“Making it” gives you the “authority” and advantage over other competing companies. When your name and brand are recognized as a company, you are sought out and talked about by consumers, industry gurus, specialists, news and blog outlets, etc. Your job becomes easier in terms of reaching out, viral marketing and connecting to the public.

Trying to compete with that is not easy task for small companies. But everyday smaller businesses emerge with bigger, brighter ideas to shift the focus on them rather than their rather large, recognizable counterparts. There may be some small segment in society that likes to maintain a certain uniqueness by looking and purchasing from smaller companies that can give them that edge.

Smaller companies can’t rely on that though, so this begs the question: how can small companies reel in and appeal to the majority of clients that only trust the bigger, famous brand names?

It’s a matter of branding, your value, and how you market yourself. There are countless examples of companies that went against the biggest dogs in the industry but prevailed because they had an excellent marketing strategy and a killer value proposition that set them apart from everybody else. These are a few golden rules that give smaller companies an edge over the competition:

1. Understand what value you bring to your visitors first: Understanding what brings value to buyers is the first step to success. You may think that your product or service are great (and they may be great), but the reality is, not everyone thinks or knows so. You’ve got to stop talking about how great you are and focus in on what value you bring them and why would they choose you over competitors. Sit and brainstorm how you want to brand yourself in order to set your business apart from competitors.

Searching for homeware I landed on this site. Now we all know that there are the Walmarts that offer everything under the sun, so to compete with that you’ve got to do more than say: “Everything…for the smart shopper.” With first mover’s advantage and a similar value proposition, Walmart would be getting the majority of shoppers that are looking for great prices because they’ve branded themselves as the place that offers everything for bargain prices. The folks at SmartShoppingUSA.com may want to brand their value a bit differently to draw attention and uniqueness to what they have to offer.

2. Display that value proposition everywhere: When it comes to your website, state the value proposition early on so as visitors enter your website they know they are in the right place, and they can see that you truly will give them exactly what they are looking for.

StacksandStacks.com “the homewares place” does a good job here listing the value proposition right upon entering the site. They can de-clutter the homepage a bit, but, again, if I were to land on this page I know what they offer and that I can most likely find what I’m looking for within the homewares space.

3. Market, Market, Market yourself: Just having a great product or service is not enough, you need to market the hell out of whatever it is you are selling. You are competing with big and small companies, so you have got to persuade visitors that you are the best. So market by any means:

• Paid advertising methods: don’t bid on competitive words unless you are willing to pay. It doesn’t make sense to spend a measly amount a day and end up being displayed at the very end of the list.
• A website that is optimized and converts: Millions of dollars on an online platform did nothing for Motorola because they did not have an optimized site that was created with the user in mind.
• Promotions and incentives: Be innovative like Zappo’s offering free shipping "both ways," or like endless.com with their urgency tactics that encourage users to buy. Offering free items is also a valuable tactic that creates "buzz" and gets things to go "viral." This worked extremely well for us when we started selling our book, the first couple of weeks visitors to our site had the opportunity to receive the book free and even sometimes at an extremely discounted price.
• Social media networking: this is a great means on the web to generate talk about who you are and more importantly, what you have to offer. Get in touch with people within your industry, twitter your heart out, engage others on forums or social networks like Linkedin.
• Contact prospects by any means: Calling, e-mailing, faxing, etc.

Steve Kaplan mentions in the book "Bag The Elephant!" how when he first started it was him and the phone. He would devote his entire day to just "selling." He achieved this through calling over 100 calls per day and sometimes within only one company going up the chain of command.

The point is, when you are at a disadvantage, you’ve got to work even harder which is sometimes the best thing that could have ever happened to you.

Tags: Branding, marketing, value-proposition
Posted in Business, Sales & Marketing