News Newsletter March 2010 What’s Your Competitive Edge?
What’s Your Competitive Edge?
Written by Linda Grubish - That's My Idea Marketing!
As the economy and housing boom era have changed, I find myself working with more contractors who want to be sure they are marketing in places that will pay off for them.While you may already have strategies that are proven for your business, a few more ideas never hurt when it comes to marketing. Business and the way people communicate is an ever changing adventure for both the marketing professional and business owner.
During 2010, we will explore ten things I feel every business should know about marketing effectively.
This month's topic is all about knowing your competitive edge and understanding your competition's edge.
If I ask 10 business owners to tell me in one sentence or less what makes their business better than the competition, nine of them will say: "we give outstanding customer service." While customer service is a critical factor in the success of a business, this is typically not a competitive edge to base your marketing pieces on. It's over used and not specific.
Your competitive edge is unique to you and your business. It's the spin that helps your buyer make the decision to go with you and not someone else. It is a set of specific things that your business does better than others.
A better way to use customer service as a competitive advantage is to look at something specific like an on-time rate for customer appointments. This describes a very specific, tangible thing that you do better than others in your industry.
Step one to good marketing is to specifically define the things your business is really good at doing.
Step two then would be to define who your competition is and then analyze what they say they do better than everyone else. Remember to look for the specific points they note. These are things that could actually sway a buyer one way or the other in a purchasing decision.
The Internet is a great place to start this search. Key in popular descriptions for your industry and see who comes up. Decide if these are the people you end up in bidding situations with on a regular basis.
Looking at their websites will give you excellent insight into what they note as their competitive advantages.
With a defined list of your competition you can begin building a file of advertising they use. Knowing this gives insight into where you too may want to put marketing dollars.
By defining both your company strengths as well as your competition's, you have a much better place to begin from when crafting your marketing messages and determining what strategies to use for your marketing.
This is the first in a series of marketing articles by Linda Grubish, owner of That's My Idea! Marketing, LLC, www.thatsmyideamarketing.com. 651-739-5638 Remember the grand prize winning member in MEA membership drive receives a marketing makeover from That's My Idea! Marketing!
