Have you ever wondered why most of the big brands need to work extra hard to get their customers?
After studying about their corporate success, you will learn that you need to be better in at least three aspects if you want to beat your competitors. You must also possess a very good competitive marketing strategy.
If you are a small business owner, you may have already adapted to fit into your business model, so you may already be better than the big brands.
Even if your competitions are companies like Virgin, Coca-cola, and Tesco, you have to find a way to stand out. But, being cheaper might not be enough to beat your competition. Trying to compete on cost is a race to the bottom because as you squeeze your margins so paper-thin, that you are left with nothing.
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Let’s take Apple for example. After losing the PC fight to Microsoft, they remarkably went from the production of Mac 1 to the production of present-day cell phones. They stuck in the game, stood out from their competition, and went from a startup company to a corporate giant with dedicated customers continually ready to buy the next best thing.
How about it? If you can beat your competitors, you will have more market shares, more sales, and more loyal customers. Below are 6 practical and ultimate business strategies to beat top competitors in your industry.
Effective and Compelling Branding
Effective and efficient branding gives you a more realistic edge in the competitive market. Your kind of branding gives your customers an instant mental image and a quick definition of who you are and what you bring to the table.
Some of the best companies who offer similar kinds of products and services seem to lose the edge. The saddest part is that the customers are sick of seeing the same thing over and over again.
The only reason you can hold onto already existing customers and gain new clients is when your brand makes a difference.
Active business marketing and branding let you tone-up your product to the price of your choice.
Identify Your Competition
The first and foremost thing in business is to recognize the competition. The competition is further divided into three main categories:
The Competitors: This list includes you and your fellow manufacturers who are producing the same products and services matching your industry.
The Customers: It is just not possible to enter into a business competition without knowing who the customers are and exactly what they expect. Identifying your customers would help you to serve them with the very best services they need the most, as well as standing up to their expectations.
The End Goal: Your wins and losses depend entirely on your goals. Your goals would assist you in recognizing areas you need to compete in. How fast you reach success relies upon how quickly you establish this goal.
Stay Loyal To Your Customers
Another successful strategy to pick up a competitive edge in your industry is to keep up with your clients’ dedication. In short, stay loyal to your customers. Recent research demonstrates that devoted or loyal clients are worth ten times the estimation of their first purchase.
Likewise, given that it is six to seven times more costly to get a new customer than to keep up an existing one, maintaining client’s reliability is an absolute necessity for any brand that needs to stay competitive.
Your existing customers would be your competitor’s primary target as if they can persuade individuals that have known your image over to their side; it would be an indication of your weaknesses in your company’s services.
Realistic Discounts
To outshine fellow competitors, another compelling and widely used business strategy is to offer realistic discounts.
Providing potential customers with tremendous discounts time to time does not only improve your customer’s loyalty, but it also attracts new clients and boosts the reputation of your company.
For Instance;
- Most of the social media outlets offer seasonal bulletins and magazines to their customers.
- Even some auto transportation companies now offer their customers with cheap ways to ship their car.
Make life easier for your existing customers and entice new ones. However, trying to base your competition on cost alone is a race to the bottom, as customers tend to suspect the ingenuity of a product/service if discounts come too often. So watch out!
Boost Your Team’s Morale and Make Employees Happy
Do you know your employee’s affectivity, creativity, and collaboratively depend on how happy they are? A recent study by famous economists states that unhappy workers led to a 10% decrease in productivity whereas happiness has led to a 12% hike in their productivity.
You need to understand that your employees are not just one vital component of your business, but they are the HEART of your business. They must be managed well if you want to outshine your competitors.
Business is a numbers game which requires a collective effort. So, when you put in effort to make your employees happy, you make a positive workplace for your staff and ultimately your customers.
Brilliant Customer Service
Most of the big and small-scale firms find it really hard to provide the very best customer service. They tend to feed the maximum investment of attention and expense into getting new customers to stand by their brand and after the sales have been achieved, their service drops off.
By offering dedicated and excellent customer service, you ultimately start to beat top competitors in your industry.
Let your customer service agent be available 24/7 to address any customer’ issue as well as give quick solutions to any of the sales questions.
In Conclusion
The best business strategy of all is choosing what not to do. The rise of your business depends entirely on the step you take forward to maintain a competitive edge in your industry.
There is not a single entrepreneur who says he or she is not comfortable with competition. If you underestimate the competition, you will undoubtedly face hard times in keeping up with the business.
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However, just like a game, the business is a contest where even the smallest gain can determine whether you lose or win. Therefore, it is recommended that you should actualize these business strategies more regularly to remain over the competitors in your industry.
You should now be prepared to beat your competitors. Good luck!