Stand out from the start

Posted On 18/11/2024

These days it is rare to find a business niche that is not already over saturated, however you don’t need to come up with a new concept to be different. Little tweaks here and there can make you stand out from the crowd and give you a great chance to be successful from the first day.

Shout about your USP (unique selling point) from day one

This may sound obvious but all too often I see and hear about new businesses starting up and unless I really delve into their website I don’t actually know what makes them different, what sets them apart from the competition. Use all your PR channels to shout from the roof tops about your USP(s).

Being a new company it is a fair assumption that customers will not have encountered your business before so when they see you for the first time you want them to instantly know THIS is what sets you apart, THIS is the extra they get from working with you.

Get personal

One of the keys for new start-ups to be successful is trust and the best way of getting it is to be accessible to your customers, let them see there is a real person behind the business, let them contact you directly, don’t hide behind online contact forms.

Have a lengthy author bio all about you and your team, your history and what makes you tick.

Honesty is paramount

Being honest is so important for new businesses; where possible you should try and keep your business as transparent as possible, customers can smell a dodgy business start-up miles away. Some examples of tactics I have seen used are offers that appear to be too good to be true (and almost always are), over promising and under-delivering and finally pretending to be Mr Big.

Be you and make them see the benefit of working with a new company with fresh ideas as opposed to wasting your time focusing on creating this façade which will ultimately crumble.

Know your competition

Being a new start-up is like entering the lion cage with a couple steaks strapped to each arm, you’re going to get eaten alive UNLESS you do your homework and know your competition. Starting a business puts you in a very unique situation that you can use to your advantage, you can hold off ‘launching’ your business as long as needed to enable you to do all the competitor research you need to.

You ought to be looking at what they are doing well and more importantly what they are not doing well, make a list of both and compare with all your competitors to see if there are any glaring areas you can creep in and fill the void. Look at your competitors from both an online and offline perspective, leave no stone unturned. Make the most of your time pre-launch as once you go live your competitors will see you coming and try to squash you.

Go the extra mile

My last tip is to go that extra mile, a great piece of customer service in whichever form can often have a ripple effect within your niche and being a new company you want those first mentions of your company to be a positive one. Take on board your competitor research and if there are questions out there being posed get involved and answer them even if it does not directly lead to a sale conversion of any sort.