In this day and age, it’s very important to learn how to make your business more competitive. With more than 32.5 million businesses in the United States and the climate becoming tighter thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, businesses large and small have to learn the best ways to become and stay competitive for that ever-increasing tight dollar.

So if you’re a business that’s trying to gain an edge over the competition, here are some great tips that will give you the edge in gaining the confidence of a stingy consumer base.

Get To Know Your Customer Base

This is probably the most important out of any tip. How can you run a successful business if you don’t know who your customer base entails?

Knowing your customers will allow you to market your business effectively. Currently, nearly 80% of businesses don’t have the relative data available on their customer base to launch an effective ad campaign. It would be hard for a company to market to a certain demographic without the right data to market to.

Knowing your customers is not just about gathering data to market to them, though. It’s also about building relationships, either through marketing events or through personal outreach that will make the customer feel comfortable doing business with you.

Get in the Web Game

Technology has become an ever-important way to get your business out there.

Many of the most successful companies out there use web hosting services to make sure that their websites are functional and easy to use. Knowing how to use the internet effectively will also give you an additional marketing advantage to build relationships with potential customers.

With an increasingly tech-savvy customer base looking for companies to do business with, getting in and maintaining your web game will do wonders for keeping your business competitive.

Make That Eye-Catching Website Google Friendly

Most of what we do on the internet these days revolves around Google.

Did you know that, on any given day, there are over 63,000 searches performed on the site, per second? That’s certainly a lot of searches!

With so many using Google to search for any-and-everything, part of maintaining your web game also means making your website eye-catching for the eyes of Google’s algorithms so that when people search for services such as heating and air conditioning, your company will shoot to the top of the search results.

Make Your Product Shine

Of course, you can’t market to get on top of your web game without something that will make your company stand out from the pack. After all, how can you get an advantage over the competition if you blend in with them?

This is where it may be wise to look for a product design company.

Why should you do this? Because a product design company will help you craft a winning product and will also be cost-effective and in a time where businesses are trying to survive, saving costs has gained increased importance.

Get to Know Your Competitors

Just as it’s important to get to know your customer base, you also must be willing to get to know and understand the companies you’re competing with.

This goes hand-and-hand with understanding your customer base. Let’s say you are competing with other screen printing services and you’re trying to gain an upper hand in the competition. Try to understand what your competitors are doing. Who their customer base is? How do they operate?

Knowing the ins-and-outs of your competitors will allow you to better set yourself apart from your peers by doing unique marketing to the targeted customer base.

Make Sure Your Customers Know It’s Your Business

Once you’re gotten to know the businesses you’re competing with, now you can set out to push your business out to the forefront by letting them know that it’s your business.

How do you achieve this? By setting yourself apart from your competitors, both in marketing and interaction.

Catalogues are a great example of how companies set out to push their brand ahead of the pack. IKEA also does something a little extra with their catalog and Neiman Marcus has always made sure that its annual catalogs were the star over its competitors.

Setting yourself apart from the competition will give you a distinct advantage in making your business truly competitive in today’s marketplace.

Be a Cure to the Pain

As with every company, there are certain “pains” that can keep your business from running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

These are called “Business Pain Points,” which can seriously affect a business’ bottom-line and keep your company from being competitive. So it matters a lot to be the cure to the pain.

For example, say you have a web design company and the customer has some questions or concerns about your business. Being open and honest, and addressing the customer’s needs will make your business trustworthy and standout among consumers.

This is being the “cure,” which will preserve your bottom-line and leap you ahead of the competition.

Find Your Corner and Plant Your Flag

In today’s business climate, everyone is trying to compete for an increasingly frugal dollar.

With so many competing for the same dollar, now is the best time to find a unique corner and plant your flag there. Find your niche within a crowded marketplace, and make sure that you let the customers know that what you’re selling is unique.

To achieve this, you have to do some storytelling. creating and building stories around the product that you’re selling. Not only do you have to tell that story, but you have to promote it, bring it to life.

Believe it or not, storytelling is a huge part of marketing that not many companies realize. It’s a strategy that could bring your business new life and make it a strong, unique competitor in this marketplace.

To Tell the Story, You Have to Clarify

Now, anyone can tell a story, but in order to truly sell it, you have to clarify it.

