As a small business owner, you compete not only with businesses in your league—local businesses offering the same products and services—but also with big brands that have a large customer base.
Most of these brands have been in business for decades and have a team of professionals who work round the clock to ensure they remain on top. They regularly conduct market research and competitor analysis to develop new, ingenious ways to retain customers and increase revenue.
With a tight budget and limited resources, small businesses don’t have the privilege of having an in-house team to conduct such analysis. However, all is not lost; you can still compete with the big brands through strategic planning and monitoring.
Countries like Canada have come up with laws and regulations that help small businesses thrive in a competitive space dominated by big brands. The government has established a Competition Bureau whose primary role is to protect small businesses from unfair practices such as deceptive marketing, abuse of marketing power, and false advertising.
Here are five ways small businesses can compete for a fair market share despite cut-throat competition from the big companies.
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Offer Incentives
Like consumers in other parts of the world, Canadians love loyalty programs. Research shows that 93% of Canadian online shoppers use a discount code or coupon at least once yearly.
Consult your team and conduct extensive market research to develop offers and loyalty programs that best suit your customers. For example, you can create a special offer for the festive season and make it time-bound to prompt customers to take advantage of it.
Take inspiration from leading Canadian top casino sites that offer welcome bonuses, free spins, cashback offers, and reload bonuses, to attract new players and encourage existing players to continue playing. These incentives help them to compete with other casinos and remain profitable.
The goal is to ensure the incentive is meaningful and relevant to the customers. Conduct a pricing analysis and experiment with different loyalty programs to avoid incurring losses.
Provide Excellent Customer Service
Communication is the key to success for any business, regardless of the industry. You need to interact and engage with the customers to convince them your product or service is the best option in the market.
The secret to achieving this goal is providing excellent customer service. 90% of online customers recently polled confirmed that customer service is one of the factors they use to decide whether to buy from a particular company. Customers feel valued and appreciated when their inquiries are responded to promptly.
Thanks to technological advancements, modern customer service tools, such as AI-powered chatbots, can respond to customer queries even after the usual office hours.
Focus on Building A Solid Positive Reputation
Reputation is another major factor that consumers use to decide whether to do business with you. It reflects the quality of your offering and how you treat your customers. A negative reputation will eventually drive potential customers to your competitors.
As a small business owner, your best bet to getting ahead of the competition is creating a solid, positive reputation. Providing top-quality products/services that align with customers’ needs and preferences is one way to cement your brand as an authority and earn their trust and loyalty.
Add a feedback form on your website that customers can use to submit feedback. The more positive reviews, the better. Don’t ignore the negative reviews, though. Respond to them professionally and cordially to show potential customers that you care and want them to get the utmost value for their money from your product or service.
Improve Based on Customer Feedback
Reviewing customer feedback is one of the surest ways of knowing whether your product or service resonates with your customers’ needs. Use their responses to improve your processes and products to get a firm footing in the market despite the cut-throat competition from other big brands.
You could also contact loyal customers for feedback or to test a new product or service before the official launch. Implementing their recommendations will go a long way toward cementing your reputation, credibility, and customer relationship.
Embrace Digital Marketing
Most customers shop online or use the internet to research a product before going to the store. Invest in modern digital marketing strategies such as social media and email marketing to establish a solid digital presence.
Customers are more inclined to buy from a brand they’re familiar with than a new brand they haven’t heard of before. Create and share user-generated content across all online marketing platforms to spur engagement and boost your brand awareness efforts.
Securing Your Place in the Market
Competing with big brands may seem like a far-fetched idea, and you may feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. However, you can win over customers and establish your dominance by consistently working on your reputation, improving your offering, using modern digital marketing strategies, and providing incentives. Continuously monitor the results to know which strategies are working and which areas need to be tweaked to get the most results.
