How to Beat The Competition Effectively

The competition is there in any sphere of life you find yourself and the only thing you’ve got to do is to beat the competition to pulps. This is the only surviving tactic, use the “sledgehammer,” and always be willing to dive right in, no matter the challenge.

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You are either marketing a product or yourself and can’t afford to have competition do you in, if you refuse to beat it, you will be beaten flat to the canvass. If you never gave it a thought, there are hundreds and possibly thousands of brands out there going after the same qualified leads.

Give it all it takes, don’t consider any aspect of the battle negligible, it’s a war and you need the best form of yourself, your best mindset, attitude, physical and psychological alertness, an updated form of yourself, total composure, perfect mental state, and armed with all necessary metrics to wage the war.

There are only two sides to a coin, it’s either you win or you lose, nothing tastes as bitter as a cupful of failure or disappointment. Imagine the amount of time and other resources you have put into the planning and eventual take-off of your business, the stress and responsibilities you shoulder.

Think of the number of people who depend on you for their livelihoods, the goodwill you have built and are enjoying from your customers, as all are about to go down the drain. Understand that it’s your total reputation and credibility that is going to be shattered, the relationships you have built over the years that will vanish into the thin air.

All these are staring you in the face if you don’t give the competition a resounding bashing if you don’t effectively relegate and banish it to the doldrums. The following are what you need to do in order to effectively consign the competition to oblivion.

1. Research the market

Data is power and is amply available, you need to arm yourself with happenings in the market before you can attempt confronting the competition. Market research involves gathering, collating, and analyzing information about your market, this must include your customers and competitors.

It is absolutely important you research any new market you may be venturing into to avoid wasting resources on failed projects.

These 3 ways of conducting market research will help to put you in the forefront:

1. Desk research – you have the option of using existing data from the internet and industry associations

2. Field research – you can go out to the field and gather the information yourself using surveys, questionnaires, and other research tools

3. Commercial agencies – outsourcing to experts in the business world to carry out the research for you.

The analysis of data is a hard task because all the data you collect, the measurement tools, the sheer mass of information available may unnerve you as it may not be easy to get a firm grip and a solid comprehension of it all.

Marketing measurement can be likened to pearls, once you are able to come up with sound analytics you can prove the worth and wisdom of your marketing efforts. This is surely priceless and a potent weapon against the competition.

You need to constantly upgrade your brand by conducting regular SWOT analysis which ensures you have a better understanding of your business and work out the areas where you need improvement. You will be in good stead to understanding your market, as well as the competition you are facing.

You can then predict changes that must be addressed in order to enhance the success of your business. A SWOT analysis is a sure step in the right direction towards your marketing planning process.

2. Give customers a voice

In this era of technological advancements where innovations are coming from the right, left, and center, the opinion of the customer counts. However, Forrester’s Digital Transformation in the Age of the Customer reports that only 9% of surveyed brands indicated that they had implemented digital transformation to that degree they believed gave them a head over the competition.

Customers want to be engaged in live chats at their own time and convenience. They want to see their pain points addressed promptly, they want the answers to what, where, and how as regards your product or service. Customers do no longer want to be relegated to the background.

To beat the competition, you have to give answers to questions from customers in real time, you don’t have the grace of giving excuses. You must live up to their bidding.

Fortunately, you can now integrate AI Chatbots to help bring about the automation of your customer service and improve customer engagement process. This will enable you to attend to customers 24/7 since chatbots don’t go on breaks, call in sick, take holidays, and suffer frailties as humans are wont to do.

3. Personalize your message

The era of one-cap-fits-all marketing is gone, serving the right message to the right customer, at the correct time, and on the best platform is the “in thing’ and ensures your message resonates that much more. According to a survey by Infosys, 86% of consumers say that personalization has some impact on what they purchase; and one quarter admits personalization ‘significantly influences’ their buying decisions.

The more you convert and make sales, the more you beat back the competition and stay afloat. Competing on the basis of delivering a superior experience should be your ultimate goal.