Honest competition motivates us to excel and continue on the right path to success. In this article, we'll explore how to identify what makes your online business stand out, why it's important to check your competition, and what tools you can use to excel in the digital world.
How to identify the elements that distinguish your online business
Let's start with this question: What unique value do you provide?
Let's say you own a basketball store. What makes your brand different from other sports stores that sell basketball supplies? It could be your store’s exterior paint in red, your eye-catching showcase design, or perhaps the promotional activities you organize to catch the attention of passersby like hiring a professional to show off their kicking skills in front of your store.
You have to achieve distinction and uniqueness from other stores in the real world.
The importance of checking your competitors in the field
The same concept applies in the digital world as well. We must identify the elements that distinguish us from competitors on the Internet, which are what we call “unique selling points”.
A “unique selling point” is a clear statement that describes the advantages you offer, how you meet customer needs, and what sets you apart from competitors. 4 key questions to ask when defining your business’s “unique selling points” are:
- Who is my target audience?
- Who are my competitors?
- What problems does my target audience face?
- How can I solve it?
Asking these questions will enable you to create a brief statement that includes the answers to them. Here are some important tips as well:
- Communicate with the public in a non-fake manner.
- Interacting with them is as natural and easy as possible, you are trying to attract real customers, not bots.
- Highlight your unique selling points by promoting them on your website, social media and other marketing materials.
Not everyone may interact with good unique selling points and this is normal so you have to build unique selling points tailored to your target audience.
Another thing to consider when determining your unique selling points is your strengths and weaknesses. You can use the SWOT Analysis that helps ensure that you make the right decisions for your business.
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This type of analysis focuses on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Ask yourself:
- What is my business good at? These are your strengths.
- What requires further improvement? These are your weak points.
- How can I grow, change and improve? These are your chances.
- What is happening or could happen internally or externally that could negatively affect my business? These are the threats.
It is also important to be aware of competitors' activities when identifying your unique selling points.
You can always use the free tools available online to perform the competitor analysis process. Start with search engines, which are the fastest way to get the answers you want.
What tools can be used to excel in the digital world
What keywords appear on their websites, i.e. what words do they use in the page titles on their websites, what messaging method do they use in their social media accounts? You can also stay up-to-date with what your competitors are doing by subscribing to alert programs.
Free tools like Google Alerts let you see who's talking about certain topics online, helping you stay up-to-date.
You can set up alerts for key products or services that interest you, as well as for your business and the names of your competitors.
This way, you will receive notifications when the phrases you have selected are mentioned and discussed online, and you will be able to compare the performance of your business or organization.