How Does a Small Business Compete?
By Mike Moran. Filed in Internet Marketing |
There’s a secret about Internet marketing. Some small businesses are ecstatic about their success on the Internet, but others can’t seem to get any traction. I believe that one factor often separates the winners from the losers—focus.
The good news about the Internet is that it is very cheap to reach your target market. The problem is that it’s cheap for everyone else, too.
So optimistic small businesses that said to themselves that now they can go nationwide or international or intergalactic sometimes succeeded, but at other times found they couldn’t get a word in edgewise with all the other companies that had the same idea. Companies that they never competed with in the past now can compete with them.
So the popular search keywords are awash in competition. How do you sell digital cameras if everyone sells them? How do you attract searchers for that broad a term? If you need to land on the first page of search results to get sales, how do you do that as a small business?
Focus.
The small businesses that are succeeding are marketing very targeted offerings—extremely specialized products and services. That way, they take advantage of The Long Tail
But it means that you must specialize, you must focus on a niche. You can’t just say, “We are a local bedding shop and we sell mattresses.” So what? You must ask yourself some very hard questions about your business.
What is unique about your products? Or your business? Or the way you sell them? What is it that makes you better than everyone else for a certain specific target segment?
When you answer that question, you’ll know how to market yourself on the Web. You’ll know what that segment is looking for and you’ll know how to attract them with the right message. It’s not possible for a small business to really be good at everything—you need to know what you are uniquely better at—even if it is just a small segment that cares.
If you sell beds, do you solve sleep problems? Fashion problems? Allergy problems? What exactly do you do better than everyone else? If you tell me that you offer the same products people can get anywhere for the same low price they can find elsewhere, that is not a good answer. If you make vague promises about great customer service, that won’t cut it.
A small business must specialize to succeed on the Web. What’s your specialty?
Monday, August 13th 2007 at 11:04 am |
This is a topic that is near and dear to me. Our company is one of many similar one in our local area. Our current “bread and butter” is web site development but we also provide print design and portable media services (i.e podcasts, powerpoint/keynote presentation, custom DVD’s, etc.) However we are well aware that we have a ton of competiton among small companies like ours, larger national or regional companies and the “do it yourself software packages” that look oh so tempting from a money savings point of view but more often than not we have customers who come to us after trying the above solutions.
That being said we stay competitive and viable by;
1.) Looking at what our competition is doing and doing something unique instead of always trying to beat then at their own game.
2.) We are committed to a user-friendly experience for our customers
3.) We are forward looking. Our company may not come up in the top search results in Google when you type in web design or development plus our cities name but their is another forward thinking term where we rank at the top.
4.) We give excellent customer service and don’t talk like geeks.
5.) We have a focused customer base. While it is true we will work with most anybody unless we are opposed to what they do on moral groups we advertise and network with potential clients within certain areas because we can understand their lingo and needs.
6.) We have some “top secret” projects related to what we do but may actually be a benefit to our current “competition”.
Sunday, August 26th 2007 at 10:35 am |
excellent article concerning the need to be specialised !
I will follow your blog.
Thursday, January 31st 2008 at 9:05 pm |
The long tail effect is as good as the main keyword when your on top of that.
These are the related keywords of your main keywords which are less searched and competition than the main one.
But mind you, if you target these and made on top of those keywords it will be easier for you to make it to the top.
Leverage!
Thursday, August 28th 2008 at 4:19 am |
My two cents…
Specialty and focus really gets customers to small business but as the business grows never ever forget to diversify.
Everybody follows the “leader”. And if the leader ain’t careful, he/she may find that he/she has lost market share c”,
Nice to be reminded on something often forgotten by marketers, offline and online.
Great Post! c”,
Thursday, August 28th 2008 at 4:40 am |
I really agree with this article. Internet marketing is only a matter of focus. When you have focus, you can analyze the both sides of your marketing plan and can able to weigh the advantage from the disadvantage.
It’s really important to have focus. When you focus, you can manage your time effectively and luck will just follow right behind your back.