Nine Ways Your Business Can Stand Out This Year
When it comes to business, every entrepreneur or business owner will look at ways that they can stand out from the crowd. Especially if you find that your business is in a saturated industry and market where there is a lot of competition. Providing similar services and products, how do you ensure that customers and clients will choose you over competitors? The truth is, in these cases, you do need to think outside of the box. Here are some of the ways you could do it.
A new social media campaign
Social media is an excellent way to ensure that you get your message heard, so a great idea is to create your very own social media campaign. It might be specific to your business, it might be to raise awareness for something, but think of an angle you want to take that your business could advertise and run with it. A campaign can also just be a guideline for the type of content you want to share. However, the best advice would be to try and do things differently in terms of social media so that you do continue to stand out from your competitors.
Focusing on your local community
A fantastic tip to utilise is to work in your local community. Many people don’t realise it just yet but shopping local is actually becoming a huge trend as more people want to support their local businesses and help them thrive. Becoming the local expert in your industry gives you a unique customer base that no one else has. Sponsor local events, get involved in local charities, and just be a presence within your community and you will start to see the difference it could make. Plus, the good work you do locally will benefit yourself as well as your business, so it has to be worth it for that.
Creating your own outdoor event
Events are a great talking point and they can also be a great thing to advertise via social media and blog posts, so why not create your very own. This could also tie in well with your newfound focus on the local community. It isn’t that hard to set up an outdoor event, looking into generator hire so that you have a power source and advertising your company and products a little differently. Combine forces with other local businesses and see what you could do.
Expanding your product or service range
If you feel that your business is just coasting along, then now is the time to really start thinking about making big changes, and one area you can do that is by expanding your product or service range. You are opening up your business to more potential new customers while also giving your existing customers another reason to come back to you. This could be another way to outsmart your competitors and do things a little differently.
Allowing international sales
Maybe the next step for you is to consider international sales. Branching out overseas opens up a huge amount of potential customers and clients. There are a few different ways you could do this. You could potentially action it yourself by offering an international postage element, or you could consider a drop ship facility and have contacts in other parts of the world ready to take on the sales.
Turning your business into a franchise
Have you ever consider expansion in a different way? Of course, there is the option of opening up branches, but why not sell your business model as a franchise? This is an excellent way to move your business forward quickly and also expand your brand awareness. While you may only get the initial franchise fee and further fees after that, your brand will certainly pick up speed and could help increase further business in terms of more franchise opportunities arising.
A total rebrand
Is your business coasting? Are you just wondering what the next move is? Maybe the problem isn’t your business or the ideas you have, maybe it is to do with your brand and how it appeals. A brand can be a real off put to some people if it doesn’t relay the exact message you are wanting. Perhaps a complete rebrand is on the cards this year, even enabling you to relaunch your business appropriately. Rebranding could be done in many different ways, you may just want to change the message, perhaps change the way your website appears or even things like colour schemes or logos. You can go as far with as you think is appropriate to get your business back moving at the pace you want.
Becoming completely digital
We are all aware that there is so much more focus on the digital world these days. People buy groceries online, they shop, they communicate through the internet. So more and more businesses are taking their business in the direction of being solely internet based and it can work really well for you. Flexible working arrangements, no need for big expensive leases. Could this be a move that your business could make this year?
Setting up shop
On the flip side people do still like to go somewhere physically, and with more focus on shopping locally, setting up a shop in your high street or a showroom somewhere could also work in your favour. This could then open up opportunities to create new locations elsewhere, which could see you expand your area in terms of your focus for local marketing. A shop could be something small, or it could just be a place where you can meet with customers. Some people need a physical location to store stock or to provide demonstrations, so this could still be a viable option for your business.
I hope that this has opened your eyes to some of the potential steps you could take with your business. There are so many avenues that you could take. Some go hand in hand, others will provide you different results. But what they all have in common is that they can help your business stand out, and the results can be fast.
Hi, I'm Kelly O'Donnell.