Fighting for attention and mindshare in a crowded market? It can sometimes feel impossible, right? You’ve been fighting against your local competitors for years, trying to convince customers that your business can meet their needs better than that other guy. With the Web and social media, it feels harder than ever to be more competitive.
Be more competitive.
Applying state-of-the-art tools and processes is widely seen as a mark of excellence. So, perhaps not surprisingly, “best practice” is one of those terms that you constantly hear in corporate circles. Managers often see implementing them as key to their performance.
Yet many experts point out that adopting so-called best practices can stifle your ability to innovate. After all, once you designate a particular way of doing things as “best,” who is going to question it? And if nobody questions it, it won’t be improved.
Still, even keeping those objections in mind, best practices can be immensely valuable, if approached with open eyes and good sense. The truth is that much like any business process, they’re only as good as the managers who implement them. While many do use best practices as a crutch, they can also be used as a platform from which to innovate.
Even if you’re not competing on product, you’re competing on attention. To stand out, you need to be more present than all the like competitors out there.
And it can be done, believe me.
Whether you’re just starting out or you’d like to increase your presence in your market, below are tips to help your small business stand out on the Web.
Be Specific About Who You Are
Standing out in a sea of competition means giving people something to remember. To do that, be specific about who you are.
Maybe you’re a local print shop that only uses recycled inks or papers. Or you use a process that others don’t.
You’re a caterer who only uses locally-grown meat and vegetables. Or you’re the most expensive guy in town because of how elaborate your events are.
Who you are in business, create your marketing story, and work that into your marketing strategy. Where businesses get lost is when they’re unable to define themselves and what’s different about the way they do business. Know what’s different about you and then talk about it. Talk about it a lot.
Search and Listen
My first effort would be to find local prospects. I’d start with Google Blog search, putting in local town names, to see who’s blogging in the area. I’d use Twitter Search to find some more folks. I’d look around for other sources, like local online newspapers.
You can even do some clever google work. Once I had a decent list, I’d start determining who, if any of them, are actually prospects. Just because they’re local doesn’t mean they fit the other criteria. Break the list down a bit more from there.
Promotion
You need a home base. I’d recommend a blog, but even a static website is better than nothing. Then, I’d see whether or not you can get listings with any other local businesses, any local groups related to the field, possibly even the Chamber of Commerce.
Make your site a combination of explanations of your business and the value you provide, as well as a chance to get to know a bit more about you. Personalized businesses like this, especially a body that works business like massage means that people want to know more about you, want to get a sense of who you are, and want to understand what matters to you.
If you’ve got a blog, consider doing video so that people can see even more about you. It’s a great way to add some promotional oomph.
From here, you might start reaching out to outposts. Facebook might be a tricky place to pick up business when starting. It’s not like a bunch of people will rush in and join the massage company fan page.
That said, you can always try. Twitter might work better, insofar as people speak more openly there, there’s serendipity, there are more chances to find new people without “friending” first.
Successful leaders work backward
Don’t start from where you are and go forward, because there is an infinite number of directions you can take. Instead, work backward from where you want to get – your vision for your business. That will help you choose which road you take.
Small business owners are often guilty of not thinking strategically
More often than not, the path you originally envisioned for your business is not the one you end up taking – life happens while you’re making other plans; even when you’re doing a great job of working backward, things change. Every one of the little nudges of the course you think you’ve embarked on has an impact.
It’s absolutely essential to lift yourself out of the fray of the day-to-day and ask yourself where you’re at and what the implications for the business might be. Because you can guarantee that if you don’t do that, nobody else will.
Be an educational hub
In case you haven’t noticed, we are in the middle of a content marketing revolution. And that’s something you need to be a part of. Regardless of what industry you serve, setting yourself up to be THE educational hub on the topic is going to help you win favor and reputation in your space.
For example, in my corner of the world, Search Engine Land is the hub for everything Internet marketing-related. That means when I’m looking for information, I go there. When I need a source for a story, I go there. When I need an expert opinion, I go there.
See power? Setting yourself up as that hub by focusing on creating resource guides, putting out consistent authoritative content, and being seen participating in subject matter webinars/conferences/interviews will help you to establish trust and visibility. Two things vital to your success online.
Sure, you’re going to establish yourself as a resource by the educational content you provide on your Web site, but don’t stop there. Make time to be on Twitter participating in chats, fields questions on LinkedIn, respond to comments on other blogs, guest post on niche sites, etc.
