• June 18, 2019
• on Business Tips, Marketing
• by TLj Creative Marketing

7 Things to Make Your Business Unique

If you’re starting a business you always want to make sure you stand out. You want people to know who you are and you want to make sure that they understand what you have to offer. You also want them to know that what you’re offering is different (and better) than what your competitors are offering. And just how are you going to do that? Well, that’s what this article is all about – showcasing what makes your business unique.

Why Do You Need to Be Unique?

Let’s start with something that’s really important. It’s extremely important for you to be unique because you want people to choose your business instead of your competition. You need people to recognize that you’re the one that they should buy from or you’re the one that they should trust to get the content that they need. If they do, it means that you’re going to constantly gain loyal follower or maybe even a brand new customer or two. If they don’t see how unique you are, they’re more than likely not going to see any reason to choose you over someone else.

When you look at the market, how many other people are doing what you’re doing? If you’re in roofing, how many other people in your area are doing roofing? If you’re selling handmade scarves online, how many other people are doing the same thing? Those are all the companies that you compete with. Some of them might have more experience than you, some of the companies will be larger, and some of them are going to have higher or lower prices than you. So, in cases like this, you will have to be more creative in how you set yourself apart from them (and not just with your prices).

Creating a competitive edge is going to be what makes your business unique and it can happen in a number of different ways. That’s what’s going to get people to come to need what you sell. They need to be able to see something in you that they don’t see somewhere else.

We’ll talk about a few different ways you can make sure that you’re offering that ‘something else’, but for now, you should know that it’s important that there is a “something else”. If there isn’t, they’re going to skim through the options and they’re probably going to make a choice that’s based on price or which service popped up first. That’s definitely not how you want the business to be decided.

What Makes Your Business Unique?

Once you know that being unique is important, it’s time to look at how you can actually become unique. Just opening up a business and offering a product or service isn’t enough. You need to distinguish yourself and that can be difficult for anyone to accomplish.

We’re going to look at a total of 7 different things that you could be doing to make your business different. Each of these 7 things is going to require you to put in some effort, but if you do, you’re going to reap all kinds of rewards. Whether you’re looking to run a fully online business or something that is partially online and partially physical, you’re definitely going to need to check out and implement at least a one of these tips and tricks to get yourself off and running.

 

1. Be An Expert in Your Field

Anyone can set up an online shop and start selling products or services, but if you can establish yourself as an expert, a true expert,  you and your business will become more desirable. You don’t need to be the absolute best in all areas of your business, but there should be something that you do better than anyone else in your field. If you’re in event planning, maybe you’re a true artist at arranging flowers or arranging tables, and that could be the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else. Even better, that one skill could get people to book you as an event planner just to get your flower arranging skills.

Providing high-quality content and sharing your information and your knowledge with others is another way to market yourself as an expert. You can create things like books, podcasts, videos, training materials, courses, etc. that show people how much you know about your field. Also, providing free content lets them see what you have to offer and makes them even more likely to purchase something from you. Everyone then should easily recognize that what makes your business unique is the high quality that you provide.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Specialize

Many people think they have to create a broad category of services in order to succeed, but that’s actually not the case at all. Rather, what you might want to do is narrow down your focus so you have a smaller target market. It might seem harder initially for you to make a lot of money focusing on smaller markets. In the long run, once you establish yourself as an expert in a niche, you will stand out. It’s going to make it easier to provide exactly what that target market is actually looking for because you’re not distracted by other products or offers.

When you have a larger target market, you can easily be pulled off in different areas.  Stop trying to create products that stray away from what you really want to do but fit what the customers want from you. When you have a narrow target market, you can start building specific skills and specific content, products, services, and more that focus on them. You’ll be able to closely watch the things that specific customers care about and start expanding your offerings in those areas. Stop trying to appeal to far too many people all at the same time.

Maybe instead of talking about motherhood, you talk specifically about raising a child while avoiding chemicals and toxins, for example. By narrowing your focus you’re also going to have the opportunity to get to know your customers better, which offers them better service and support, making them more likely to return again and again.

3. Build a Top-Notch Website

The website that you have for your business is a crucial part of the process. Your website is one of the biggest ways people are going to find you. But finding you isn’t the only piece of the puzzle. Once they find your website you need to have a way to keep them there, right? Having an amazing website is going to help with that process and it’s definitely going to set you apart from your competitors. Far too many people think that just creating a website is enough and so they settle for something subpar. That’s definitely not what you want to do.

You need a website that’s going to look great because people decide within the first 8 seconds whether they’re going to stay on a website or not. That decision is based on a cursory glance at what the website in question has to offer. A quick glance at the color scheme, layout and headings is all they can get in 8 seconds. After that, they’re going to look at things like navigation and whether they can find the content they’re looking for. If visitors can’t find the information that they want quickly, the prettiest website in the world won’t keep them with you.

