How can you make your business stand out
This blog is part of the Brand Foundation Series. Where the first three posts talked about your vision and mission, how you can define your why and your values & beliefs we are now going into how you can make yourself stand out.
You’ll learn:
How can you stand out as a business
Additional questions you can use to determine how you can stand out
I probably don’t have to tell why you need to make your business stand out. You have probably noticed from the moment you started your business, or when you started doing some research, there are a lot of people out there who are doing the thing you want to do.
And maybe you did what I did when I needed to decide what packages I would offer. I went online looking for other designers. I would go to their website and literally copy and paste their packages, what was included, how they described it and what the price was. Everything would go into a spreadsheet, and I would highlight what was overlapping like mood board design, brand board, revisions. From there, I created my packages, basically just listing everything that was included.
Because what else was I supposed to do? Other designers offered this, so why should I not?
The packages were fairly cheap, but I did not want to make them too cheap as this would send the wrong message but also knew I could not compete on experience with other designers. And I did not have a particular design style, so I needed to make sure my pricing reflected that.
What I did not do was create services that included business strategy. Even though I just came out of a corporate career as a business strategist. And even though I had over six years of experience in it and managed a 65 million portfolio, I felt I should first establish myself as a designer. So that once I had that running, I could add in more strategy-driven services.
But when I did that, no one bought the strategy services.
Now, looking back, it makes so much sense. Here I was, presenting myself as a designer, sharing designs, talking about branding, all the tips about websites in Squarespace. No wonder no one would take me seriously when it comes to strategy.
Because how is my audience going to know about my over 6 years of experience as a business strategist when I don't talk about it?
So I have realised (and learned the hard way) how important positioning is. Because in the end, how you are going to stand out is dependent on how you present yourself to your audience. So in other words, how you position yourself.
So how do you actually stand out?
So, if you are in a market where you have a ton of competition, where everyone offers the same kind of services, with the same features and benefits and offers the same transformation for their clients how can you stand out?
The answer to this lies for a large part in the last three blog posts I wrote; what are your vision and mission, your why or purpose and your values & beliefs. I will recap these points shortly, but if you have not read the full posts definitely make sure you do.
Vision and mission
When you are completely clear about what you want to do, you can use this as your compass. You can keep coming back to this to keep you on track. But besides this, if you share your mission with your audience, you can take them on the journey with you. And you will see that you will attract a like-minded audience.
This quote from Simon Sinek makes it super clear why this is so important: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” So if you have a clear mission, this could actually help you attract your ideal clients. And clients that have a shared vision or goals in their life are more likely to be clients you actually want to work with.
Your why (purpose)
Think about why you started your business. And I don’t mean in an I need to make money for my family kind of way. But why did you start this particular business? What is it in your business that makes you get out of bed in the morning?
Because this will drive how you do it, this will drive your motivation because you feel so emotionally connected to what you do and this will bring energy into what you do and how you present your business. Which in turn will build a connection with your audience.
Values and beliefs
Just like in your personal life, the values and beliefs within your business will guide you on HOW you are going to show up as a business to the outside world. From the services that you offer to how you treat your clients to how you speak to them on social media. And this will help you ‘prove’ your why. As everything that you do is an opportunity to prove that you really stand behind your why.
And like with your why, you can use your values and believes to build a connection with your audience. When your purpose (your why), your values or your beliefs are similar to your audience the connection you can build with them is so much stronger. And the stronger it is, the more impact you will be able to have. And not only that, but your audience will know what they can expect from you. Or imagine what working with you will be like.
So, because no one has the same vision, mission, purpose and values, skills, experience and story as you can combine all of this in your brand and make it stand out. And this will, in turn, attract a unique audience that is attracted by what, how and why you do it.
Additional questions you can use to determine how you can stand out
Now you know where you can start to create a brand that makes you stand out I want to add a couple of questions that you can use to make you stand out even more.
The first two questions are about knowing (and being able to explain) why you are different than your competitors. You will generally keep your vision internally but can, of course, share your mission and why. But you want to be able to quickly explain why you are different, so outlining your mission and why you started your business might not always work.
For the second question, you can think about what kind of experiences or skills you are bringing to the table.
Why should potential clients pick you (over your competitors)?
Is there something you can claim that your competitors can not?
With the third question, I want you to think about what you don’t want to be. Sometimes turning around the question can give you so much information.
What do you not want to be positioned as?
As an example, I have a client that is an Eating Psychologist and EFT (tapping) as part of her approach. So when we talked about this, she said she did not want to be known as a nutritionist, a health coach, or just a weight loss coach. Because she does so much more than give a meal plan. She has a 360-degree approach to what might be holding back your weight loss. So this gave us great insights into what words not to use in her content and website copy.
Up next
Next up in this Brand Foundation series is figuring out who your ideal client is. Now you know what your mission and purpose are, how you want to show up to your audience and how you can stand out, you need to figure out what kind of clients fit well with this.
How do you feel about your current positioning? Do you feel like you are really standing out?
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