When you are a small business, a steep competition is to be expected. There are hundreds of entrepreneurs all over the world who are as enthusiastic as you in starting a business, providing quality products and service, and leaving their mark. However, pursuing your passion for your business may be even more daunting once you realise that you will also have to compete with larger companies.
The advantage of larger companies
Their biggest and most obvious advantages are their resources and their funds. Not to mention, they have a brand that is more familiar than yours. When they start seeing small businesses as a threat, they can just create an elaborate campaign to remind people of their brand and how far their reach is. They can even create new and better facilities when they see potential products and designs that can compete with theirs and recreate or improve it.
But don’t be disheartened, consumers nowadays prefer becoming patrons of small businesses. Their personalised customer engagement has made them more appealing to consumers who would like to play a role in shaping the products and services being delivered to them.
How small businesses can compete
Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few strategies to ensure small businesses are taking full advantage of this trend. Here are some of them:
Learn digital marketing
Digital marketing is going to be one of your most powerful tools in getting ahead of competitors. Knowing how purchasing an SSL certificate makes your website safe from hackers, the significance of targeting the right keywords, and the importance of having a solid social media following already holds an advantage over big businesses. And learning how to execute optimisation efforts personally will help you succeed even more. Leaving the task to a marketing team might create a disconnect between you and your online audience, which means you’d be slow to react when an online mishap happens.
Analyse competitors
A competitive analysis allows you to look at the strengths and weaknesses of your major competitors. You should know how you can respond and match their best traits, and how you can revolutionise your products based on their weaknesses. Other than strengths and weaknesses, you can look at the following when doing the analysis:
- Target customers
- Marketing strategies
- Products and pricing
- Online engagement
Improve customer engagement
Remember that your edge as a small business is that you are more in touch with customers than larger companies. You do not have top executives or high management to answer to and you do not have any limits when it comes to branding. So improve on your personal connection with customers by engaging with them more and be creative with it. You can post unique video ads, take advantage of the latest meme trends, or you can even just ask how their day is going.
Provide quality products or services
Last, but certainly not least, you have to make sure you are delivering high-quality products or services. Your online marketing strategies and competitor analyses are useless if you are not working hard to provide your customers with the best.
