Why Most Businesses And Entrepreneurs Struggle To Stand Out In Their Industry

More and more businesses are starting every day, and the main feedback that we're receiving from our audience is that they're having trouble standing out among the competition.  Being able to run your business online has so many benefits, but it also has its drawbacks, as it means that anyone at any time can start a business that resembles yours.  The cost of a business license, building a website, and anyone can have their business up in literally a day, which begs the question:

How DO I stand out in what seems like a sea of competition?  Today, I'd like to give you three things that I believe will help you start to stand out as a brand and a business, all in hopes of helping you build a stronger, more sustainable business online.

The first tip I'm going to give you, and this is something that has been going on for a long time . . . is that too many people in the same niche are creating the EXACT SAME CONTENT.  The Instagram strategists all posting the same "trend alerts" and "transitions" to the skin care brands posting the same 5 skin care tips . . . it's a REALLY BIG PROBLEM.

Because if your audience follows you, chances are they follow multiple people within your niche.  This means if you all are posting the EXACT same content, you're now competing with everyone based on things like followers, which is NEVER a recipe for business success.

You have to challenge yourself to create DIFFERENT content than your audience.  For example, did you know that I NEVER look at other digital marketing agencies' profiles on Instagram?  Why would I do this!?  Because it ensures that I'll never a carbon copy their content, because I have no idea what their content is, and the likelihood of me copying it is about as close to 0 as you can get.

Stop consuming your competitor's content and start creating your own unique content!  The easiest way by far to do this is to create value-based content in a personally branded way.  This means giving great value (NOT SURFACE LEVEL VALUE) mixed with your own flair and personality . . . because if there's one thing other people can't copy, it's being you!

The second thing that business owners can do to help them stand out among their competition is to focus on value and relationships instead of selling.  I would say that at least 90% of the Instagram posts I see are selling SOMETHING . . . whether it's their product/service, a launch, or getting someone onto their email (yes, that's selling too), it seems like we as online business owners have lost the art of simply connecting with people and giving them valuable information.

People see on average, 60M messages a day, and trust me, your post about you selling your products isn't going to be one of them that stands out.  Don't believe me?  Well, listen to this: Jill and I DON'T sell on ANY of our social media platforms, and if you don't believe me, go back and find me one where I do (you'd probably have to look back at least 2 years).  You must be thinking: "Well how is this possible!?  How can you run a business like that!?"

It's because we realized a long time ago something that it seems people are still trying to wrap their heads around . . . and it's that your audience isn't dumb.  They're not, I promise you!  They can do things like:

• Read your bio
• Go to your website
• Book a call without you telling them to

It's simply amazing!  Yet most business owners stand on the top of Instagram's mountain with a megaphone saying, "Look at me, buy my product or service!"  Believe me when I say you'll sell FAR MORE products and services by talking about value, getting them wins, and caring about them as people than you ever will by simply saying you launched a product and here's where to buy.

The last tip that I can give you if you want you and your business to stand out is to STOP focusing on competition and start focusing on innovation!  Far too many business owners spend far too much time checking out their competition, worrying about what they're doing, analyzing their every move . . .

All the while their business suffers because they're playing the comparison game.

The best thing you can do for yourself and your business is to stop following people in your niche and start worrying about your own life, your own business, and your own content.  You might argue well you need to follow them to find out what trends they're doing, and if that's your response, I'd like you to go back up to the top of this blog and look at point #1, because all that's going to do is have you using the same trends to create the same content . . .

And I don't know many business owners that achieved long-term success by copying others.

Instead, use that time to come up with different ideas, different concepts, and different content ideas.  Read books, watch YouTube videos, listen to podcasts, whatever you like, because you never know where an idea or spark of inspiration is going to come from.

Don't focus on the competition, focus on what you can do every day to move YOUR business forward.

I hope this was helpful in giving you some ideas of ways to stand out among your competition.  If you have follow-up questions, or would like to help to create a strategy to help you stand out, you can always reach out to us @michaelandjill and we'd be happy to help!