The Inspiration
It’s interesting to me that there are so many motivational quotes about competition as if just getting us fired up can make us the best, the fastest, or the smartest.
Competition is a good thing. It forces us to do our best.
The best part of competition is that through it we discover what we are capable of.
I could go on for pages – as the Google search results surely do, but it wouldn’t be authentic. And more to the point, I don’t believe it’s the most helpful thing for in-the-trenches marketers to hear right now.
The Reality
In business, there’s always been a stress on just the opposite of those quotes above. Specifically, that focusing only on your competition is no strategy at all. Whether you are the Amazon.com of your industry or the newest kid on the block, there is age-old advice out there to be true to yourself by defining your brand story, your own lane with your unique product and services that you do best, and a distinctive value based on your customers’ needs.
Getting into the Race – and Finding Your Footing
So what’s a marketing team to do? Well, I can’t say for sure what will work best for your brand, but I can provide a few examples of ways in which some of our clients are handling their own tough competitors.
1. One B2B SaaS client we work with has recently gone all in on head-to-head competition for customers. While potential buyers are waiting out the economy, less willing to switch or spend money on a new solution, this client inferred that either they will capture the new logos who are ready to spend, or their clients will. They’ve created multiple landing pages comparing their own product with each competitor in sharp detail. It’s as if they are saying – go ahead and compare us – we’ll come out on top and we’ve got nothing to hide because we are the better option.
If you want to try this head-to-head strategy, use targeted ads to drive traffic to these pages. An ABM platform that allows you to show ads to those who have searched for or visited competitors’ websites is one way to reach the right audience. You’ll also want to be sure that the competitors you choose to showcase are the big players in your space – the ones that potential customers already know about while perhaps you have something to prove as more of an underdog or a newer or smaller player in the market.
2. Another SaaS company, finding it difficult these days to convince their audience to commit to a move from either an Excel-based in-house solution or a competitive solution that may not be as robust as theirs, is focusing on redesigning their website to focus on the core of their solution – which is the most important function for their target market.
Now you may not be in need of a full website redesign, but to take this solution and make it work for you, it might be a matter of refocusing your homepage and/or re-prioritizing and showing more of the part of your product or solution your ICP cares about most. Again, this will only work if your product truly is high-performing in that core area but it allows you to focus not on what your competitors are doing but what they may not be doing, thus leapfrogging them by speaking more directly to potential customers’ pain points.
3. Lastly, there’s an opportunity to learn why anyone would switch from a competitor or choose you over them. It doesn’t cost a thing but a bit of time from your team and I’ve seen it produce such valuable results that it changes the way a brand builds its messaging and online presence.
It’s interviewing your current customers. A few key questions include how they conducted their research to find a solution, why they chose you over competitors, what your differentiators are, and how they describe your company to others. Want even more insight? Request a few minutes to speak with someone involved in a sale you lost to a competitor.
What are you doing to gain a leg up on the competition? Drop us a line – we’d love to hear more about what’s working in your Digital Growth strategy.
