Introduction:

Have you thought about starting a business, but felt the market you intend to enter is too saturated? or there are already brands that come to people’s minds at the mention of a specific product?

You’re not alone, far too many people have fallen victim to the idea that it’s pointless to enter into a certain sector where there are already a handful of companies that are popular among the masses (myself included).

Don’t let self doubt dictate how to navigate your business, just remember you have something they don’t. Make your mark in your industry and leave a lasting impact on your consumers with 9 simple practices to incorporate in your growing business. To help you navigate the post, use the links below!

1. Conduct Business Differently Than Your Competitors
2. Narrow Your Niche
3. Add your Personal Touch
4. Incorporate a Socially Conscious Initiative
5. Develop a Product Differentiation Strategy
6. Offer High-Quality Products
7. Offer a Brand Experience
8. Make your Service Meaningful
9. Offer Customization
10. Conclusions

1. Conduct Business Differently Than Your Competitors

Research your competitors, identify what the gaps are, and take action. Do you notice a gap between how other companies are doing business and what customers expectations are for the services they offer?

Look for ‘holes’ in other companies business models, then use that information to your companies advantage. Use that insight and fill in the gap. Taking advantage of a companies negligence in an area by offering the best solution in that same area will set your company apart. If other companies have a not-so-good way of communicating with customers or they lack in customer service, you have the opportunity to then create a business model that incorporates the best customer service experience available . It’s important to understand what the consumers wants and needs are, and if other companies aren’t taking the necessary actions to show they are listening to them, it’s now your time to step in and take over.

2. Narrow Your Niche

When you market to everyone, you are marketing to no one. In order to be successful you must target a specific group of people and put your unique expertise to use. It is important to understand the value of what you are offering and figuring out exactly who the ideal person is that you should offer your expertise to.

Narrowing your niche is a crucial component in standing out and establishing a relationship with your audience. Narrowing your niche allows you to get into the mind of your ideal client. You need to identify specific needs that havent been met or simply ignored. It decreases the amount of competition, redirects your focus and helps you create authenticity within your brand. The better you understand your niche, the better you will be able to engage your audience with appropriate, specific messages. It’s important to be super specific about who you’re going to target your product or services to. It might seem scary to get ultra specific in who you are trying to target, but remember this will only help in setting you apart from the rest.

3. Add your Personal Touch

Showcase your personality, incorporate your unique perspective and your style of branding! People like to feel like they know the person or people behind the magic that is your brand.

Create silly videos for your content showcasing the behind the scenes, the work it takes to make your brand what it is. Put to use all the free social media tools you have at your fingertips! Another tip would be to add your personality in your posts, such as writing sassy captions, or include funny anecdotes of events that happened throughout the process of a product launch.

Make sure to taylor the content your putting out to match the vibe of each social media app. Also, it’s important to engage with your audience, ask them questions through polls on instagram, respond to comments, retweet a customers tweet raving about how much they love your products or services and show that you are aware of their presence. It will make a huge difference and even make someones whole day. Maybe schedule a few instagram live events throughout the month to actively engage in conversation with your audience, a simple act of inclusion and engagement will go a long way.

4. Incorporate a Socially Conscious Initiative

This doesn’t have to be rocket science. Show your audience you care about issues going on in the world, whether that be to reduce the amount of plastic your business uses for its operations, or highlighting different issues on your business’s instagram such as the gender gap pay. Show the consequences of such issues and how your actively combatting those issues within your business. Not many businesses take the initiative to bring awareness to social issues, but this will make your brand stand out from the rest.

More likely than not, the majority of your intended audience will care about the same issues or even experience the issues you bring awareness to. This allows your audience to further identify themselves with your brand and develop an emotional connection with it. People love seeing brands use their platforms for the greater good, it shows you are in touch with reality and enhances your authenticity which is a bonus! I know whenever I see a brand share how they are challenging themselves to do better and be better, I take note of that and instantly want to follow them along their journey.

5. Develop a Product Differentiation Strategy

Note that product brand differentiation is key! Product differentiation is critical in penetrating a market. Product differentiation is a process used by businesses to distinguish a product or service from other similar ones available in the market. The goal of this tactic is to help businesses develop a competitive advantage and define compelling unique selling points (USPs) that make their products more attractive to a specific target market. Know your market, get familiar with it. It’s important to be observant of the market your product serves.

Questions you should be asking: Who are the competing organizations and what do they offer? What types of fundamental customer needs are not being met with existing options?

Entire team collaboration is vital to establish distinct ways you can potentially distinguish your product from others in the same market. Take record of the benefits and values your product brings to customers and build on how important those values are. Identify opportunities where you are able to further differentiate your product or service from others. Determine where they may belong in your organization’s strategic product plan. Many industries have become increasingly saturated and so consumers are more overwhelmed than ever when it comes to the amount of options available to them, product differentiation is key in being able to stand out on the shelves.

