The Quisenblog

Pretty obvious question, you say?

Once upon a time, naming your competition was pretty simple. Your competitors were the businesses in your market area that sold the same sort of products or services as you. But thanks to the Internet (more specifically Google), all that’s changed.

Now your competition isn’t so much who you say it is. It’s who Google says it is.

When your key word search terms are entered, who shows up? Is it the “usual suspects” you’ve been going toe-to-toe with for quite some time? Or are there new “competitors” (online or offline) that show up in the search?

Whichever is the case, before you can figure out how to take on your competition, you first have to know who they are.

For the sake of simplicity, here are four different types of competitors it pays to consider:

1. Brick-and-Mortar Competition
These are the competitors you have a pretty good handle on. They’re the ones you compete with on a fairly regular basis. If you’re Staples, your brick-and-mortar competitors are mom-and-pop stationery stores, as well as chains such as OfficeMax and OfficeDepot. Chances are you know these guys pretty well, and you’ve gotten quite adept at competing head-to-head.

2. Competition That Ranks For Your Keywords
Thanks to the Internet, it’s not just local companies you need to worry about. You also have to be aware of your search competitors – the businesses that are stealing customers by ranking for the keywords you want to be found for. The Internet doesn’t care if Jenny’s Book Emporium is run out of her parent’s basement in Nogales, AZ. If Jenny’s ranking higher on the page for your search terms than you are, tough luck. There’s a pretty good shot she’s going to steal some business that under other circumstances would likely come your way.

Let’s go back to our Staples example.

If you’re Staples and you want to rank for “hanging file folders,” your competition isn’t just the brick and mortar guys. You’re also up against Amazon, The Container Store, Walmart, Sam’s Club and who-knows-else. There doesn’t need to be a physical location within 200 miles of your storefront. If their website is showing up above yours (or comparable to yours) in the search results, they’re a direct competitor.

3. Competitors Whose Social Media Pages Rank For Your Keywords
Like most organizations, you’ve probably got a website. You might even have a Facebook page. Maybe even a LinkedIn business page. But what about the competitors who are seemingly everywhere in Social Media? They blog, they contribute to industry forums, they comment on articles. They post videos on YouTube and photos on Picasa. Keep in mind that Google indexes each and every one of these pages. And the more dynamic the content (the more frequently it is updated), the higher it will generally rank, usually against the very words you’re hoping to be found with.

This is a whole new category of “search competitor”: those who get in through the side door while everyone is trying to push through the front. This is a big reason why it’s so important to have a meaningful presence in as many social platforms as you can manage, and why all digital assets related to your brand need to be optimized for search.

4. “Share of Buzz” Competitors
Thanks to social media, there’s another class of nagging competitor to think about – the ones who are winning in the “Share of Voice” battle. These are the businesses that sell similar products or services as you but who seem to be involved in every social conversation out there. People are tweeting their stuff, sharing their links on Facebook, talking up their promotions and referencing their videos or SlideShare presentations in conversations all across the web.

Bottom line, your competitors are no longer just the names you’ve always known; your competition is anyone who gets themselves in front of your customer’s line of sight.

Once you’re aware of the volume of competition you truly have, you can take action to come out on top. Yes, a big part of that is to focus on a sound SEO strategy (more on that here). And it’s also important to have a meaningful presence across several platforms. But more than that, it is important that you truly understand the value your customers consistently say they receive from you that is unique and meaningful. And turn that value proposition into a Brand Vision that is reflected throughout your organization and your communications.

Just as you compete with your local brick-and-mortar types by being uniquely “you,” so too can you successfully compete with virtual entities—as long as you narrowly focus on what you do best.

Heck, you might even show up in your competition’s searches and steal a few sales from them.

If you’d like to read more about competing with search engine competition, I recommend checking out this thoughtful blog post from TopRank.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Media, New Media, On Clients, On Customers, Ramblings, Social Media, strategy brand vision, competition, keywords, new competitors, SEO, SEO strategy

One company’s customer base is another company’s database.

Just because consumers happen to be in your tent at the present time, that doesn’t mean they’re taking up permanent residence. At some point, they liked the offer youpresented them, bought into your value proposition and pulled the trigger on a sale. That’s it. Next time they’re in the market, maybe they’ll buy from you without comparison, and maybe you’ll have to compete for them all over again. One thing’s for sure: the next sale is not going to be uncontested. The competition is gunning for you.

So what can you do to improve your odds of solidifying your relationship with existing customers and move them up the loyalty ladder? Here are a few things you can try.

