If you did the same thing, the same way, and for the same customers as every other business then you wouldn’t have started your own business in the first place. Yet, recognizing and articulating your “special sauce” so that you can stand out among the competition is one of the biggest challenges a small business owner will face. Communicating that difference effectively is the only way to attract and retain a customer base and grow your small business. Here are 6 tricks for discovering and sharing your “special sauce” in your marketing campaign.
Research your competition
You’re not going to know what your company does right without finding out what your competition does wrong. Look into the most well-known businesses who supply a similar service or product. Look up customer complaints, articles written about them, their business models – anything that could give you an idea of what your competition does differently than you. Compare what you’ve learned about your competition with how your company conducts itself. Odds are there is at least one thing you do that’s different and better than your competition. If your business looks like a carbon copy of your competition, it’s time to re frame your business model and look for what people complain about most regarding your competition. Then, remodel your business to address those problems.
Get the word out!
Once you’ve figured out what it is that sets your business apart, it’s time to advertise. Make your “special sauce” the key focus of your social media campaign. There are multiple mediums to broadcast your “special sauce,” but here are a few suggestions of what worked for us.
Blogs
Blog writing can be one of the most effective ways to get the word out about your business’s “special sauce.” Write about problems customers encounter with businesses in your field, issues have with your competition, and anything related to what your business does. The important thing to do at the end of each of these posts is to separate your business from the issues you’re writing about. Incorporate the “special sauce” of your business into your solution to the problem that the blog post addresses.
Incorporate the “special sauce” Into the sales pitch
Call a meeting with the sales team. Present them with the facts that separate you from your competitors and tell them to emphasize these points in the pitch. The “special sauce” should be incorporated into the sales team’s explanation of your service or product. If done correctly, the sales call will educate potential customers about what sets your business apart from the competition (and hopefully close them).
Make the “special sauce” a major talking point in your business presentations
Business conferences are where you can get the attention of major backers and investors. These individuals who have the power to make your company sink or swim, want to hear why they should invest in your company compared to your competition and what you do that will make their investment worthwhile. Donate at least a few slides of your presentation to explaining the “special sauce” of your company, what makes it unique, and why it puts you far above your competitors. This will hook investors who are on the fence of whom to invest in, and spread word of your company across the business world like wildfire.
Create the tagline-splash the sauce on top of it!
A clear and concise tagline or catchphrase can do wonders for your online presence. You can incorporate a good tagline into your blog posts, your sales pitches, your presentations, basically any form of communication between your company and the business world. With the tagline being as important as it is, why not incorporate your special sauce into it. Make sure to do it in a catchy way. Any example can be seen is what we’ve done with our tagline here at TalkLocal. We’re a lead generation service and our “special sauce” is that we generate free leads in real time by phone. A potential tagline could be “free leads.real time.real people. TalkLocal.” If you incorporate your special sauce into an effective broadcasting campaign, you’d be surprised with how fast it will cause your business to grow.
And, did I mention that TalkLocal also helps service professionals meet new customers? Sign up to get lead previews of matching customers by phone and opt-in to speak to them immediately. Premium members pay a small flat rate per conversation; they never pay for calls that go to voicemail or are not the types of jobs they want. Click here to learn more.
Tags: grow your small business, small business advice
