Gaining a Competitive Advantage in the Modern Market
It used to be that uploading instructional videos, connecting to people online, and having a good looking website was all it took to create brand loyalty and a competitive advantage in the online marketplace. As technology changes and improves, however, businesses must also change and improve their strategies in order to continue with their modern market advantage. Here are the areas that today’s companies are looking at to keep their competitive edge:
Using mobile technology
Almost three quarters of all shoppers say that information that have found or located on their mobile phones has guided their purchasing decisions. Despite this, more than 4 out of every 10 businesses still don’t have a website or e-commerce solution that is mobile friendly. This means you can still get an advantage by having your site and products be mobile friendly.
Localize, localize, localize
More than 30% of searches are expected to be local in nature by the end of 2015. That’s a problem for more than half of today’s businesses that don’t have any results in local online review sites. For businesses that do have a presence, their online reputation is suffering because they don’t have a focus on obtaining positive reviews. Almost half of all businesses don’t even use geo-modified advertising.
Work on long term relationships
It costs five times more to generate a sale from a new customer than it does from a repeat customer. If you increase your customer retention by just 5%, it has the same effect as reducing your costs by 25%. The importance of repeat revenue streams cannot be overstated – without brand loyalty, you will continue to struggle against organizations that have generated a sense of loyalty amongst their customer base.
Find the right niche
When you’re in a niche market, there is less competition and a greater ability to dominate. To accomplish domination, you’ve got to work on positioning your brand as an expert within your field. People are more likely to conduct their business with an organization that gives them more perceived value and that comes when you have the “expert” title associated with yourself. You can also tailor promotional channels, speak at conferences, and create events within your community that all speak to the value your brand represents.
Create a legitimate call to action
Only about 1 in 5 websites for small businesses contain links to a Facebook page. There are even fewer links to other social sites, like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Another 2/3 of today’s websites for small businesses lack any sort of information request form for visitors to get what they need in order to create a sale. Even if your focus as a small business is your local community, 97% of people in your community are using search engines to discover more about you and who you are. Without the ability to access the right information, those people who find you first will go to your competition instead.
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.