As you grow your business, you need to emulate your competition. You need to blend in to avoid marketing/PR disasters. And, by all means, don’t try to stand out from the crowd.
We call bull. Too many marketers live by these principles. They completely ignore the fact that they’re dead wrong. Blending in is not the way to grow. It only ensures that no one notices you. Instead, you need to be unique. And yes, that goes for your entire marketing strategy.
This uniqueness, in fact, helps your company grow. How you ask? Consider these 6 reasons.
1) Being Unique Makes Your Branding More Memorable
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What type of marketing stands out to you? Is it the bland listing of product facts and benefits? Probably not. Instead, it’s the brands that make an effort to be different. Consider these 6 ways to make your marketing memorable:
- Take a stand.
- Be consistent.
- Focus on the human touch.
- Be authentic.
- Be unpredictable.
- Show and tell.
Notice something? At least 3 of them are directly related to being unique. It causes your audience to pay attention, simply because it’s not what they expect.
Regardless of your industry, that principle holds. If you can be different, that difference will help you take a permanent spot in your audience’s mind.
2) Being Unique Separates You From Your Competition
Any branding or marketing is incomplete if you don’t consider it in context.
Stated differently, you have to consider your competitors’ efforts as you build your own strategy.
Again, think of it from your own perspective: as a consumer, you define your favorite brands by how much better or different they are from their competition.
You can only achieve that separation through effective positioning, which necessitates being unique.
Find the two or three attributes your audience cares most about in your industry.
Then, build your marketing specifically to place on an intersection where no other competitor lives.
Sounds complex? It doesn’t have to be. A simple survey can help you find the attributes to focus on.
Then, you can build a positioning map in Excel.
Voila: you learn how to be unique, and how to separate yourself.
3) Being Unique Focuses Your USP
Ready for a shocker? To truly establish your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), you have to be unique.
We know, mind blown.
After all, it’s just one of the three words that make up the term.
Still, it bears mentioning: without a USP, you cannot effectively market.
Without being unique, that USP is difficult if not impossible to establish.
The lesson is simple. Find the piece that makes you truly unique.
Then, build your core messaging around it.
If you can condense the reason to buy your product or service into one single sentence, and if that sentence happens to make you unique in the context of your competition, you’ve struck gold.
4) Being Unique Leads to Better Content Creation
Think about being similar to everyone else, and trying to blend in.
What type of content can you create?
More importantly, how will it differ from all the other videos, blog posts, and whitepapers being consumed by your audience on a daily basis?
If you’re just like everyone else, content marketing becomes an immense chore.
And yet, you need content marketing to be successful.
The only way to go beyond the struggle is to make sure your content is not just worth creating, but also worth consuming.
The best way to do that? Focus on what makes you unique.
Suddenly, you have the opportunity to build videos like Squatty Potty or Dollar Shave Club.
You don’t have to run from being quirky but can embrace it.
Your views will go up, and you might even go viral.
If that quirkiness is built on not just a random topic but an actual core, unique benefit of your product, all the better.
5) Being Unique Establishes a Common Marketing Thread
This is where being unique in general and focusing that uniqueness into a USP once again overlap.
Once you’ve found that core unique fact, it’s easier to build a marketing strategy.
Now, you will have the opportunity to focus a multi-channel approach specifically on that core distinguishing benefit.
Yes, you’ll have different content and emphases based on channel, funnel stage, and audience segments.
But they can all lead back to the same factor, which happens to be the one that makes you stand out and separates you from your competition.
That common marketing thread will come in handy as you expand your marketing strategy beyond a channel or two.
Now, consistency begins to be the absolute key to success.
Consider the fact that your audience needs 7 to 13 marketing touches to convert just to a lead.
Wouldn’t it be great if each of these touches builds on each other?
6) Being Unique Makes Your Marketing More Scalable
The previous point already hints at this one.
As your company grows, so will your marketing needs.
Your budget increases, and so do the channels through which you promote your stuff.
After all, you wouldn’t want to fall behind your ever-growing competition, would you?
Once again, being unique can be immensely helpful here.
If you’ve found, defined, and condensed your USP, you will always have a focal point to return to.
Regardless of your budget, you know your emphasis.
Regardless of your number of channels, you know what to say. And, just as importantly, so does your audience.
How to Find Your Unique Marketing Focus
It’s true: you need to be unique to be successful.
Blending in with the competition and daily noise of digital and traditional media simply won’t cut it.
That leaves a simple question: just how do you find what makes you unique?
Some of it may be intuition.
You know your product, your competition, and your environment.
Don’t rely on intuition alone. Instead, work with a partner who understands both digital marketing and branding.
That way, you can put the digital world together with branding. It helps you discover your true differentiators, which help you stand out and finally get noticed.
That’s where we come in. DigiVid360 doesn’t just create videos but infuses them with the USP of each of our clients.
Ready to learn more? Contact us today to get started.
