Healthy competition keeps us on our toes and increases our drive for success. In this blog post we’ll explore how to identify what makes a business stand out online, why you should be checking out your competitors, and what tools can help you get ahead of the game.
Let’s start with this question: what makes you stand out?
Imagine you own a basketball gear shop. What would make your brand distinct compared to other sports shops selling basketball equipment?
Maybe your shop’s exterior is painted in bright red, or you have an eye-catching window display, or perhaps you’ve even hired someone to shoot some hoops outside to grab people’s attention as they walk by or you cross selling your customer by always offering on some related products that you know would compliment the purchase your customers makes, or upselling your customers by recommending a higher end product that originally selected by highlighting the benefit of having this products better than the one selected.
As a physical store, you need to stand out. The same is true in digital. When we identify what makes us different from the competition online, we call that our Unique Selling Point, or USP. A Unique Selling Point is a clear statement that describes the benefits you offer, how you might solve your customer’s needs, and what distinguishes you from the competition. It's is important in business to have a UPS to remain sustainable in your niche.
The way Girlfridayz differentiate ourselves from our competitors is by offering an excellent service to our customers and going the extra-miles for our customers without charging them extra for the services, offering more for less packages and cost-effective services with added value for money as we "cherished the ideal of businesses working together in harmony and equal opportunities regardless of their size in a free society in which the concept of market share and support for one another is present therefore we provide you with the insight you need to optimize your Marketing. Trisha Amable CEO of Girlfridayz"
Here are 4 key questions to ask yourself when defining your USP: Who is my target audience? Who are my competitors?
What problems does my target audience have?
and How can I solve them?
Asking yourself these questions can help you determine your UPS and finding the answer to provide a better services or product answering the needs of your customers. Once you ask these questions, you can piece together a concise statement that incorporates the answers.
Here are a few pointers to remember: Speak in a human voice: Be as natural and relatable as you can and remember, you are trying to attract people, not robots.
Shout about it: Your USP should be displayed on your website, social media, and other marketing materials. A good USP won't appeal to everyone, but that’s ok. Build a USP that is tailored and speaks directly to your target audience.
Other things to consider while working on your USP are your strengths and weaknesses. To do this, use a SWOT analysis, which will help ensure business decisions are well informed. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Ask yourself:
What is it we’re good at? These are your strengths.
What can we do better? These are your weaknesses. How can we grow, change and improve? These are your opportunities. What is happening or could happen, both internally and externally, that might affect us negatively? Those are the threats.
Tips to construct your UPS
1. While constructing your USP, it’s a good idea to check what the competition is up to. 2. When starting a competitor analysis, make sure to utilise the free tools available online.
3. Start with search engines, which can offer the most immediate answers. Simply search for your key terms and make note of it. 4. Who appears in the top results on search engines for your product or service. 5. Which keywords appear on their website, that is, what words are they using in the page titles on their website, and what messaging they use on their social media.
Another way to stay up to date with what competitors are doing is through signing up to alerts systems. Free tools like Google Alerts show you who is talking about certain topics online, so they help you keep your finger on the pulse.
Try setting up alerts for key products or services, as well as your own business and competitor names. You’ll then receive notifications when the terms you enter are discussed online, and be able to see how your business or the business you work for compare.
Understanding the competition is a key component of your online strategy, enabling you to position your business correctly in the marketplace. In this blog post we have discussed how to identify what makes a business stand out in a busy marketplace. Why Unique Selling Points (USPs) are important in your business and how to construct them with online tools available to help you research the competition.
Selling Strategies commonly use by your competitor
Upselling: Upselling is a sales technique where a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. An example would be in a fast-food restaurant when a customer order a hamburger the sale staff will often ask do you want fries with your hamburger and a dink or offer their meals deal. Cross Selling: invites customers to buy related or complementary items. An example of a cross sell you purchase a digital camera and the sale staff will offer a memory card to go with it as they often come without a memory card.
Downselling: is a sales technique that you can use to convert a customer who decides not to go through with a purchase for various reasons, including insufficient budget. As an example you like a car, but its price is over your budget. The salesman may show you a lower-end model without the sunroof and leather seats that cost less. In internet marketing downsell is used when someone has declined your products or services offer (sometimes by simply clicking the close button on the pop up offer or lightbox box offer) and you offer them an alternative product or service at a lower price.
It is important to upsell or cross sell your customers to increase sales and profit on sales. Of course these common sales strategies work only when a customers has purchase a product or a services from you, downselling is more use to secure a customers and achieve a sale even though it not profitable but it is still worth it because once you secure this customers they may re-use your services or visit your shop again and buy full price on this occasion. It is also important to mix these sales strategies to maximise your profit on sale.
Girlfridayz provide website design packages and many of our customers do not know how to search engine optimise their website therefore we devise website packages which offers on-page SEO and mobile view including social media integration and a business blog as standard with designing our customers website for a price, hence, we offering an holistic website design solution without the added extra as everything is included in the bundle packages and we have four standard packages on offer which works better for our customers too. view our ALL INCLUSIVE BUNDLE FOR YOUR SITE
True marketer like Girlfridayz knows that real profits are not in the first sale, but rather in the upsell, cross-sell or downsell. These marketing sales strategies and tactics are as old as marketing exist, and most large businesses employ them in one way or another that why they became large businesses and carry on using them throughout their business life cycle as they work that why these three sales strategies are used for centuries.
Therefore you be happy that we reveal these three sales strategies and explain each term to you with example so you too can begin to use them to your advantage in your business to grow and become profitable as they are working strategies and tactics and you cannot fail if apply correctly, fairly with your customer in mind actually answering the need of your customers by providing them with a solution.
In Conclusion: First of all, you need to understand that these sales strategies take place after the customer is sold meaning the customer must already have explicitly agreed to buy your product or service before you upsell, cross-sell or downsell. Also to get a leg over your competitors ensure that you have a unique selling point in place and promote your USP to whoever wants to hear it to increase business awareness, sustainability and profitability.