|
Home / Business / Marketing
3 Secrets to Knocking Out Big Competitors
By:Allyn_Cutts
Nobody likes a bully… especially small business marketers. If you’ve ever felt like the little guy taking punches from a heavyweight champion, you know what I’m talking about. Big business has donned its gloves, and is waiting to put small business down for the count.
I’ve got good news! Sometimes the little guy wins. Heck, it isn’t easy and sometimes it’s a close call, but little guys do win and when they do… victory is sweet!
What can you do when you’re being threatened by the bully down the street?
1. Take a careful look at the Competition
Every business has its strengths and weaknesses. You need to be aware of both… your competitors strong points, and the places where room for improvement is quite obvious.
2. Be Flexible
Don’t expect your competitor to broadcast his next move so that you can be prepared to block it. You’ve got to think a step ahead, and be ready to outsmart his next maneuver.
3. Use a little Judo
You don’t have to be big and brawny to successfully use Judo. Why? It’s an art that uses your opponent’s momentum to trip him up. So what if you don’t have thousands of dollars to invest in a campaign. When you’re competition has invested his tens of thousands in one, you’ll be able to make a quick about turn and counteract quickly with a smaller campaign of your own. He’ll either forfeit his investment or continue through, but loose steam.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret about your competitors that might encourage you. Although big businesses often have a wide variety of products filling their shelves, they often don’t have depth.
Think about it this way. You may run to your local department store and find everything ranging from make-up to camping equipment. The problem with that? …chances are they don’t have an extremely wide assortment of their products.
This means that if you’re an avid outdoorsman, you probably wouldn’t be satisfied choosing between two cheap brands of tents when there is an amazing variety on the market. An outdoor related store could get one over on the big department store by offering the widest variety of fewer products in a focused field.
Another asset about being the small guy, is that it’s easier to make a quick turn. Hey, how many managers do you have to get okays from to make a quick decision? Think of the weeks it takes for a local department store to send a request from a customer for a certain product to the regional or national management? Yeah, too long!
As a small business, you can have a new product on your shelves within a week. If I were a customer wanting a new tent, I’d prefer to not wait until summer was half over to get it.
There are a lot of benefits to being the small guy. Don’t take bullying lying down. You have what it takes to get the best end of the stick and come out a winner.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blink
Stumble
Spurl
Reddit
Netscape
Furl
Article keywords: marketing, small business, big business
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Who is Allyn Cutts, and why should you care?
Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers. Allyn is a marketing and sales fanatic, providing measurable marketing solutions that drive huge results for small-to mid-size business clients. Allyn works personally with clients to design and deliver off-line and on-line direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at www.AllynCutts.com and you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays.
|
|
| Top Marketing Articles |
- 1). The Benefits Of Branding By : Marcia Yudkin
Branding is the process of creating distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more. Here’s why the effort to brand your company or yourself pays off.
1. Memorability. A brand serves as a convenient container for a reputation and good will.
|
- 2). New Marketing Program Draws Thousands To Its Free Teleseminar By : Patrick Riley
Less than three short months ago, a new 1Step System was born with a very real potential for generating a great deal of income in a short time. Co -founders Rod Stinson and Chris Koehl have brought this opportunity to people all over the world. Many are joining now because the company is still in its infancy, which from a marketing standpoint is surely the best time to get on board.
|
- 3). Direct TV and the HD DVR By : dave4
With the inclusion of free or price-reduced TiVo-powered DVRs (digital video recorders), the benefits of DIRECTV have become so much greater. Particularly compelling is the high definition DVR combo that new DIRECTV subscribers can currently receive at a fair price. Of course the question to be asked is: If I can receive a free DVR with my DIRECTV subscription, why dish out the extra cash for the upgrade? There are quite a few reasons.
|
- 4). Seven Offline Viral Marketing Ideas By : Matt DeAngelis
Recently I participated in a forum discussion about offline marketing – that is using more traditional marketing offline to drive traffic to your website or blog. I can still remember the first time I saw a URL in a TV commercial and how cool I thought that was.
The offline world has the constraint of geography, so the least expensive forms of viral marketing are going to be geographically bound, which can be challenging for some sites.
|
- 5). Social Bookmarking - The Ultimate Viral Marketing By : Matt DeAngelis
Social Bookmarking could be one of the best things that ever happened to websites and blogs.
Basically Social Bookmarketing sites allow users to create a set of content bookmarks. These bookmarks are organized by tags, which are (usually) arbitrary words or phrases the user can assign to content. This gives the user a way to classify, rank and organize content using tags.
|
- 6). John Warwicker - Co-Founder of Tomato Design Company By : Robert Palmer
Design company Tomato
( http://www.tomato.co.uk ) was founded in 1991 in London by John Warwicker, Steve Baker, Dirk Van Dooren, Karl Hyde, Richard Smith, Simon Taylor and Graham Wood. In 1994, Michael Horsham and Jason Kedgely joined.
tomato specializes in: Architectural Design, Consultancy, Drawing, Education, Electronic Interactive Media, Film & Commercial Direction, Graphic Design, Fashion, Motion Graphics, Music & Sound, Strategy, Branding & Identity, Photography, Publishing, Title Sequences, Typography, Writing.
|
- 7). The Onset of Digital Vinyl Banner Printing By : Charmaine Joy Caro
Is your business customer-oriented? Does it speak of your company identity? Does it offer the customers the right services and products they really need? If you think your business still needs a little push to effectively make it to the peak of success, then you should opt for vinyl banners for your promotional campaign.
