Bright Ideas # 71 - How to Stand Out from the Crowd

I’ve started doing a lot of networking again recently. So lately I’ve been exposed to tons of examples of small business marketing.

Some of what I see is amazingly well thought out and effective. But for the most part I see the exact same mistakes made time and again.

One of the most common is what I call SSDB (Same #*$!, Different Business).

If you have marketing materials that aren’t getting results, chances are you’re making this mistake yourself. And it’s pretty much a guaranteed business growth killer.

Let me explain…

Every business, whether large or small, is competing for a piece of your ideal customer’s time and attention. But your prospect’s mind is already occupied by a heck of a lot of things besides you and what you do.

So one of the main goals of marketing is to make your business, products or services stand out and seem different from the competition. Because if your business looks, sounds and/or seems just like everyone else’s, there is absolutely no reason for someone to notice—let alone buy from—you!

Real estate agents are usually textbook examples of SSDB marketing.

I probably meet two to five agents at every networking meeting I attend. And you know what???

They all can help me buy or sell a home (imagine that!). Most cover the greater Seattle area. They usually talk about how they really care and are there to help. And they all work for established companies like Windermere or Remax.

About the only thing that sets them apart is the picture on their business card. And that is just not enough to make me choose one agent over another. It’s classic SSDB marketing.

Thankfully, no matter what industry you are in, there is a simple way to make your business stand out from the crowd…

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What do you have to do to get noticed?
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Really, it’s easy. In fact, you’re probably going to kick yourself after I say this…

All you have to do is be different!

Think about it…

If everyone else is wearing green, and you’re dressed in brown, you stand out. If your voice is louder…If what you have to say goes against the status quo…If you speak with a heavy accent…If you dress differently from the norm…You stand out.

By the same token, if there is a page of black and white ads, and only one in color, which one do you look at first? The one that’s different, of course.

If the competition’s marketing is dull and dry, while yours sparkles with wit and personality, who do you think is going to get noticed—and hired—more?

Unfortunately, when it comes to marketing, far too many entrepreneurs just look at the competition and do whatever they are doing.

Now I can understand how, on the surface, this seems like a good idea. After all, if those other businesses are successful they must be doing something right—right?!?

Well, they might be, and they might not be. Unless you know a good bit about marketing it’s pretty hard to tell.

But whether or not your competition’s marketing materials are effective doesn’t even really matter. If your marketing looks and sounds just like theirs, you are going to have a hard time attracting customers.

First because you don’t stand out, so they may not even notice you in the sea of sameness. Second because you aren’t giving people an obvious reason to choose you over anyone else.

Of course, it can be very helpful to see what already works. And there’s no reason in the world not to take an effective concept and change it to suit your needs—as long as you clearly come across as different.

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How do you make sure your business really stands out from the crowd?
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Here’s a simple exercise…

1) Collect samples of your competition’s marketing materials. This could be ads, newsletters, Web pages (print them out), brochures, postcards or anything else.

2) Lay them all out on a table along with yours. Then ask yourself what is similar and what is different about yours and theirs. Look at everything from the type of marketing they use (ads vs. blogs vs. direct mail etc.) to the colors, graphics and layout, style of writing, services offered, tagline and guarantee.

This gives you a solid starting point for changing your own. Now all you have to do is make yours different.

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A parting thought
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Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard on this subject comes from marketing consultant and copywriter extraordinaire, Dan Kennedy…

In a nutshell, he said that if you want to be innovative and stand out from the crowd, don’t do what others in your industry are doing. Instead, look at what successful businesses outside your industry are doing and figure out how to use it yourself.

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