The internet opens a business up to a huge audience, but it also opens up a world wide web of competition. The upside is that if you stand out enough to be found and speak in a way that engages your target audience, the internet can also make your business hard to ignore.

Every business takes part in a form of marketing at some point in time or another. One thing all businesses can benefit from is being unique and speaking directly to a specific customer group in order to nudge those customers into action. So how can businesses in competitive markets ensure their proposition stands out in the mind of consumers? We’ve broke it down with examples to help new or established businesses stand out in crowded markets.

1. Humanize your brand and align it with your values, personality, and target audience

A lot of new and even established businesses ignore this step, so you’ll be ahead of the game if you take the time to invest in a brand identity that stands out, looks good, and speaks to your audience. Humans are visual, and many customers will make decisions based on the look and feel of a website or logo, especially if one looks outdated or unappealing in comparison to a competitor.

By building out a brand identity that is based on core values and the persona of a target audience, it’s possible to humanize your business and increase interest. Customers connect with human values and appealing designs that they can relate to, so leveraging this can be a purposeful tool in industries that have become crowded.

Example:

Think of the type of person who sports a Patagonia jacket versus someone who wears Nike from head to toe. Outdoorsy and relaxed vs fit and active; these are two different audience personas with brand identities to match. The good news is you don’t have to be as big as Nike to pull it off, simply find a design agency you trust and invest in a targeted, consistent brand identity. Come ready to talk about your business, its values, and what it can offer. Many agencies, including Dog Ear, have questionnaires and discovery sessions that make this process accurate and easy.

2. Establish your market and unique value proposition

Narrowing your target audience helps you in every step of the marketing process. It allows you to create a logo that speaks to your base, messaging that truly resonates and evokes action, and ad campaigns that engage the people you’re trying to reach. “Everyone is our target audience” is the bane of a good marketing strategy, and most times, it’ll feel like you’re throwing mud at the wall. When you speak directly to a specific group or groups of people, your message will have the most impact, be memorable, and generate a feeling. That is the recipe for a consumer to take you up on what you offer.

Example:

Imagine Woman A is starting a dog food supply business. She sits to think about who she wants to target and says, “This dog food is for everyone, of course.” The logo she uses is an image of a dog bowl filled with food, the packaging sports a picture of a golden retriever eating dog food, and the main message is that, “this dog food is the best food for your dog.” Her main keyword is “dog food” and again, her target audience is anyone with a dog.

Woman B also starts a dog food supply business. She wants her personal values of health, earth keeping, and an active lifestyle to show through. This dog food will be for ingredient conscious millennials with active lifestyles that they most likely share with their dogs. The logo includes an assortment of healthy ingredients in the foreground, like grain, carrots, and chicken, with a mountain range in the background. The packaging is a picture of a millennial on a hike with their dog under the words “Only the best for the best adventures”. The messaging reflects the healthy aspects of the food and how it’s made with an active lifestyle in mind. It talks about how the food is so much better than the ones with “generic corn-meal ingredients”. The keyword she uses is “natural healthy dog food”

Which strategy would have the best results? There is a desire to serve everyone, that’s how you make the most money, right? Not quite. Often times a business ends up being washed out by every other company promising the same thing. A business doesn’t stand out or speak to anyone if it’s targeting everyone. Woman B’s brand is likely to get more attention and play on the emotions and interests of a certain demographic

Value Proposition:

With a brand to back it up, a business should formulate its value proposition. This is the primary reason a customer would buy from a business, and it should be the focus of the website, marketing materials, ad campaigns, and messaging.

In short, a value proposition states:

• 1. How your product or service solves customer’s problem or improves their situation
• 2. Delivered specific (hopefully unique) benefits
• 3. Talks to the ideal customer (target audience)
• 4. Quickly answers why they should choose you and not the competition

3. Implement messaging and content that successfully communicates your unique value proposition through story telling

It’s story time! The biggest mistake in crafting your message is to only talk about what you do. A typical message is “we do this and we’re better for this reason”. While the offerings and process are important (and there is a time and place for them), more is needed to connect to the audience.

Tell a story, solve a common problem, and fill an opportunity that the target audience relates to. Great stories relate to the values of the audience and build up the relationship a consumer has with a brand. You want your audience to be thinking, “they get me” and “they know exactly what my problem is and how to solve it”.

So what makes a great story?

• 1. It’s relatable
• 2. Its memorable
• 3. Its easily retold

You can craft a good story in three easy steps:

• 1. Exposition – tell story that means something to the audience
• 2. Conflict – identify a problem or opportunity
• 3. Resolution – make your brand the hero! Solve the problem and fill the need(s)

A message or story that speaks to someone directly is more memorable than a generic message. It is easily remembered and retold when it is based in the person’s own experiences and feelings. Capitalize on this by knowing your target market from step 2! Tell them what they’re struggling with and how you can solve it. This will add to your credibility.

Example of digging deeper with your messaging:

A car company is trying to sell a $29.95 “all-you-can-wash” car wash package. Instead of just talking about the offer, use a feeling the target audience can relate to. Everyone knows the feeling of driving around in a dirty car. Focus on this and you may come up with something like, “Are you the best version of yourself with a dirty car?”. Shoot a commercial or run an ad that shows a soccer mom driving up to pick the team up for practice. Her car is dirty and all the kids are looking hesitant to get into the filthy car. Everyone can relate to this feeling and you should capitalize on it!

4. You'll need an SEO Strategy or some form of Search Engine marketing

Once you have your brand, target audience, and messaging down, it’s time to start showing up on search engines so people can find you. Search engine optimization (SEO) is what improves your website content in Google’s rankings. It’s the difference between showing up on the first page versus second page of Google. An estimated 95 percent of people who perform Google searches don’t go past the first page of results. Ask yourself, do you ever click on the second page of Google’s results?

Some examples of SEO influencers:

• 1. Title Tags – a title tag is an HTML element that specifies the title of a web page. Title tags are displayed on search engine results pages as the clickable headline for a given result, and are important for usability, SEO, and social sharing.
• 2. Meta Descriptions - The meta description is a snippet of up to about 50 - 300 characters which summarizes a page's content. Search engines show the meta description in search results mostly when the searched-for phrase is within the description, so optimizing the meta description is crucial for on-page SEO .
• 3. Keywords - ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they're the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called "search queries." If you boil everything on your page — all the images, video, copy, etc. — down to a simple words and phrases, those are your primary keywords.
• 4. Unique (and keyword sprinkled) web page content - The content you provide is one of the most important aspects of your website and its rankings in search engine results. ...Content is a necessary part of SEO. Websites that provide quality content consistently rank higher in search engine results

In the beginning, you may be able to handle the majority of this on your own — especially if you’re a small start-up company — but if you want to see lasting results, you’ll want to enlist the aid of professionals to handle your digital marketing for you. Professional digital marketers are up to date with all the Google algorithm updates, and they frequently know all about the best practices. Check out Dog Ear’s SEO offerings to learn more.

5. Focus on content marketing and becoming a thought leader

Now your business is being found, people are visiting your site, and you’re engaging your audience effectively. This is where content marketing comes in.

You need to ensure that your audience (and Google) sees you as a thought leader in your industry. The only way to do this is to consistently publish useful, in-depth pieces of content that demonstrate an expertise in your niche. Publish as many resources as you can using a variety of content types, including blog posts, white papers, videos, infographics, and more. This can be key for brands who wish to differentiate themselves in their chosen market. Content marketing is all about providing useful and engaging content that leads the customer to you. Answer common questions, give resources that help them your customers in some way, and remember to always speak to your audience.