3 Tips to Out-Communicate the Competition
3 Tips to Out-Communicate the Competition
3 Tips to Out-Communicate the Competition
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Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Jiyan Wei, director of product management for PRWeb.

You have a message and so does your competitor. Which one receives the most exposure and reaches prospects is often dependent on any company’s commitment to creating resourceful, unique and compelling content to reach that audience.

If you are creating content, promoting it and still finding yourself behind the competition, below are 3 tips to help you cross the marketing finish line in first place.

1. Create Your Own Sandbox. Going head-to-head is a tough marketing battle to win and often requires considerable resources, so make sure your key messages stand out by explaining what makes your product or service better than the rest.

Simple comparisons to a competitor have their place, but if you want more room to grow and expand creating your own sandbox is the way to win big. By marketing the differences your product has you can make others’ products irrelevant.

The Reef flip-flop with the bottle-opener built into the bottom is a great example of this. Maybe not everyone needs to open a bottle while out and about or at the beach, but for some this is a compelling product differentiation when in the market for flip flops. The added bonus is that because it’s so unique, it continues to be promoted for free in examples such as this.

By emphasizing a feature, attribute or benefit your product has that others don’t, you can create a unique marketing angle.

2. Use more communication vehicles than your competition. Are your competitors on Facebook and Twitter? Then perhaps you should be too – and take the time to explore which marketing channels make sense for your audience.

Two well-known companies are worth imitating, even if on a smaller scale:

  • Dell: Dell’s “Community” page sports blogs, forums, and even an “IdeaStorm” feature that allows people to contribute ideas to Dell – and you can sign up for all of them. On just about every web page, you can link to a relevant blog or newsletter, and Dell maintains an active – actually, an interactive – presence on social media outlets.
  • Southwest Airlines: Its blog posts seem to involve everyone in the company. Its Facebook page recently got its millionth fan. Why? Because it constantly provides interesting, relevant content – from industry news to special offers – to its readers.

3. Have a faster communications cycle than your competitors. Update your material regularly, and make sure to get new data out as quickly as possible, while maintaining communication standards. Find ways to automate delivery of your communications so that your news is always more recent than the competitors.  Quick updates to your newsroom, is a great way to get started.

One more general point: be consistent, not repetitious. Avoid cutting and paste a web page into a blog post or vice versa as a way to extend communications. Readers and journalists can sniff out overly re-purposed content and in doing so may seek other more relevant sources for information.

In summary: study the competition and exceed their communications efforts where it makes sense. It takes a consistent, concerted effort but over time, your message will stand out more clearly in the marketplace of ideas, and your company will be seen as a thought leader.

Check out other PR Tips from PRWeb for more ideas about developing and distributing news releases, social media posts, and other vital business communications.

As Director of Product Management, Jiyan drives product platform strategy and roadmap execution for PRWeb, the leading online news distribution service. In addition he supports strategic business planning, partnerships, and marketing/sales. He currently sites on the vendor council for the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and maintains a blog, New Influencer (www.newinfluencer.com), where he writes about media and technology.

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About the Author

Jason Falls
Jason Falls is the founder of Social Media Explorer and one of the most notable and outspoken voices in the social media marketing industry. He is a noted marketing keynote speaker, author of two books and unapologetic bourbon aficionado. He can also be found at JasonFalls.com.

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