How You Can Eliminate Your Competition

Lessons I've learned to differentiate my business from competitors in a crowded market

Hey, it’s Marilyn

Every Monday, I share ‎productized inspiration and ideas, plus what I’m learning to help you build and grow your service business.

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Last edition, I wrote about why I gave up solo freelancing and you should too. If you missed it, check it out here:

Why I Gave Up Solo Freelancing And You Should Too.

Photo by Pablo Stanley

These days, you can hardly start a fully brand-new, unique business idea or startup. Chances are there’s already one or many out there.

Seems like almost everything you see in the market is becoming more commoditized than ever.

In my opinion, this could be due to the increasing market demand for cheaper, better, and faster delivery. So it’s more like a supply and demand situation.

My startup is a productized service that provides ongoing, unlimited graphic design service at one fixed fee a month.

I was indeed trying to start another of the same things in a crowded market. Think 99Designs, Freelancer.com, Upwork, and Fiverr — the whole world knows them, so why would people come to me?

Also, there are billions of freelance designers, and many popular design agencies already offering their services with a subscription model.

How was I to compete with them?

As a startup, it was a flop, only gaining some traction in its fourth year. This was due to many reasons:

• I was obsessed over how competitors were earning so much more.

• I didn’t do marketing as quickly as a startup founder should.

• I relied solely on referrals.

Due to bad business decisions and poor execution on my part, there was a lack of sales.

All these reasons stemmed from one fundamental problem. That is, I failed to differentiate my brand from the others.

If you are in a similar situation and struggle to take off, it’s high time you figure out why customers should choose you over another.

The key is not to wish your competitors to do badly.

If they do well, there’s good demand for that niche you are in, which also means you have a chance to do well. See it as a good thing.

Here’s what I’ve learned to differentiate my business from competitors in a crowded market.

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LESSON #1: You Don’t Have To Be First

You just have to be different.

Although being the first mover or first to market may give you a competitive advantage, nobody cares if what you are selling is the first to appear in the world.

This means there’s no need to die trying to think of something that’s not done before just to stand out.

Apple, Facebook, Zoom, Flywheel, WP Engine, WP Buffs, The Hoth and many fast-growing businesses are not the first to be seen in the market.

Not being the first allows you to fill gaps and unchartered areas in your industry to improve upon the same thing the first movers have.

“It costs approximately 60% to 75% less to replicate a product than it costs to create a new product.” — Investopedia

Being first does have a chance to be first to market or be known sooner. But don’t let that stop you.

Most people prefer to be first and hence well-known since they are early and perceived to be the original sellers.

I don’t want to be well-known. I prefer to be known well.

While tons of “Unlimited Graphic Design” companies got famous from claiming they were first and making millions of revenue per year, I was serving a Facebook Group of 200+ people and was known so well there, that I didn’t have to do any bragging.

They knew me well not because of graphic design, but because we just got to know each other like how kids make new friends at playgrounds.

Same thing, we do that in that group. I helped them with what I know and they helped me too, that’s it.

Trust was built and earned. That’s all there is. You don’t have to be first.

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LESSON #2: Know Why People Buy

As service providers, we need to know the experiences our customers have been going through before they came to us.

When people come to us, I always ask them, “Have you tried other agencies, or freelancers, why us?”.

My customers may come to me for design services, but the truth is, they don’t want design at all.

Some of them are looking for design branding or graphics because those are commonly understood terms.

Sometimes, most of them don’t even know what they want and it’s up to us as service providers to probe and show them the way.

As Zig Ziglar said:

“People don’t buy drills, they buy holes.”

Customers want to feel connected to their communities. In the case of graphic design, the feel of the artwork is the bridge to bring their messages across to the relevant audience.

They want to build trust with their customers.

Hence, when it comes to customers I work with, I would say that they don’t buy colours, fonts, or graphics. They don’t buy a website, a logo, or a poster.

They buy engagement.

They buy because they want their marketing efforts to be noticed, and to make a Return On Investments (ROI).

They buy because they need time to do another task that gives them the chance for the next promotion.

Find out what your customers want, identify which are the ones your competitors don’t know, and use that as your secret sauce to acquire more customers.

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LESSON #3: Stop Focusing On Operating Costs

For three years, my startup didn’t stand a chance. A lot of my time and energy were focused on trying to reduce operating costs to stay afloat. Yet the business was not growing and I remained broke.

Knowing that something wasn’t right, I decided to change things. Putting myself in my customer’s shoes above everything else, I started to think less about my business losses and focused on giving more value to them.

Focusing on costs misled me to do all the design work myself because hiring leads to an increase in operating costs.

On the contrary, the shift in focus to the customers led me to learn that they wanted us to deliver artwork to them in less than three days. More than three days and they don’t find it worth it to sign up for our service.

With five regular customers in the early days, there was no way I could deliver any artwork to all of them in three days.

Then, I hired our first designer even if it meant an increase in operating costs. Our delivery speed went up to 24-hour turnaround. Sometimes we even managed to achieve same-day delivery.

Customer satisfaction shot up.

Since then, many customers come back to us.

Knowing this works, we baked it into our design processes as part of our differentiating factor from other competitors.

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LESSON #4: Choose Only One Thing to Be Unique

Your service or product may cover one or many features and benefits. Out of so many features, you just have to pick one that serves your customers best, based on your judgement.

In my case, I promise my customers the following list:

1. Maximum three-day delivery

2. Conversion-focused designs

3. World-class customer service

4. Quality check by senior designer

5. Affordable

6. 30-day money-back guarantee

The list can go on, but these are the top of my list. Out of these top six benefits, I chose a 30-day money-back guarantee as our unique differentiator.

This means customers will pay upfront, try the service for a month and decide if they wish to cancel with a refund or carry on working with us.

What you choose doesn’t have to be exciting to all your prospects to begin with.

It just has to be something a group of your target market will want to have. Hence, I chose to give 30 days of unlimited free design service, not 7 days, not 14 days.

As the business grew, I removed this to keep it sustainable.

With the term unlimited, suddenly graphic design doesn’t sound so boring. This single item has since been the only thing people come to us for. It’s our killer marketing asset.

To single one item out of a long list of features can be a struggle. But this is key because, in a crowded market, your prospects have many of the same things to choose from as well.

Once you show you can do one thing and do it well, that’s when your offer becomes irresistible and your target audience can’t ignore you.

You Can Start Small

Pay attention to your current clients. If you are just starting with no clients, join a paid community with people who could be your potential clients and get to know them, one person at a time.

Then, study how your competitors are marketing their services. Do the opposite. If they use Facebook, you go to LinkedIn. They go high you go low.

That’s all for today, more next Monday.

Marilyn