It’s not as difficult as you might think to get competitive advantage in your marketplace. This short video will show you why:
TRANSCRIPT
Today, I’m going to teach you a very simple way to get competitive advantage in your marketplace. But it’s also a bit of a rant, and you’ll understand why shortly. But those who know me will know that I’m fairly good at ranting anyway. But the point I’m going to make today is that it’s all about how many businesses out there, particularly small businesses, don’t actually do the basic stuff to make a success of their business or become more successful in what they do.
And the key point is this: Marketing can, actually, be very simple, whether that’s doing online marketing, whether postal marketing, direct sales etc. However you want to pitch it, it can, actually, be quite straightforward.
But here’s what I find, and the more time I spend with business owners, both in smaller businesses and slightly larger ones as well, is that their marketing is often not very consistent. And they wonder why they don’t get competitive advantage anywhere.
But this gives you a perfect opportunity to go out and just be that slightly bit different from most, if not all, of your competitors. And all you have to do is just to be in the face of your market, or your potential customers, on a more frequent basis.
Now, I had a chat the other day with a couple who run a local IT business. And when I pointed this out to them, that nearly all of their competition will be doing some kind of social media pretty much every day, often just Twitter, maybe a bit of Instagram, but they often won’t be updating their clients and contacts on the latest IT developments. They often won’t be pointing out potential security threats and making clients aware. The chances are good they won’t even be sending their customers a birthday card, or a ‘thank you for your business card’, or something like that.
Being more consistent in your marketing is a simple way to get competitive advantage
There’s a whole load of things you can do. But the point I was trying to make was this: over 80% of businesses, large and small, don’t do nearly enough marketing.
Now, I know that this sounds quite straightforward, but what I recommend that you do is get yourself a calendar. Print off a blank calendar and start writing in activities in that calendar to make sure that your marketing is that bit more consistent. I promise you, eight out of ten businesses just won’t do this. And what smacks me as outrageous, really, is that they often complain that we’re not getting enough sales, we’re not getting enough market share, or that people aren’t coming through the door. Well, my question back to you when you say something like that is, “Well, when was the last time you, actually, sent something out? Forget about tweeting every day. Forget about putting stuff on Facebook. When was the last time you, actually, targeted your potential customers with something that might gain their attention?”
Now, this stuff is really simple. It really does irk me when people complain about not getting enough customers when I see them not doing the fundamentals of consistent, regular marketing into the space where their customers go.
Now, I admit that it’s not easy. It takes a bit of thought, and it means you’re going to have to dedicate some time and effort to marketing. But my thought is this: If you do what you’ve always done, you’re always going to get what you’ve always got. If you do something slightly different, you’ll get different results. If you do something slightly more in your marketing, you’ll get more results. It really is that simple.
So don’t be like those eight out of ten businesses out there that don’t do nearly enough consistent marketing. Please, go out and do it. Even if you’re just out there sending out messages on a more regular basis, the chances are good you’ll be doing it more consistently than your customers, and if they happen to be in the market for what you’re offering, if you’re the guys who were last in mind or most frequently in mind recently, you’re the ones who are going to get the call. You’re the ones who are more likely to be in the frame to get the business.
So I hope that’s really, really been useful and I’m sorry if I ranted at you, and I’m sorry if that’s not you. But gaining competitive advantage can, actually, be really simple.
If you’d like some help with this to get competitive advantage then give us a call on 0116 3552194 and we’ll chat about our marketing coaching programme.