In business, a little competition is a good thing. It’s an engine that will push you to achieve, to never be satisfied with standing still and make sure you’re always bounding out of bed in the morning, ready to find that innovation that will keep you a step ahead.
Too much competition can be difficult to deal with though. If you’re trying to make your mark in a market that feels saturated, whether that’s by too many companies vying for customer’s attention or one monolithic brand that’s synonymous with the product and eats up all the available oxygen for marketing and publicity, it can feel impossible to even get started.
Today we’re offering a few hints that could help you stand out from the crowd and capture your own loyal audience that will provide the engine to power your business to greater and greater heights.
Inside Knowledge
You need to be basing your strategy on knowledge, not just of your market and customers, but direct knowledge of what your competitors are doing.
Anything that could be significant to you is likely to be a closely guarded secret, and not something your peers are going to let slip over the bar at a conference – but don’t let that stop you networking and using any insights you’re able to acquire.
What you need is a professional Competitor Research company. They can look at what your competitors are doing, from hiring patterns to social media engagement and marketing and put together a picture of what’s going on behind the scenes.
This is vital. One of the most dangerous things that can happen is for you to launch a product or a marketing campaign at the same time as your competitor. If you’ve readied yourself for a battle, you might find there’s a winner and it could even be you, though as DC has proved with their cinematic efforts it’s difficult to dethrone an existing champion. If the clash happens by mistake it will simply draw the impact from both campaigns and leave consumers confused and unable to make up their mind.
A strong competitor research campaign means you’re able to adapt your timetable to showcase your new projects at the best possible time, and get the maximum attention from the public. It is this attention that will translate into sales and make back your investment, turning a project from a black hole into a success.