READING SUGGESTION: DIY Websites, Yay or Nay?

4. Make Them An Offer They Can’t Refuse

Sometimes it just takes the perfect offer to make someone decide to say yes and that goes for the customers in your niche as well.

No matter what it is you’re selling, sometimes people just want to hold out for that perfect, can’t ignore it anymore, deal. They’re looking for something so great that they just have to jump on it. Of course, the perfect offer may vary from one niche to the next, or one type of product or service to the next. Keep in mind you absolutely first have to accurately learn what your customers want. Then, work out exactly how you’re going to provide it to them.

Look at what type of offers your customers seem to like most. Maybe it’s a special price that’s much lower than normal. Maybe it’s a freebie to go along with the item that they’re looking at. Whatever it is, it’s going to help you get another sale and it happens because you’re paying attention to your customers and their wants. Once they make that first purchase, it’s a whole lot easier to encourage them to purchase something again in the future.

5. Make it Easy for Them

Customers want to be able to find the things that they want. To start with, that means they want the website to be easy to navigate. The key to this is making sure that you have search bars and easily scannable content. Another thing that they want is to be able to get help when they need it. You need to provide them with information that they want to know, products or services that they’re going to love and definitely communication. When they do want to talk to you, make sure that they can.

Having multiple methods for contact is always an important thing because customers want to reach out in the way that they are most comfortable. For some people, that means they want to reach out over the internet, through email. Some want to be able to get instant help through chat or a phone call. The more options you have the better it’s going to be for your customers. The easier it is for them the more you’re going to know what makes your business unique is being there when you’re needed.

6. Give Back

Giving back is becoming even more important right now. More and more people are starting to look for ways to support causes that they care about. If they can do that through you, it’s going to create one more reason for them to pick you over your competition. First, choose the organization or charity that your business is going to support. Next, decide how much you’re going to donate and for what (buying a specific service, buying any service, etc.). Make all of your decisions and then write up something for your front page to let customers know all about it.

By giving back you’re supporting an organization that you care about and you’re helping others. Whether your cause is cancer research, saving the whales, or providing water in third world countries, it’s all good! It doesn’t matter what you choose to support, you’re making the world a better place and you’re inviting your customers to do the same thing. That definitely makes for an amazing experience and it’s going to help people want to buy from you even more. After all, they want to support good causes too, and you will be helping them do it.

7. Be You

You are going to be different from whoever owns the competition. It doesn’t matter if your twin owns your biggest competition, they are not you. Only you can run your business with your unique perspective. Far too many businesses want to focus on providing exactly what everyone else does because they think that’s what the customer expects. Except, if you’re offering exactly what the next person is, how are you going to prove that you’re the best fit for the customer? When you let a little bit of you, the real you, sneak into your business, it’s going to help people feel like they can relate to you a little bit more. That’s going to make them feel closer to you and more like you’re the best person for them to work with.

You need to open your business up to the possibilities and you need to showcase some of your own uniqueness. Let that personality show people what you have to offer and just why you’re different from the others who offer the same product or service. They can easily fall in love with your personality if you let them, and then you’ve got a customer for life. You’ve also got an instant feature that’s going to make you different and that no one else can copy.

Bonus: Under Promise and Over Deliver

Most businesses want to make huge promises to their customers. They tell them all these great things they’re going to do and use those promises to draw someone in. And then they fall behind. They don’t get the job done on time. They don’t provide the experience they said they would. The customer ends up disappointed because the company made a common mistake of overpromising on something that they couldn’t deliver on. They over promised and under delivered.

The best thing that you can do is flip the script. Make promises to your customers but purposely keep them a little on the smaller side. Tell them you’ll have their custom piece finished in 3 weeks when you know you can get it done in 2. Tell them you’ll email them back within 48 hours when you always respond within 24. By under promising and then over delivering you’re showing your customers that you really are the best at what you do. You’re giving the customer added benefits and bonuses by choosing you. You’re making sure that they’re not disappointed. It’s easy to feel disappointed when someone makes a big promise and then doesn’t deliver as expected. However, when they make a small promise and then give you something big, that feels amazing! That’s a great way to stand out in the crowd.

No matter what type of business you’re starting or growing, the most important thing that you can do is make it unique. Presenting yourself in a way that sets you apart from others is going to help you draw in more customers and it’s going to help you continue to grow and expand your business in a million different ways. Surviving in this market is definitely all about what makes your business unique and if you can leverage that uniqueness in the best way possible, you’re definitely going to be off to the right start. It’s just about figuring out which of these methods you’re going to use (though, hopefully, you’ll be able to implement all of them). Your quality, products, and services are going to make your customer happy they chose you in the end, but you have to get them to that point first. That’s going to take a little more effort.

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For assistance with website strategy or social media marketing, contact Tisha Littlejohn at 312 798 9332 or info@tljcreativemarketing.com.

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