In all likelihood you’ll be fairly similar to your competitors in lots of ways, and it can be tricky to communicate what exactly differentiates you. In fact, your competitors are probably targeting your prospects with very similar messages. Meaning your messages will get left by the wayside if you don’t make them stand out.
Some businesses fall into the trap of exaggerating their messages – resulting in over the top and unlikely assertions that tend to alienate prospects.
Creating messages that stand out whilst remaining true to the business needn’t involve hyperbole or dishonesty. The trick is to discover what makes you different, and to hone in on this.
Here are five ways to create stand out business messaging – without deceiving prospects:
- Get to know your audience. Who are they, and what are their needs? Find out what your audience’s common problems are, and create messaging that proposes answers to these problems. Ensuring your messaging is tightly targeted to your desired prospects will make it stand out for the right reasons.
- Be genuine. Like many, I’m wary of the term USP; it’s extremely difficult to be truly unique, especially in a crowded marketplace. A more effective route is sometimes to focus on being authentic, factual and crisp, so that your honesty and genuineness stand out for themselves, and engender a positive customer reaction.
- Focus. Rather than trying to offer the world and be everybody’s cup of tea, it’s a far better use of your resource to hone in on some of your particular strengths in your messaging, which you know customers respond well to. If your messaging is too broad it can have a weaker impact, and reduce your chances of standing out.
- Offer visual parallels. Where possible, support your messages with branded, aesthetic themes and colour palettes that tally with the content. We all know that images can boost clicks and engagement. This is especially important on highly visual platforms like social media.
- Take note of your competitors and seek out a niche. Research their messages – take a look at their social media, marketing copy and web copy – and work out what it is they push the hardest. Once you’ve done this, work out where your messages overlap, and where you can differentiate. Are you more responsive than they are? Is their product of a higher quality? If you have lots of competitors it can be helpful to plot your positioning on a basic chart like the one below.
You know – or should know – the reasons why your customers buy from you, so use this information to tailor your messaging towards your prospects.
Once you’ve developed your new messaging, make sure you spread it far and wide, from your website to your print marketing materials to ensure consistency.
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