By providing content and being seen on sites outside of just your own, you establish yourself as a subject-matter expert. While we can all understand the desire to hoard all your knowledge on your own site, let it go. You’ll be rewarded in the form of referrals, new traffic, and business karma.
Have a vision you can articulate
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which road you take.”
So, rule one: once you know where you want to go, make sure everyone in the business understands that vision.
With employees, hire slowly, fire quickly
In a small entity, you have to have people who are a good fit, otherwise, the culture suffers.
Yeah, yeah, you already know you’re supposed to be on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, but don’t just be there, really use them. Use these channels to do market research on your industry, use them to interact and ask questions, and use them to make yourself part of your customers’ everyday lives and their routine.
This is very often the difference between the local café I frequent and the one I just know about – it’s that the owner has taken the time to chat with me on Twitter or they let me know what’s fresh out of the oven on Facebook. These things matter. They especially matter in a business where everything is based on relationships.
There’s a great cafe in my hometown called Francesca’s Cafe. I go there in part because the food is delicious and cost-effective, but I also go because the owner,
Francesca tweets me when she has a fresh stock of pumpkin syrup for my lattes or when blueberry muffins have come out of the oven. These little bits of humanization are powerful and things customers latch onto and remember.
Simplify
Remember that too many marketing messages confuse customers, especially as you spread them across various social media channels. Try to pare down to three choices in all aspects of your marketing, from how many fonts you use to how many times you follow up.
Simplify.
In any small business, everybody’s busy all the time
Regardless of your goals, in small business, you’re all wearing multiple hats because you don’t have specialists. As a consequence, everyone has to understand the broader picture or they won’t have the tools they need to do the job they weren’t hired to do but are doing anyway.
It’s essential for the owner to sit down with every new employee and contractor and make sure that they understand the business the way that he or she does.
Leadership means asking for help
Most small business failures – including the failure to achieve your full potential – stem from making entirely preventable mistakes. It’s not surprising because for most owners this is the first time they’ve run a business.
Thriving businesspeople build networks that enable them to draw on others’ experience and knowledge. The really successful ones do it before they get into trouble – and are never afraid or embarrassed to turn to their networks for help.
Be what’s missing
…okay, so we’re not all sure what’s different about us or who we are in the niche. If you’re looking for a place to start, identify what’s missing. Map out your competition and look at their price points, their offerings, how they (appear) to do what they do, and find the holes.
Is there a segment of the population they’re ignoring? Is there a process they’re not doing? Is there room for you to identify yourself as being an alternative to the norm?
Keep your eyes open for opportunities that your competitors are missing.
Those are just a handful of ways I’d encourage small businesses to make themselves stand out online. What other techniques do you use? What’s worked in helping you find your audience?
The bottom line
The moral of this story is that most of these small businesses can be more competitive. Their mistakes are easily understood and correctable. When the corrections are implemented well, they will have a great influence on your team competitiveness.
If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.
Which of these success lessons stand out to you like the most critical? Do you have any other thoughts of effective leaders worthy of mention? Leave a comment and share your insights with us and other readers. We would be most interested in your thoughts.
It is east,
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on small business from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Are you aware of the impact of habits highly successful leaders share? You know, the ones for positivethinking and your personal development? But how to best build these habits and this positive attitude is another matter, isn’t it?
Habits highly successful leaders share.
People often lament that despite their best efforts, they just cannot seem to get, and stay, organized. Even though they’ve been working at it diligently and have tried many strategies, nothing seems to stick. So how do organized people stay organized?
People often say that “nothing succeeds like success,” and, to a certain extent, that’s true. Successful companies get good press, find it easier to win new business as well as procure and retain top talent.
However, with success also comes growth and that brings its own set of challenges, especially for young companies. Often, it sends promising new stars into a tailspin from which they never recover.
There are lots out there to advise companies on how to be successful, but very little about how to manage the growth success brings. I’ve spent most of my career building entrepreneurial companies, done several turnarounds after things went awry, and uncovered some common problems as well as some successful solutions.
Over the years, I’ve noticed they have twelve habits in common. Here they are:
Listen much more than you talk
The most likable people know that it’s not worth offending people by expressing everything they know, even if they are true. You should pay close attention to someone speaking to you.
Keep an open mind
Those who close themselves off from certain ideas and associate only with like-minded people are missing out on not only personal growth but also opportunities for advancing their careers.