6. Offer High Quality Products

How does the quality, reliability, and ruggedness of your product compare to others on the market? Improving product quality is one of the top essential elements for achieving long term sales growth and profitability. Product quality describes a product’s capability to meet consumer specifications. Here is a list of essential questions to think about when deciding a products quality:

• Does it solve a problem?
• Is it easy to use?
• Is it efficient?
• Is it polished?
• Is it tailored to your customers?

Creating quality products builds customers trust. Most businesses won’t succeed if they can’t build trust with their clientele; many potential sales are missed when brands fail to create in-depth connections with buyers. The company with the highest-quality product has the biggest increase of chances at growing their list of positive reviews, recommendations as well as shares between consumers. As you improve quality, you will strengthen your relationship with your customers.

A companies ability to grow is confirmation you care about more than just taking their money. Your brand will evolve to be much stronger and more relatable, and you’ll discover numerous ways to expand into new markets and grasp new audiences. Marketing studies have showcased time after time that companies who produce high-quality products achieve more repeat business.

7. Offer a Brand Experience

This is an important one! The brand experience is key and is in every little detail. Brand experience influences how customers feel about a brand through a simple but meaningful encounter. Brand experience builds consumer awareness and often creates brand-faithful customers. Brand experience literally describes how the brand is experienced by future and current customers before, during and after any and all interactions, throughout its existence. The ultimate goal is to elicit positive emotions and feelings from consumers concerning a specific brand. Some of the most important elements that make up your brand are:

• Brand design
• Brand voice
• User experience
• Brand image 
• Customer support

All of these elements become significant parts of a whole under brand experience. A brand experience includes strong visuals that fully immerses your customers into the world that is your brand. The overall goal is to make a positive impact on your audiences feelings. This can be done through a brick and mortar store or even just by building your online presence on instagram or through your website. Creating or choosing a theme is crucial in letting your audience know what type of brand you are, and helps to attract customers with a connection to that aesthetic.

Themes are visually pleasing to see on instagram and sets the mood of the brand for your customers. Choose a distinct color pallet that speaks to your brand and stick with it, incorporate patterns that align with the image you want to portray. Getting creative with content is important in not post the same things over and over. Also, consistency in content plays a key role in your brand experience. You can even play on the human senses by incorporating a sensory response through filling your store with a particular scent, playing a specific genre of music, or designated touch points throughout your store.

8. Make your Service Meaningful

A little touch of customer appreciation will enhance your companies ability to stand out to your target audience. This is a great advantage smaller business have over large brands, which tend to overlook this aspect.

Adding a few surprises into your customers orders will leave a lasting impact, an example of this would be from my own experience of ordering from a local clothing small boutique.

I had ordered this lovely cream colored textured dress, just in time for the usual California summer heat waves, and in my package was a handwritten “thank you” note, a couple of cute holographic stickers ( on brand of course), and they even included a discount code for 10% off on my next purchase.

In that moment of my unpackaging, I was completely caught off guard in the most delightful way, and used that discount code right away!

That simple act of adding a little something special shows personalization, gratitude, and made the whole experience very memorable. Just by simply adding an extra sprinkle of thoughtfulness made them stand out from all the other brands I had previously ordered from.

9. Offer Customization

Can you customize parts of the product that competitors cannot? Consumers in today’s world market want products tailored to fit their own specific needs and style.

When companies offer customization, retailers can increase their value and differentiate from the competition. Customization of products and even packaging allows consumers to have control over their retail experience than ever before, and ultimately leads to more memorable experiences and increases their loyalty to brands.

With the introduction of interactive 3D technology it’s easier than ever before to offer shoppers customized products that they’ve put together themselves. Now consumers can easily customize sneakers, clothing items, furniture and even diamond rings. It’s also important to note you might not want to include too many options if you chose to go the customization route, because customers tend to get fatigued or overwhelmed with having too many options to choose from which won’t be good.

A guide along the journey of customization is also a great way to keep shoppers engaged and excited about their opportunity to customize. Brands that have already incorporated this technology include Nike, Puma, Levi’s and Shoes of Prey. This experience allows consumers to step into the designer role, and create a piece they are proud of.

Conclusions

There you go! These are my 9 tips to get your business noticed. All large and profitable markets are bound to attract new competitors, but we must now allow ourselves to get discouraged, all we need to do is pay attention to those small details, that will make our brand stand out.

If you’re looking for more insight into brand growth, at the bottom of this page you’ll find more articles from our blog! Thank you for reading, and good luck with your venture!