Market leadership… what sounds better than knowing you are the market leader of your niche? Today I am going to share with you my five blueprint steps that you can implement in your business and get fast results.
However, there is one key element that you need to keep in mind, and that is that no results will be obtained if you fail to follow this simple rule:
Market Leadership = Content x Consistency
Out of this formula, consistency is they key factor that will help you differentiate your business from your competitors’. So let’s see what are the key steps I advise my community and my clients to take in order to achieve market supremacy:
1. Do your homework – stalk the competition
You heard me – this also applies perfectly to my second step where I talk about ways to stay up to date with the news within your niche. How else do you think you are going to be able to overcome your competition if you don’t know what are the things that brought them where they are in the first place? So put your walking shoes on and start following what others are doing. If you think their actions could compliment your business, products or services, then adopt & adapt.
The main questions that you need an answer to at this stage are:
1. Who is your competition?
2. What are they offering to their audience?
3. How? (or better said, what keywords are they using & how are they using them)
4. Who is their target market?
5. What are the channels they use to reach to their target market?
2. Stay up to date with the latest news in your niche
I told you before that the first point is key for the second. Online, the power of the traditional media is extremely diminished. People are no longer the slaves of TV programs, TV ads or radio schedules. Online, each person can choose to see, read or hear whatever it is that interests them. And chances are, these topics of interest are not coming from a newspaper or a TV channel. They are coming directly from leading industry marketers.
I don’t think there are words strong enough to highlight the real importance and the actual benefits that you are going to get from following the ones that you identified as being market leaders. So follow them online, attend to their events in real life and make sure every piece of news hits you as soon as it is released.
3. Start taking action towards achieving your goals
Now that you are following those very important persons and are always up to date with the latest events and trends, it is time to show other people that you know ‘your thing’. It is time to let them know that you have valuable content to share and innovative ideas to implement.
Now I hear many of you wondering “How can I do that?”. Well, it is simple. Judging by the incredible amount of information online and offline, it would take a real struggle not to be able to spread your word and make your news go viral. For example, there are some free tools you can use to grow an audience that will share your words of wisdom. Among these, there’s the ever-growing blog, which opens up towards infinite possibilities (you can write articles just like I am writing this article, you can create and share videos, you can record a podcast series or create entertaining infographics – the limits are almost inexistent).
4. Do more in less time – using leverage tools
I know you are a busy little bee and I understand your need to save on time as much as you can. And to be honest, this blogging thing seems a bit too time expensive for you, doesn’t it?
Well, there is a solution for that too. In fact, as you may have figured out until now, there are plenty of solutions that can help you save time and grow money: Evernote, Google Alerts, Google Docs and my favorite, outsourcing.
5. Continue to learn if you want to grow
These are just a handful of things you can do to improve your followers’ rate, to become a serious threat to your competition and to ensure that you get noticed in the online world. But there is more to online marketing than just these five steps.
Of course they will take your business to new heights, but why settle with less when there are still stairs left for you to climb to reach the peak?
I have just come out of a project I enjoyed working on, a project whose end result was the publishing of a book. I am proud to have been part of a team of 18 business specialists who collaborated on a book called
“It’s That Easy! Online Marketing 3.0”.
Inside this book you will find everything you need to know to take your business to the next level. My chapter, entitled “Creating Market Leadership Through The Internet” deals with the exact issue I tackled over in today’s article.
If you are interested in making a purchase, the book is available here, on Super Savvy Business, in the Products section. Or, for faster access, just click these wonderfully highlighted words and you will be taken to a page where you can place your order for a fine, ol’ style paperback copy.