Make sure that the story and message you’re trying to get out there to the customer base is clear and concise. If it’s muddled, then customers will tune the story out.

Say, for example, you have a sales job that you’re assigned to advertise. How are you going to make this job more attractive than the other sales jobs out there?

How can your recruiting services company rise to the task of getting applicants attracted to this position? You tell a compelling and concise story, that’s how. Now, your returning service is near the cream of the crop when it comes to recruiting.

See how storytelling can be a great marketing tool?

Switch-Up Your Business to Be Competitive

OK, this tip could be a tricky one, but sometimes what is needed to gain a competitive edge in the business world is a simple switch-up of your business.

Yes, change can be hard at times, but if you see your business is struggling to stand out, then don’t be timid to embrace change. Take Urban Outfitters for example, which carved out a unique brand for itself by hiring artists instead of business folks to run its locations.

That type of out of the box thinking that other clothing chains of its ilk wouldn’t have dared tried, made Urban Outfitters stand out among its peers. Sometimes, embracing a different method of business can give you that corner to put your flag.

Say you have a tree pruning company but the business has been down of late. If you know of another business trade such as repairing heaters and air conditioners, don’t be afraid to switch it up and turn into a heating and air conditioning company to make your business competitive again.

Go into New Markets

This tip should be at the forefront of every single business’s competitive marketing plan.

Opening up new markets where your competitors haven’t touch will definitely give you an edge, especially if the current market you’re in isn’t making you as profitable as it once did.

For example, if your storage services company in the Orlando market has become saturated with similar businesses to you, then look around and see which new markets you can go into next that could make you competitive gain, such as Lakeland or Sarasota, just to make an example.

A business doesn’t stay competitive for long on stagnation, so head into the bright new horizons and unlock and target new markets. Even in a tightening business world, there’s still a lot of unexplored business opportunities out there.

Stay Innovative

While you’re out targeting new markets, you should also keep your business innovative.

Again, stagnation often kills the competitiveness of a business, and not innovating with new technologies will be the death knell of any business. So make sure to stay on top of current trends and technologies that customers are using, and innovate them into your business.

Happy Employees, Happy and Profitable Company

Always remember that employees are the backbone of your business, and it is imperative that you maintain high morale to keep the business running smoothly. Too often, businesses let the morale of their employees slip, and that can lead to those workers not caring if your business succeeds or not.

With a happy workforce, they’ll be more gear to see the company succeed and do what’s necessary to ensure its competitiveness. Happy employees make a happy and profitable company that consumers will want to do business with.

Learn it. Love it. Live it.

Partnerships Are Bliss

You can make your business competitive on your own, but sometimes, it helps to establish partnerships to take your company to the next level.

In the current business climate, partnerships have become very popular, which makes it wise for companies wishing to expand their competitiveness to pick up the phone and reach out to establish partnerships.

A great example of this is Starbucks’ partnership with Earthwatch, which not only benefitted Earthwatchs goals but gave tremendous insight to the coffee bean to Starbucks baristas, making them knowledgeable about the coffee they serve in their cafes.

Partnerships can enhance the goals and competitiveness of businesses.

Look Out for Your Existing Customer Base

We’ve talked an awful lot about how to attract new customers and gain a more competitive edge in today’s business climate.

However, you should never embark on the journey of targeting a new audience and expanding into different markets without making sure your existing customer base is still well-taken care of.

Don’t make the same mistake by turning a cold shoulder to the customers that have kept your business afloat while trying to open up new markets. Even though the business climate has become a bit tighter, always keep in mind that the American consumer still has ample places to take their money, so their business is certainly not guaranteed.

As long as you keep that in mind while trying to make your company more competitive, the more success you’ll have in gaining an edge over the competition.

In conclusion, the time is now to make sure that your business has all the tools it needs to not only stay competitive but gain an edge over your competitors.

It’s ever more important given the fact that the marketplace has contracted a bit over the past months, making the pitch for consumers to continue to invest their ever-tightening dollar even more fierce.

That’s the ultimate keyword in making your business more attractive and competitive: investment.

Investing in new marketing tools. Investing in new customers. Investing in new and innovative technologies. Investing in your employee’s happiness. Investing in new markets, and, most of all, continuing to invest in your existing customer base.

It all takes an investment on your part to make sure your business is competitive and striving.