How to Stand Out in a Crowded Online Marketplace

The Internet has done amazing things for e-commerce by allowing businesses to reach out to customers around the world. While it does mean that businesses can market their product/service to a larger audience of people, it also means that other businesses can offer their product/service to your prospective customers. So, how do you set yourself apart from the rest of the pack? (I’ll give you a hint—you don’t have to do anything outrageous like dress yourself up in Lady Gaga’s meat suit). Consider the following better marketing strategies (like using a professional writing service when you do not have time to update your blog) for your brand.

1. Keep Your Company Blog Updated (and Relevant)

There are numerous benefits of blogging on your company website. It establishes your knowledge and authority, so customers trust your ability to offer the product/service that you specialize in. When you provide useful information, it can also provide answers to people looking for information online. While these people do not necessarily want the product or service now, it can create a possible lead for future sales.

2. Improve on SEO (the Right Way)

SEO, or search engine optimization, is enhancing a website to make it rank higher when Internet users search for related terms online. Before search engines developed more advanced algorithms, it was common practice to use techniques like keyword stuffing, where you use a word as many times as you can on a page. Today, that would get a site blacklisted by a search engine, meaning it will not appear in search results at all. Effective marketing strategies include using good SEO practices. Find out some of the SEO techniques you should be avoiding here.

3. Do Not Use an All-Inclusive Marketing Strategy

The solution to becoming a success is not to broaden your marketing strategy to reach a greater audience. This is often a mistake because if your market is too large, you cannot give each segment the focus it deserves. This leads to ineffective marketing and a lower lead rate. It is okay to expand eventually, but you must expand in a way that does not betray your company values.

To improve your marketing strategy, think about the type of customer/client that will be interested in your product or service. Then, research this demographic and what they are looking for. You should adopt the techniques you use to reach these people while following up with some of the other tips in this article.

4. Be Human

Anyone can write the average content for a website. And by average, I mean boring. Instead—make your content interesting. Include an interesting fact or story and make sure that your audience sees you as a person. Laugh about mistakes that you have made during the development of a product or service and remind visitors that you are human. That is the most relatable that you can be to clients—and relatable is something that people like. This is one of the oldest marketing techniques in the book.

Something else to keep in mind is that business jargon rarely keeps the average Internet user engaged. Unless you have a highly sophisticated target market, write the content on your company website the way that you would talk to a person sitting in front of you. This gives your brand a unique, authentic voice.

5. Get a Laugh

When you write a blog, it is always with a goal of getting your client to do something. This becomes significantly easier when you relate positive emotions (like joy and laughter) with what you want the client to do. Using humor also makes your blog more interesting. This does not mean that you should make you’re writing a joke—you do still want to maintain your credibility. But, sprinkling in humor can help your blog. Find out more about some guideline for using humor here.

Along with getting in a laugh—keep in mind that people are highly visual. Your punchline may be a lot funnier if it comes along with an image like this:

—instead of just using words.

6. Talk to Real Customers

When you engage with customers online, you are doing several things. First, you are creating a unique and personalized conversation with that specific customer. If they have a complaint or an idea, acknowledge it.

Social media is one of the best ways for companies to connect with their customers. It provides a platform for customers to share their experience with friends. It can also give the advantage of letting businesses see the demographics of their clients, which is a very useful tool for marketing.

If you are going to use social media, it is important to keep the site active. This means more than just regularly posting updates—it means interacting with your customers. Respond to their comments and direct messages, even when they are negative. By showing you care about their experience, you become more human in your eyes. It also gives your company the ability to fix the problem and reassure them of your quality service.

7. Know Your Company’s Strengths

“If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Sometimes, one of the greatest things you can do is realize the strengths and weaknesses of your business. If you have a product that does better than the one you are focusing on, capitalize on it. The market is always shifting and the most successful companies are those that adapt to them. By recognizing strengths and weaknesses of your business, you can adapt to keep up with market demands and turn this into leads and profits for your company.

8. Use the Right Keywords and Offer the Right Information

Being conversational and natural is more important now than ever with SEO. This is because search engines like Bing, Mozilla, Google, and others have advanced their algorithms. This lets them provide the content that the customer wants. To be successful in drawing people to your website, you must understand both what information they are looking for and which words they will use to find the information.

Something else to keep in mind is that valuable content is incredibly important. When you do not provide the detailed answers that people want, they will not stay on your page long enough to find out what your company is or what they do. You should also use headings and white space to break up information. By using relevant, detailed headings, the people that are in a hurry can quickly scan the article and find the information they need. If they cannot, they will likely go somewhere else for the information they are looking for.

9. Get Familiar with the Competition

Do you know who customers might be turning to for the same services that you offer? Is it more likely that they will turn to your competitor when looking for information about the product or service? By learning what they are offering that you are not, you can find out how to improve your business and go above and beyond customer expectations.

If you are using this guideline to write content for your company blog, look up similar articles that you are writing. Critically evaluate them, thinking about the questions they have left unanswered or unclear and how you can improve on them. Then, write a better article. Do not copy their ideas, but use them to create some that are unlike any other resources.

Conclusion

Working through an online marketplace has given more business opportunities than ever before—but has also made the market a very competitive place. To stand out, it becomes increasingly important to improve marketing strategies and adapt your company website to keep up with the demands. By doing things like using better SEO, providing valuable content, and being real with your clients, you will attract more potential leads to your business.