• Treat new customers as “trial customers.” One of the most important jobs a marketer has is to help her customers get the most value out of her product. Rare is the product where all the reasons for its superiority are self-evident. More often there is a discovery period that allows customers to discover on their own why their purchase decision was a good one. The marketer can help. By guiding the new customer through the early phases of learning about and using a product, the more likely it is that the new customer will recognize the true value and return in the future.
• Find out more about them. Why did they choose your product in the first place? Was it the way it looked, the way it smelled, the colors it came in? Did it do (or appear to do) something its competitors couldn’t? Finding out why the customer made the initial purchase will give you great insights into how the product needs to perform in order to attract that customer again. Find out why they buy, then engineer more of that into your product.
• Talk to customers according to where they are in the usage cycle. There are two ways to approach earning the sale from an established customer, and unfortunately, most organizations do it the wrong way. Instead of acknowledging that customer is in a different situation than the customer they’re trying to win over for the first time, they go about treating that customer the same they would as they would a “prospect.” They use the same arguments. Show the same ads. No acknowledgment at all that the customer actually has some experience with the product. Once a customer has some experience with your product, take advantage of that experience. Could he use more information at this point? Would a price incentive help close the deal?
• Use long-term customers as a product development resource. This is something where Social Media can play an important role with many marketers. It’s not so hard to find customers who have been buying your products for some time. Once you find them, use them as a resource for improving and marketing your products. With their permission, simple tools like Survey Monkey can help you glean all sorts of insights from them that will help market not only to returning customers, but also to the much-sought-after new customer.

People who use your products are different than the ones who haven’t. They deserve to be treated differently than the person who’s never done business with you before. Give them offers and invitations that you can’t (or wouldn’t want) to give to just anybody. Ask them about their preferences, share news about your company with them in advance, engage with them the way you would if they were standing in front of you at the point of purchase.

It will pay off big time.

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Mickey Creative, New Media, On Clients, Ramblings, Social Media comparative shopping, competition, loyalty, loyalty ladder, trial customers

Let’s say you are a start-up company with a new product in a competitive category and a very limited marketing budget. Where would you start? Which of the following would you guess would give you the most “bang for the buck”? Which is the most likely to make you famous?

A) Develop a visually appealing logo.
B) Develop some distinctive packaging.
C) Develop a friendly web site.
D) Develop a smart, descriptive tag line.

So what would it be? The logo? The tag line?

If it were my money, I would invest it in “B.” I’d first put emphasis on developing distinctive packaging. Why? Two reasons. First, product packaging is the key touchpoint the customer will have (at least initially) with the brand. With the packaging, you have the opportunity to define the brand for the customer. It is the chance to compete on a level playing field, head-to-head with your competitors.

And secondly, at its best, package design can elicit an emotional reaction from the consumer. It can make him feel happy. Or smart. Or frugal. Or luxurious. A package can infer the values of the brand and engage all the physical senses. The consumer can see it, touch it, smell it, all of which goes into forming a lasting impression of the brand. Instantly, it helps him form a decision about it: yes, this is a useful product I should consider, or no, this is not a product I would be comfortable with or it looks like what I’m already using.

In fact, stop for a moment and think of a product you love. Chances are the mental picture in your mind is of the packaging.

Sorry to say, but I’ve yet to hear of anyone getting teary-eyed over a logo or getting inspired by a tag line.

What is it that makes a package stand out in the sea of 45,000+ items shoppers are confronted with in some retail environments? Four words: respect for the eye. A pleasing color palate. Eye-attracting negative space. Clean, uncluttered type and graphics treatment. And finally, some sort of visual “hook” that makes it stand out amongst its competitors.

I don’t mean this to diminish the need for a crisp logo and a thoughtful tag line. It’s just that as far as impact goes, organizations owe it to themselves to spend a proportionate amount of time and resources on the part of their business that wins sales.

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Mickey Media, On Customers aesthetic, brand association, brand emotion, business sales, competition, distinctive packaging, logo, marketing budget, start-up company, tag line

In this scene from the movie “City Slickers,” trail-hardened cowpoke Curly (played marvelously by Jack Palance) sums up the secret of life for city slicker Billy Crystal:

One Thing. The secret of life. Also the secret for succeeding in business. Another term for your One Thing is your Brand Vision. It is the one thing your customers agree you do better than any of your competition. The one thing you want your customers (and non-customers) to think of every time your name comes up.

So what is your One Thing? Is it fast, cheap, attentive, sturdy, sleekly-designed? Is it reliable, techie, funny, intuitive, caring? Summing up your competitive strength in one word might seem simplistic, but in truth, one word is all your customers and prospects will reserve for you.

And please, no boiler-plate terms like “world-class customer service.” In addition to activating my gag response, it doesn’t mean anything until you back it up with specifics. It may make management feel all warm and fuzzy, but to the customer, it’s just table stakes.

Think you have your word? Make sure none of your competitors can use the same word to describe themselves. If they can, you need a new word.

Once you’ve discovered your One Thing, figure out how to engineer more of it into your products or services. If you determine your word is ‘”reliable,” for example, consider initiatives that will reinforce that strength in your customers’ minds. A super-long warranty, no-questions-asked return policy or a zero-deductible repair policy would be a few examples.

The strongest brands have always had their One Thing. A few examples: Ferrari. FedEx. McDonald’s. The Grateful Dead. Four different brands, and you probably have no problem coming up with a single word to describe them.

So how about you?

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Mickey On Customers brand vision, Business, City Slickers, competition, Customers, FedEx, Ferrari, McDonald's, The Grateful Dead