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Message of Value – Many times there are things that you do that don’t get communicated. Extra that you provide or services you think should be included. Your positioning might just rest in more effectively communicating what you do. I know an office furniture dealer that has adopted message – We Make Your Business More Valuable – to communicate all things they bring to party. Now, everything they do is focused on delivering on that statement. Everyone else in industry sells furniture.
Unique habit – I know a financial planner who has his client’s car detailed right out in his parking lot when they come in for their annual review. They can't help but rave to their friends about this unique touch.
Guarantee – Can you offer a guarantee so strong that no one else in your industry would dream of doing it. This one frightens some people but, you probably guarantee your work anyway, you just don’t say so. Come out and boldly announce that you guarantee results and watch what happens!
Customer Service – Everyone knows story of over top customer service provided by Nordstrom’s Create your own over top customer response system and word of mouth advertising will flow liberally. One of greatest ways to kick this off is to over deliver on your first customer contact. Give them something more than you promised, give them a gift, give them a related service for free.
Against competition – Many times you can create your category niche by looking for holes in offerings of your competitors. If every one in industry fails to address a certain problem, boldly grab on to solving that problem and use your competition as point of difference.
Clues to uncovering your difference
Look at your current clients. What common elements exist among your best clients? Interview your clients. See if they can tell you why they chose to work with, why they stay, why they refer? Study your competitors more closely. What do they do that you could do better, what don’t they offer they you could, how do they position themselves?
Communicate difference
Once you find your chosen strategy or combination of strategies to differentiate your business, all of your advertising and promotion should be centered around shouting about that difference.
Commit to it, stay at it and resist temptation to wander off in next new direction. Building a brand, and that’s what I’m talking about, takes time and patience. The payoff, however, is what differentiates winners from losers in this big marketing game.
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas City, Mo. He writes frequently on real world small business marketing tactics and is the creator of “Duct Tape Marketing” a turn-key small business marketing system. Check out his blogs at http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php and http://www.BloggingBusiness.com