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No matter the industry, your small business will contend with the competition. One of the first things we ask when meeting new clients is how they are positioned against competitors and the unique selling propositions (USPs) that give them an advantage. No matter your current market standing, knowing your strengths and weaknesses within your industry is critical for growth. Through market share analysis, you can identify your current business rivals and their current relative control of the market.
Know Areas For Improvement
One of the first questions you can answer is: is your industry generally growing or shrinking? In a growing industry, maintaining your current market share will naturally increase sales, but to maximize that effect, you will need to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (also known as a SWOT analysis) of your competitors. Conducting a SWOT analysis on your business and rivals is a tried and true method to organize the factors at play and inform your competitive advantages. Don’t be afraid to involve your employees when brainstorming a SWOT analysis! Being aware of your weaknesses and threats enable you to plan for them, and employees with different vantage points within your organization can provide you valuable insight when recruited for this effort.
Learn The Value Of Your USPs
Your employees can also help you better understand your target demographic and customer groups. Through your customer service interactions, a wealth of information may be at your disposal to discover frequent issues or points of confusion your employees may contend with. If your business is asked to price match frequently, that can indicate a more savvy customer base concerned with competitive pricing. Make sure to take every opportunity to display the benefits of purchasing from you versus lower-priced competitors. This is where marketing your unique selling propositions is vital. This video from Peak Design is a fantastic example, acknowledging higher prices while highlighting unique selling points, all in just over one minute! They demonstrate knowledge of their target market by drawing attention to awards won, social and ecological benefits, and positioning their product to back up the price tag.
Better Prepare to Tackle Barriers
If your business has been established for a while, take a look back at the barriers to entering your market for a new competitor. Do those barriers still exist? A fresh entrepreneur looking to build a competitive brand rivalry with your business may have a lot to learn about legal requirements, supplier relationships, building brand awareness, and other obstacles you have already overcome. There are likely barriers in front of you as an established business requiring capital investment that was inconceivable as a startup. The bargaining power you have with customers and suppliers is a critical aspect of your market position. Porter’s five forces analysis is valuable to further reading on this topic and more rigorous than SWOT analysis. The more growth-oriented goals you can establish and execute, the greater the distance between your business and competitors since they will have to discover and overcome those hurdles as well.
Help Focus On What’s Important
Perhaps the most important factor in the success of any small business is Focus. Massive retailers like Amazon dominate the market primarily due to their bargaining power enabling them to undercut prices and dominate markets by sheer scale. Small businesses have massive potential leverage by focusing on the specific needs of their target market. The effectiveness of that potential is limited by your investment in discovery and your ability to execute against those focus-based goals. Identifying those needs, knowing your customers, and developing an execution strategy to serve them better than your competitors are your keys to growth. Social Media campaigns succeed or fail largely based on how well you can demonstrate awareness of your target customer’s needs through those campaigns. Doing this effectively requires more investment than sending a feed of products to your Instagram. Take the time needed away from the daily grind to dig into these concepts and thoughtfully strategize!
If you need help demonstrating your small business’ focus and competitive advantage on your website or would like to thoughtfully strategize your marketing plan with us, give us a call at 678-402-6378 or email info@eystudios.com!