Vinyl banners are proven promotional tools that give boost to your ad campaign.
|
- 8). Teasing Colors in Printing Services By : Maricon Williams
People are basically visual creatures. They are easily turned on by what they see. The outrageousness of the design, graphics and colors teases their sense of sight. It sends excitement and thrill that generates more appetite to stare longer and be charmed.
Among design, graphics and color, the latter is the most difficult to show accurately. This is because color perception can be affected by lots of factors.
|
- 9). Full Color for Stunning Brochures By : viojieley
Have you ever feel so engrossed in something so beautiful and breathe taking? Perhaps a picture or image of a person or a scenic spot that you just find it so difficult to take your eyes off it. If you have, have you ever wondered what made you stare? Well, most of these pictures become attractive because of its color. Yes you read it right, color is the culprit.
|
- 10). Before You Do Anything: Try It Out By : James Calvin
So you know, roughly, what you want your home business to be. Before you go any further and start investing, though, you need to try it out. Here’s how.
Build a Prototype.
If you plan to sell physical things, or you’re going to do something like starting a website or making software, then you should build a prototype to see how your idea will work out.
|
| New Marketing Articles |
- 1). Birkenstocks & The Customizable Art Of Footwear By : JM Anderson
Birkenstocks are a German brand of quality footwear, which is best known for it’s contoured footbed. When most people purchase a new pair of shoes, they expect to have a ‘break-in’ time. This usually lasts for a few days and, at that time, the shoe is pretty comfortable and broken in for everyday wear. The main difference with Birkenstocks is that they approach the ‘break-in’ time much differently.
|
- 2). Millionaire Marketing in 3 Small Steps By : Allyn_Cutts
What is money? A child might say that it’s something rich people have and poor people don’t. An engineer might go into a detailed and lengthy explanation, but we all know that money is what really “makes the world go around.”
In the business world, money is the definition of success or failure. That’s why it’s vitally important that every entrepreneur has a good understanding of money – even if their business is still struggling to get off the ground.
|
- 3). Free T Shirt Offer – Are they really free? By : Isabel Rodrigues
The modern day craze has created a huge demand for designer clothing all over the world. Many young guns are going for a casual wear than what it used to be 20 years ago. A simple T-shirt and low waist jeans makes both the genders comfortable. It’s become almost a compulsory act to hang out in t-shirts and jeans even in colleges. Youths like to have wide collection of t-shirt of current fashion.
|
- 4). How To Promote Your Home Based Business On A Shoestring Budget! By : Kris Bickell
Getting customers is the key to success in any business. There are many ways to promote your home based business - the only way to know which ones are best for your business is to test. Here are some tips for getting customers without spending a fortune!
1. Tell everyone you know that you are starting a business AND ask them to tell everyone they know.
|
- 5). Cash in on Neighbors By : Allyn_Cutts
What could be more welcoming than the spicy smell of hot apple pie to receive you into a brand new neighborhood full of people you’ve never met? Hopefully you life has been full of warm, hospitable neighbors wherever you’ve lived. Perhaps not…
If you’ve ever had a bad experience with a neighbor, you know just how much those invisible people really know about you.
|
- 6). Technology Controlled Marketing By : Allyn_Cutts
RSS feeds and blogs took Internet marketing by a storm in 2005. Every time we turn around there’s a brand new marketing vehicle speeding down the Internet highway. In the fast paced race of the virtual world, it’s easy to get swept away in the current of technology.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that computers have taken control of both our personal world and the business world.
|
- 7). Finding Your Niche In The Business World By : Cheryl Johnson
Who am I and what do I love to do? Well, isn't this the twenty million dollar question! A more appropriate question might be "Who was I and what did I love to do?"
As you search to find yourself, and what it is you love to do, you may find the task harder than you thought it would be. Try to think about your childhood. Can you remember what thrilled you as a child? Like many people you've probably forgotten what brought try joy and excitement to your essence.
|
- 8). 7 Marketing Ideas to Expand Your Customer Base and Profits By : Joel Sussman
Copyright 2006 Joel Sussman
How do you grab people's attention, arouse their interest, trigger their desire, and motivate them to take action? Answer that four-part question correctly and you've identified the secret to achieving tremendous sales and marketing success in your chosen business or field. To complicate matters, however, the potential answers are as numerous and multi-faceted as the growing number of niche markets, products and services, and marketing trends in our culture.
|
- 9). The Housing Market Pitfalls and How I got Trapped. By : Mars
The housing game in Gainesville Virginia, let alone all other areas in Virginia, has become something to smirk at. I mean it’s obvious that during the real estate boom everyone made money except those that were watching from the sideline and jumped on the train as it was inching away only to slip and get crushed on the tracks. Well welcome to my world.
|
- 10). One Little Secret that Makes People Listen to You By : Kathryn Beach
As a marketer, you should be focused on one and only one thing. Not your company, not your product, but on filling your customer's needs. You have to start out with a clear perception of who your target customer is (the more details you know, the better); what his or her needs are, and how your product or service fills that need better than any other.
|
|
|