How To Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors Without Competing on Price
I was watching Squawk Box on CNBC the other morning while I was eating breakfast. The producer price index numbers had just been released. They indicated the biggest jump in the producer price index since 1981. So the big talk was stagflation.
Stagflation is usually described as producer prices rising while the economy is in recession. There was a lot of the usual "talking head" nonsense belaboring the obvious. But then something interesting happened.
Their guest commentator Jack Welch (former chairman of General Electric) was asked a simple question by Steve Leesman, an economist with the show:
“How does a business pass on these price increases in a stagflation situation?”
Jack replied, “The only thing you can do is product differentiation. You have to set yourself and your product apart from your competitors.”
In other words, you can’t raise your prices if you’re selling a commodity.
Okay, so now you’re probably thinking this article doesn’t apply to you because your product or service isn’t a commodity. Guess again. Unless you happen to have no competitors, your product or service can easily be treated like a commodity by your market.
Let me give you an example:
I write restaurant reviews for TwinCitiesDiningGuide.com. I start with an interview of the owner or the chef and 75% of the time I hear the same old thing:
“We use only fresh ingredients”
“Everything is made from scratch”
“We have friendly staff/low staff turnover”
Talk about belaboring the obvious. If I go to a restaurant, those are the basic things I expect. Sometimes, if I poke and prod enough, I can pull out a few things that really are unique or different that I can build a story around. And sometimes I can’t.
In those cases, I look the place over from a marketer’s standpoint and figure it out for myself.
Pretty much what I have do with many of my copywriting clients.
Lessons in down and dirty marketing in the real world
The lesson here? You may think your product or service is unique or special but if you don’t communicate that to your customers, the only thing left to compete on is price. And when you compete on price, everybody loses.
Another example:
A web designer client recently asked me to write copy for an accounting site. When he got my quote, he complained.
“Why so much? It’s just an accounting site. They’re all the same. You can copy the words off any site, rewrite ‘em a bit and you’re done.”
Yes, I could do that for a lot of my clients and get away with it. IF I want to be a commodity.
I’ll give you one more example.
I wrote the copy for a plastics manufacturing firm’s new website. When I interviewed the president of the company to really dig out what made them different, what their ‘unique selling proposition’ was, he gave me a list of his competitors and told me to go look at their websites. “We all do pretty much the same thing.”
Your first step to REAL product or service differentiation
Go to your competitor’s websites. Look with a jaundiced eye; not rose colored glasses. Do all of your websites tend to look the same? Do they generally say the same things?Then sit down with a pad of paper, think about your competitors and ask yourself:
1. What sets us apart from all of them?
2. What makes us totally unique?
3. What do we do, sell, or have that makes us completely different?
4. If our product is the same as everyone else’s, what service can we offer that will set us apart? What outrageous guarantee can we offer that no one else would dare?
5. If our service is the same as our competitors, what product or service can we pair with it that will set us apart? What convenience for the customer can we create that none of our competitors offers?
6. And while you’re at it, make sure you’re looking from the standpoint of a potential client or customer, not as an owner.
Now, follow this link to a free questionnaire you can download that will guide you to find your true USP so the next time you work with a marketing firm, a web designer or a professional copywriter, they won’t have to figure out for themselves what truly sets your product or service apart from your competitors. You’ll know.
Search engine optimization or getting people to your website, will be covered in the April '08 newsletter.
Can Social Networks Really Help You Build Your Business or Career?
By Pamela Grover of Design Tech
Have you ever received an email with the subject line of “Join my network on LinkedIn”? Have you ever wondered what LinkedIn is and how it could help you?
If you haven’t heard about LinkedIn and have a professional work life, I encourage you to read on.
What is LinkedIn?
As stated on their Web site at LinkedIn.com, “LinkedIn is an online network of more than 19 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.” It’s built on social-networking concepts and principles but it is a professional-networking site.
You create a profile which is like an online resume and you’re encouraged to invite trusted professionals to join your network. Through your network, LinkedIn states that you can:
• Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
• Be found for business opportunities
• Search for great jobs
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings
• Find high-quality passive candidates
• Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know
LinkedIn is free to join. They also offer a premium service that starts at $19.95 per month.
So what about FaceBook, the second largest social networking service next to MySpace? It's totally conceivable for people to have profiles on both LinkedIn and Facebook, but they are using them for very different purposes.
According to the CEO of LinkedIn, Dan Nye, the average age of LinkedIn users is 41 and they have an income of over $100,000. LinkedIn is clearly trying to connect with people on a professional level.
So what other features does LinkedIn provide? Here are just a few:
• InMail
InMail is a brokered communication channel through which you can send business and career opportunities to LinkedIn users. You can contact users directly, but you will not see the name or contact information of recipients who are not in your network until they reply and approve your InMails.
• Introductions
Introductions let you contact users in your network, through the people you know. If you want to contact a LinkedIn user who is two or three degrees away from you, you can request an introduction through one of your connections.
• Questions
Grouped in various categories, members can ask questions and/or answer questions.
• Recommendations
You can request, receive and review others’ recommendations.
• Jobs
You can easily receive or send job opportunities. A while section is dedicated to a job search and posting jobs. Recruiters would find this feature valuable, at a price.
• Groups
Create and/or join a Group based on your interests. This is another way that LinkedIn is trying to connect business people.
So how can LinkedIn make you more effective?
If you need to make connections and don’t know anyone, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to browse others’ trusted connections. I’m not convinced that LinkedIn can replace old fashion networking. We still work with people we like – and that’s the bottom line. How LinkedIn will give us that feeling remains to be seen.For a list of other social networking websites, follow this link:
Wikipedia's List of Social Networking Websites
Established in 1996, Design Tech Consulting, Inc. continues to successfully develop custom programs in Microsoft Access and SQL Server. They develop in ASP.NET 2, HTML, and PHP on the Web to create effective solutions that often are dynamically-driven with databases.
In addition to this, they provide email marketing and streaming video solutions to small and medium size companies. For additional information, please call us at (800) 941-6099 or email us or visit us online at Design Tech.
Thank you for reading this issue of WordsmithBob's Small Business Marketing Secrets, published monthly. Bob has been helping businesses turn their websites into 24/7 sales machines since 2000.
If you want to create a website that actually leads to sales or sales leads, please contact WordsmithBob or call 612-226-7667.
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In This Issue
• How To Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors Without Competing on Price
• Can Social Networks Really Help You Build Your Business or Career?
• Get web saavy!. Visit WordsmithBLOG!
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Bob McClain or WordsmithBob, has been studying and perfecting his skills in:
• Web writing
• Web marketing
• Web copy
• Search Engine Optimization
since 2000.
He is also a restaurant reviewer for Twin Cities Dining Guide.com in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a volunteer with The Rose Ensemble in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a member of the Power Networkers chapter of BNI, and a member of MIMA.