In a world where hundreds of thousands of businesses are jostling for a customer’s attention, being able to dictate your place in the vast marketplace of the internet is vital to success.
Without an accurate knowledge of your position, you’ll run the risk of being drowned out by the vast network of voices that have a greater grasp of marketing than you – and your bottom line will suffer.
If your company doesn’t know where it fits in the marketplace, how can you expect your customers to? So to help you position your company effectively, we recommend a few of these tips.
1. Figure out who your customers are
Your customers aren’t a faceless group of people. They each have a set of unique interests and will respond to products in different ways.
To tap into your customers’ interests, you’ll first have to figure out a series of buyer personas for your company. These are composites of your ideal customers, each of which has been constructed after in-depth research into their purchasing habits and lifestyle choices.
Using your buyer personas as a centrepiece for your company’s marketing strategy, you’ll then be able to make informed decisions regarding copy, website design, marketing campaigns and much more.
2. Have a killer feature
Spreading yourself too thin is a recipe for disaster, obscuring your USP in a fog of marketing bluster.
To ensure you stand out from the crowd, the main feature of your business should be shouting proudly from the rooftops (or bellowing from your homepage).
Focus the large majority of your energy on promoting how your best feature can benefit your visitors and customers won’t be in any doubt about the value of your business.
3. Put a new twist on a classic formula
Even if there are a thousand other businesses just like yours, you still have a unique story to tell.
Think of the food companies which focus on their natural ingredients, or the clothing manufacturers which tell you their exact manufacturing process.
To pique your customers’ interest even more, think of a unique way to present your story and how your solution can assuage their pain at every point in in the buying cycle.
If you’re one of those aforementioned organic food companies, why not send an email with every purchase which explains the natural source of your company’s produce?
Or if you’re proud of the wide variety of your products, you could always send out a gift box to clients to whet their appetites every once in a while.
These are just a few ways to tell your story to customers – and make them feel like they’re a part of it.
4. Think of the user
In internet’s days of yore, it was predicted that you had around five seconds to hook a user before they got bored and left your site.
Without an effective homepage and navigation, your customer will be scratching their head about what they can do next. You’re essentially erecting roadblocks for your visitor, preventing them from engaging with your website effectively.
Let’s say, for instance, your customer wants to purchase a product from you, but has no idea how to reach the checkout on your site. Chances are they’ll give up and migrate to a different website that meets their needs easily.
Poor navigation leads to a downturn in profits – so don’t let your business suffer from poor design.
These four examples only represent a small amount of the effort involved in finding the optimal position for your site. To discover more, explore the rest of our blog or get in touch for expert advice.