Small companies often struggle to stand out from larger, more established competitors. But in today’s saturated, hyper-competitive business world, differentiating your brand is essential for long-term success.
So how can smaller businesses and freelancers make themselves more attractive to potential customers? In their efforts to create unique selling points and position more obviously in the broader market, many brands overlook the little things. But it’s often through seemingly unimportant gestures and practices that SMBs can make attention-grabbing, meaningful, and (perhaps most importantly) memorable impressions.
In this post, we’re going to look at how companies of all shapes and sizes can make simple changes to separate themselves from their competition. Let’s dive in.
1. Give Small Gestures of Appreciation
Sometimes the small things are the most impactful. Regularly letting clients know that you value them can have a lasting effect and will differentiate your brand as more personal and customer-centric. And, in the vast majority of cases, the cost of sending a gesture of appreciation is minimal.
Websites like Smilebox.com, for example, enable businesses to quickly and cost-effectively send an array of personalized messages, in the form of ecards, collages, videos, and more, to their clients. Keep track of important dates, like holidays, birthdays, and milestones in your business relationships, and share a little something special with your clients whenever appropriate.
2. Provide Greater Personalization
According to one study, 44% of customers said they would become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience. Personalization provides customers with tailored solutions and products that meet their needs more directly than generic alternatives.
What’s more, personalizing your customer journey needn’t be a complex process that requires large amounts of development resources. Small tweaks, like referring to customers by name in emails, sending appointment reminders, and displaying targeted product recommendations on your site, can significantly boost engagement. It’s also possible to provide greater personalization inexpensively and quickly with the use of third-party apps and “plug ‘n’ play” integrations.
3. Send Out a Regular Newsletter
Email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of promotion available to small businesses. And regularly sending out a newsletter is a fantastic way of nurturing your relationship with your customer base over the long-term.
Just make sure that your newsletters aren’t filled exclusively with advertising. Think about how you can create valuable content that will help your customers and set your brand apart from competitors.
If you want to go a step further, you can also think about segmenting your mailing list. This way, you can provide tailored content to your subscribers based on criteria like age, location, and other demographic data.
4. Implement a Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are becoming less common nowadays. Many businesses have sidelined them in favor of offering direct discounts. But research shows that loyalty programs do still work. If you’re looking for a way to boost customer lifetime value and provide incentives for customers to stick with your brand (instead of opting for competitors), then creating a loyalty scheme is a good option.
Loyalty programs don’t need to be complex, with numerous layers of rewards and convoluted points schemes. Coffee shops offer a good example. Customers receive a stamp for each purchase and are entitled to a free cup of coffee after they’ve acquired a specific number of stamps. Think about how you can offer a similar, low-cost scheme in your own business.
5. Rigorously Stick to Deadlines and Maintain Consistent Communication
Want a quick, easy hack that will instantly make you stand out from the vast majority of your competition? Stick to deadlines and communicate promptly.
If you’ve run your own business for any length of time, you’re likely no stranger to unresponsive suppliers. You know how frustrating poor communication can be.
Simply by providing a high standard of communication, you’ll set your business apart from the majority of alternatives in the market. Set clear standards—such as a maximum response time of twelve hours for emails—and create internal processes to ensure these standards are met.
6. Improve Your Customer Support Package
More and more businesses are differentiating themselves by offering extensive support packages. There are numerous ways that you can boost the overall quality of your customer service, such as by providing 24/7 support, live-chat through your websites, and improving the amount of online documentation relating to products and services.
Add if you’re thinking, “But I don’t have time to provide all those support options,” just remember that it’s possible to outsource customer support very inexpensively.
Conclusion
Running a business is difficult. Technologies like the web and smartphones have given consumers faster and much more comprehensive access to competitors. That’s why having a tested, rigorous strategy for differentiating your brand from other companies is essential.
Ensuring that you take care of smaller details, along with higher-level tasks like creating a unique selling point and positioning your brand, will mean that you have a much greater chance of impressing potential customers. It will also mean that your current customers aren’t enticed by the offer of better alternatives.
What’s more, an array of tools make the task of implementing new customer-facing processes like the ones outlined in this article inexpensive and straightforward.
Now, time to start writing your first e-card.
