You know your customers and their needs, the problem you solve, and how you’re better than your competition. Let’s keep the mojo flowing as we talk about the other great way to be remarkable.
Being better than the competition is certainly something worth striving for, but sometimes you aren’t there yet. Not in any way you can prove. And sometimes you don’t WANT to be the best. You might want to be Good Enough in the areas that your customers measure you by. Does that mean you’re stuck in obscurity? Hells no! Luckily, humans aren’t terribly rational. It’s time to take advantage of people’s tendency to get attached to irrelevant facts.
Stand out from the crowd
People have a mental picture of what hiring a painter is like. If you differ from that mental picture you’ll be remarkable. Note the words there: remark-able. You know, worth talking about.
Bad ways to be different
- Anything that makes people think you’re lacking in the qualities required to do the job well: i.e. giving the impression you’re lazy/hung-over/disorganised/sloppy/rude (If those things matter to your customers. They usually do.)
- That’s about it, really. Everything else is up for grabs.
Good ways to be different
Be aligned with your values
The best ways to be different align with your values. I value individuality, so I avoid using the corporate style when writing my content. I also value learning, so I work to make it easy and enjoyable to learn from us. Lively writing and non-technical descriptions are rare in the technology industry, and worth talking about. We get to do things the way we like AND market the business. Sweet.
This can exist only at the level of branding, (how you describe yourself, your design choices, etc) but it can also define your business. If you value inclusiveness, you might tailor your products/services to people who haven’t formerly been able to access them; Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz brought marketing resources to microbusinesses. If you value community, you might ensure your café uses fair trade beans. These choices might not necessarily make you better, but they are different. Others who share the same values will gravitate to you.
Be passionate
There are few things as attractive as passion and enthusiasm. If you’re passionate about your business, hooray! Show it as much as you can. (Learn from a master here. I love this guy.) Don’t limit yourself… you’re a human being and you have passions unrelated to work. Let some of that enthusiasm into your business.
Sports fans: Put up a poster in the window supporting your team. Decorate the van with their colours at finals time. Offer a discount to team members. This has a few benefits: other supporters of the team might choose you over your competitors (after all, you’ve proven you have taste!), rival supporters might come in to dispute your choice, and people who don’t care about sport at all can at least differentiate you from the sea of competitors.
Hobbies: Talk about your interests. Post pictures. Include it in your marketing material. If you’re a lawyer with a love of water-skiing, use it. Be “The Water-Skiing Lawyer”. Use a photo of yourself in a three-piece suit, waving cheerfully behind a speedboat as you jump the waves. I don’t care about the sport, but I would hire The Water-skiing Lawyer in a heart-beat. I know he’d be unconventional, quick-thinking, fun, unstodgy, and interesting to talk to. Is this rational? No. But it’s powerfully emotional… I’m feeling a little sad that he doesn’t exist because he sounds so frickin’ cool.
Kids and pets: I’ve seen this one abused a few times, so go carefully. Some people are not good at realising that kids or pets are not inherently interesting unless they’re yours. Mentions of both need to be sparing, relevant, part of a hilarious anecdote, or tied to a different emotional topic.
Causes: People who care about something greater than themselves are awe-inspiring. Use the pictures from your volunteer tour in Rwanda, the percentage of your profits that go toward saving the local mangroves, a poster about how you source all your hair-care products from cruelty-free producers. Just be careful that you don’t give make potential customers feel they’re obliged to be involved in your cause. And please don’t be smug about your moral superiority!
Be interesting
I’d like to find a hairdresser who was a trivia expert. Instead of the usual, “So, how was your weekend?” she’d tell me about the carrying strength of African ants, or how the chemicals change the colour of your hair. The hour of sitting-around-with-goo-in-my-hair would fly by! Sadly, in my experience most hairdressers (and taxi-drivers) forget that most of their customer’s time is spent sitting idle, bored and generally too polite to put their headphones on.
Take advantage of your insider knowledge! Spice up your website or business cards with tiny, quotable snippets of interest.
Be controversial
Every industry has its sacred cows. Kick a few over (loudly) and word will spread. Be vocal about why you don’t use baby’s breath with roses. Tell everyone why QuickBooks is a tool of the Devil. Conflict is drama and drama means interest.
Be selective
I wrote a while back about why you should focus in on particular customers. It’s also a great way to be different from your competitors!
Your five-minute mission, should you choose to accept it…
- Write down as many ways as you can think of that you’re different.
- No, more than that.
- Keep it up, you should be able to list 50!
- If you’re stuck, read Seth Godin’s fantastic book Purple Cow
.
- Circle the best ones and start incorporating them into your brand.
Now you know much more about your customers and your business! Next time we’ll figure out what you want your customers to DO on or as a result of your website.