premium prices.
A good example of this is the fashion brand, Supreme. Their product line consists of ordinary items, like backpacks, clothing, accessories, and skateboards, and yet these items go for very high prices online.
Work on Your Value Proposition
The bare minimum to start a business is to have an idea that solves a problem. A product or service that has no value proposition will fail to attract customers, regardless of how low the price is or how great the marketing campaigns are. Many businesses today are rushed into launching without any firm grasp of what their value proposition is.
Tech startups, for instance, will give you the spiel on their homepage about what their product is. They thoroughly explain what their product/service does but fail to offer a good value proposition that answers the basic question, “Why should I buy it?”
Build a Strong Social Media Presence
According to Emarsys, a marketing software provider, a whopping 3.5 billion people use social media. That’s 45% of the current global population. It makes sense that, if you want your business to succeed, you need social media on your side. Building a strong social media presence is technically straightforward, but it requires consistency, timing, and substance in order to execute flawlessly.
You’ll want to be consistent with your efforts in publishing content and participating in forums and conversations. You’ll want to time your survey- and poll-taking. And of course, your content should be useful, engaging, and entertaining. Consider using a online meme maker to generate funny meme clips that are related to your business or market.
Give Back
This is a common strategy employed by food and clothing brands. You’ll find cereal brands or apparel companies that donate a portion of their profits to a socially or environmentally noble cause, such as climate change or hunger.
Giving back makes your brand look less of a giant faceless corporation and more of a people’s champion. According to a 2018 survey by DoSomething Strategic, over 75 percent of young adults stated they have bought a product/service from a company to show support for the causes being supported by that company.
Reward Loyal Customers
The easiest way to win over new customers and retain your most loyal ones is to reward them. According to a survey, more than 80 percent of customers say they are more likely to buy from a company that offers a rewards program for repeat customers.
A common real-world example of this strategy is coffee places and bubble tea shops that hand out loyalty cards. When you buy an X amount of coffee or bubble tea from them, the next one’s free. Other ways you can reward your most loyal customers are through freebies and swag, membership plan upgrades, and access to exclusive content.
Establish a Brand That Sticks
Branding encompasses many small details that collectively form your customer’s experience when they shop at your store or even just visit your website. Minute details, such as your website’s color scheme, your company logo, and even your customer service’s opening spiel, all have an impact in forming the public’s opinion on what kind of brand you have. Starbucks is a good example of how even a small detail, like a logo, can differentiate you from a sea of similar businesses. The mermaid logo doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with coffee, and yet it’s an easily recognized logo anywhere in the world.
Take bold choices if you want your business to stand out. Don’t just go for safe options that other businesses are already implementing. The more you think out of the box, the better.