Elaborate organizational systems are hard to maintain and not worth the effort most of the time. It’s not necessary to color-code file folders by subject or activities on a calendar by a relative. The effort far outweighs the benefits.
Trying to keep your child’s toy reptiles separated from his toy mammals is also not worth your time. A bin for plastic toys will do. If the way you’ve organized something is too complicated and requires too many steps, it will be frustrating to maintain, which is the opposite of what you want.
Exceptional leaders.
Develop routines
Develop a morning or evening routine for tasks that happen daily or weekly. Maybe you open the mail every night after dinner or update your calendar and to-do list each morning before breakfast. If your mornings are hectic, make sure your work bag is packed before you go to bed.
Recycle yesterday’s newspaper each morning when you get a new one. Pay your bills every Saturday morning. Regular maintenance and short spurts of organizing will save you a lot of time later. Do your best to stick with your routine. But if you skip a day or two, that’s fine. Just try to resume as soon as you can.
Maintain patience
The proper timing of your words and acts will give you a big advantage over people who are impatient.
For example: Don’t click send on the email right away — breathe and reread it. The classic example would be getting irate and sending something with hostility.
Much of real happiness is a matter of being aware of what you’re doing while you’re doing it — and enraged people aren’t typically conscious of their actions.
Have a place for everything, and put everything in its place
This sounds easy and obvious, but it is neither. Establish a spot for a specific category of stuff, because it’s impossible to put things away if you don’t know where they belong. Make sure the spot is convenient, practical and has enough space to accommodate the items you want to put there.
If your dresser drawers are overflowing or there is no room to hang clothes in your closet, then your clothes don’t have a “place.” Likewise, if your filing cabinet is crammed and you can’t fit new papers inside, you’ll be less likely to file. Also, don’t set something down temporarily. Take a few extra seconds to put it where it belongs. Every time.
Keep a current and detailed to-do list
Even though it may seem as if organized people manage their lives with little effort, it takes a fair amount of planning. One of the secrets is keeping detailed to-do lists for daily tasks and longer-term projects. If you prefer to write things down, a small notebook works best because it keeps everything together and allows you to reference old tasks.
Avoid using loose sheets of paper that can be lost, and carry the notebook with you. If you use the tasks or notes features on your phone or computer, keep your lists current and consolidate them with your paper lists regularly. Give yourself deadlines if that helps you to complete items.
Habits highly successful leaders share … don’t fear failure
People admire those who grow from failure rather than wallow in it. Express your gratitude for having gained a measure of success.
The most likable people use conversations as an opportunity to learn about another person and give them time to share a story.
Be genuine in praise
Praise the good traits of others without being excessive.
Don’t get bogged down by perfectionism
There is a common misperception that all organized people are perfectionists. Although this may ring true for some, many organized people realize they can’t possibly do everything perfectly and get everything done.
They prioritize tasks and learn where and how to take shortcuts and how to complete tasks quickly. They don’t get mired in projects that will be impossible to finish on time. In other words, they don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.
Toss things daily and purge routinely
Organized people don’t wait for a free weekend or an upcoming move to get their homes in order. They are constantly throwing things away, reevaluating their possessions and tidying their houses.
They may take five minutes each night to clear papers off the kitchen counter or 10 minutes while dinner is cooking to clean out the refrigerator. When they return home with groceries, they quickly scan items in their pantry to toss any expired or nearly empty containers and clean off their desks at night’s end. Organizing is not a separate event. It is a part of their day.
As you dig out of the chaos of the holidays and begin to think about how to be more organized and efficient in the future, try to make one or two of these strategies your standard practice. If you can do that, you’ll be on your way to an organized year.
Successful leaders in business … always keep their cool
Maintain your composure in all circumstances. Overreaction to things either positive or negative can give people a poor impression. Always remember that silence may be much more effective than angry words.
Successful people don’t pretend to be likable; they are likable because they show care for others. Having a confidant who can be completely honest with you allows continued growth.
Reflect at the end of every day
Most of the time, heading out of the office is the time for rehearsing everything that went wrong that day. We recommend also reflecting on what went well. That way you do not deny that some things went poorly, but you’re getting a richer picture of what happened.
The bottom line
Many of these are habits that we already know, of course. They are not rocket science and shouldn’t be.
This list of little things simply reminds us of what we have forgotten. Then it is up to us to put these lessons (or reminders) into daily use through persistence and practice.
Remember … your experience and learning trumps all!
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategyg?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
