Differentiate or Die Series

Let me ask you a couple of point blank questions if I may about your marketing – First, why would your target market choose you over your competition? And second, what are you doing to ensure that you stand out long enough to get noticed and ultimately hired?

For most of us, there is already a glutton of people and businesses out there who do what we do. There are tons of Financial Planners, CPA’s, Internet Marketers, Business Coaches, Real Estate Agents, and so on. Bottom line, there’s a lot of competition all around you vying for a piece of the same pie – your pie!

And too many businesses today, like lemmings play follow the follower – only to be left in bewilderment wondering why they are not achieving the success they feel they should in their business. They take a “me too” approach to their marketing and expect ever increasing market share. The reality here is that this approach tends to blend you in with all others who provide similar products and services – positioning you to compete on price alone. And believe me, unless you’re moving tons of quantity, you do not want to be in that position.

I have to say that one of the greatest gifts that my master’s degree in business administration has given me was the idea to study and leverage what I needed from world class companies in different industries. Although at the time I didn’t quite fully understand the extent of the significance of doing that, many years later I look back and WOW, what a gift! That gift has provided me with the basis for a marketing methodology that I call the 180° Marketing Method. The root idea of this methodology is simply to look at what your competition is doing and do something else – look into other industries and pioneer their successful marketing tactics and strategies in your industry.

Now I’m not telling you to stop doing a specific marketing tactic or strategy that works for you just because your competition happens to use the same one – Heck, leverage that one for all it’s worth. You may want to however put some thought into how to tweak that one a bit to help you stand out. Additionally though, I’m recommending that you employ other marketing tactics and strategies that your competition may not be using. Expand your horizons, look at other industries – How do they market, sell and deliver their products and services?

So how do you go about applying the180° Marketing Method? Well here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Really know your target market. What’s important to them? How do they prefer to be communicated with and marketed to? Identify what works as well as what doesn’t work for them.
2. Really know your competition. Exactly how do they market and position themselves to your target market? If possible get on their mailing lists to stay abreast of their marketing efforts.
3. Look for great marketing and create a “swipe” file. If your challenge is marketing, what expert, business, or industry in your opinion does a great job at it? How do they effectively market themselves? Can you leverage their approach to use with your target market? Gather samples of their effective marketing copy as well as any other copy that you feel you can use to inspire your own.

So in closing, take note that doing the same thing your competition does just because that’s what everyone else does in your industry comes from a survival mindset and can be fatal. Want to skip that fate? Then I challenge you to adopt an abundance mindset and dare to be different by employing the 180° Marketing Method in your business today!

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