Many small and medium-sized enterprises lack innovative marketing models, and most of them play the role of "followers" in the market. Once a hot-selling product appears on the market, they will all rush to imitate it, so that after removing the manufacturer's trademark, it is difficult for customers to tell which company's product it is, which creates great difficulties in sales.

When comparing similar products or services, potential customers are often attracted to companies that offer different value. If you want to achieve this, companies can differentiate themselves from competitors through market activities, fundamentally get rid of the dead end of "follow-up" marketing, and find a space of their own.

According to expert experience, you should start with the following three steps to break away from "follow-up" marketing:

1. Investigate competitors

Before you start to develop effective differences Before developing a strategy, you must first understand your competitors’ market information and “know yourself and the enemy.” Collect all market information you have access to, including your competitors' advertisements, web pages, sales brochures, etc., and identify their key market and product information.

After you understand your competitors, you can begin to evaluate similarities and differences. Some need to be adjusted from the product perspective, while others require innovation from the marketing planning perspective. In most cases, changing the way a product is sold, or adding some new services, is the key to getting a regular company to attract customers' attention.

2. Take the customer’s perspective

Compare yourself to a customer and try to make a choice between products or services from their perspective. Often the most important decision factor for a customer is value. Value is divided into explicit value and implicit value. For example, by providing customer service that is higher than industry standards, letting customers know that they can enjoy better after-sales service when purchasing from your company is a manifestation of implicit value.

In order to find the right points of differentiation, companies must understand what is most valuable to target customers. You can set up a customer group to collect data, or you can conduct phone surveys. There are many ways.

3. Introduce your new message

Finally, your new core message (that is, your point of difference) must be presented to customers through marketing activities and sales support materials. In the early stages, you can test the waters on a small scale through some medium (such as a group of magazines or websites), which is an effective way to verify whether you are on the right track.

When you feel that your target customers have responded positively to the new information you are delivering, you can then fully expand it to other media. According to the budget set by the company, fully communicate with existing customers and potential customers, and plan a penetration period of 6 months or longer to allow customers to adapt and absorb this new information. By following these three steps, your company’s chances of standing out will be significantly improved.