In this week’s Marketing Homebrew we talk competitive advantage. An old school term that many of us still struggle to come to terms with.
Definition of Competitive Advantage: ‘a condition or circumstance that puts a company in a favourable or superior business position.‘
Why do we struggle? We’re looking at our products, or service, to gleam a few extra bullet points on the features list.
Something that we can point to and pronounce ‘that, dear customer, is the reason you should buy from us!’
Competitive advantage may not be a tangible.
In fact, for the smarter businesses, it’s all about perception. Not what we create, but the vision we place in the mind of your customer.
Your greatest competitive advantage is the speed that you articulate and demonstrate the value that your business provides your customer.
Think about it for a moment.
The quicker I get how you help, the greater my willingness to buy. It’s why people stick around on your website (or don’t)
Isn’t that a distinct advantage?
Isn’t that more valuable than any extra you can add to your sales pitch?
Clarity is your advantage.
From the moment I land on your website. Do I know what you will provide me?
That’s the value of the unique value proposition.
That’s the value of creating content that feeds into topics where you can demonstrate and validate your authority.
It’s not about the product, it’s about the provision – what that product supplies.
That, once more, is the value of understanding what your customer seeks, not just who your customer is.
When we fixate on creating buyer personas we our heads are consumed with demographics. Age? Salary? Sex? Education? Labels that we feel comfortable placing on these little imaginary people. As marketers, we’ve got to start looking beyond the demographic. We need to consider what happens once our customer has our product/service to hand. Whether that be a new website, a new watch or new software. Do we make people feel more comfortable? Do we make people feel better about themselves? Do we make people feel secure? Do we make people feel risque? I call it emotive selling.
Are you focusing too deeply on how you define or label your business? Are you digging into product descriptions to find a new angle to sell an established product? Or, are you looking at the impact your product has upon your customer?
That is the focus of the smarter marketer.
Use your website copy to articulate what you provide. Use your content marketing to validate your position.
Listen in for 30 minutes or so to Show 104 of Marketing Homebrew where Mark Masters and I discuss our own slant on ‘Competitive Advantage’ (link below)
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