With so many companies fighting for the attention of consumers, it can be easy to be lost in background noise. Digital marketing is a highly competitive industry, and will require you to constantly update your strategy to be a top player. Fortunately, the digital marketing industry is also continually evolving. This means new ways of separating your company from the competition are being found daily. Here are a few unique tips you can use to bring your digital marketing strategy to the next level and beat your competition.
Find and Solve Your Customers’ Pain Points
The most effective way to separate yourself from competitors that share a similar target audience with your business is to find your customers’ pain points and solve them before they become obvious to them. Addressing the needs of your customers better than the competition is an easy way to set yourself up as a leading voice in your market. This is important because the leading brands of a market can dictate the conversation and force other companies into a game of catch-up.
Establishing your brand as a trusted voice in your industry can also make it easier to solve customers’ pain points without severe backlash. Think about when Apple decided to remove the headphone from all future iPhone models back in 2016. Even as the leading voice in the American smartphone industry, they still faced some backlash. But eventually, people began to see how smart this move was. Wireless headphones were about to explode onto the market and Apple had provided users with a sleek, easy way to connect to them. If Apple weren’t the technology giant that they are, there is a good chance that the backlash would have been enough to threaten the company seriously.
Build a Great Corporate Culture
Companies that focus on creating an inclusive and healthy corporate culture enjoy a few additional benefits compared to those that don’t. For instance, brands with a great corporate culture generally have a more positive reputation with consumers. This means you can actually increase brand recognition and improve brand perception simply by treating your employees well. And this positive brand perception doesn’t only affect consumer behavior. You’ll likely notice an improvement in worker attitude and behavior as well. The logic here is fairly straightforward, talented employees want to work for a company that values them. Worker loyalty and engagement are likely to improve as a company’s corporate culture grows.
Building a great corporate culture requires you to invest in your employees. An easy way to do this is to offer opportunities to join programs that further develop their skills. Professional corporate training provides employees an opportunity to improve themselves, and shows workers you intend to invest in them. For instance, leadership development consulting can help your senior executives become more effective leaders. Incentivize these professional training courses to ensure these courses are being taken advantage of by your team.
Find Your Niche in the Market
One marketing tip that can never go understated is to find your niche in the market. This is especially true for smaller companies and businesses dealing in highly competitive markets. To find your niche in the market, you’ll need to analyze your company closely. Ask yourself and your executive team questions that get to the core of who your company is.
Here are a few questions that may help you identify a worthwhile market niche:
- What does our product do that the competition doesn’t?
- Who would most benefit from our products?
- What messaging does our target audience respond/relate to?
- Where can we engage with our target audience?
Once you’ve found your market niche you need to hold on to it. Your company can do this by focusing its marketing efforts on consumers within your niche. For example, let’s say a bike store has found that their store caters more effectively to high-end cyclists. They could defend their stake in this niche by marketing specifically to experienced cyclists that purchase expensive, high-end biking gear.
Promote Eco-friendly Practices
In recent years, consumer activism has grown in popularity. This is a practice where shoppers will go out of their way to support brands and businesses that actively care about the same social movements as they do. This includes spending more money, driving further distances, and sharing their perceptions of their company with other consumers. One of the leading social movements that consumers want companies to value is the protection of the environment. Showing that your company is doing its part to protect the environment will improve the public’s perception of your brand. For example, eCommerce companies can offer green shipping services to lessen the impact of delivery on the environment.