Interview with Sarah Worsham, Internet Marketer

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy

You may not believe it but it’s true.  You get to choose your competitors.  How?  By narrowly defining what business and market you’re in.  You do this by determining what it is that you do that’s better than anyone else (your core competence) and what benefits you bring to customers.  From these two things you can determine your market in such a way that you’re the best at it (ideally). – Sarah Worsham – You Get to Choose Your Competitors… – Insights Group

Blogging over at Insights Group today about how to choose your competitors, similar to the post here from yesterday, but I give an example of how it is done.  Hope to see you there!

(photo by eschipul @ Flickr CC)

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• Google’s On2 Acquisition Could Revolutionize The Video Industry (Silicon Alley Insider)
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• 16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited (Online Marketing Blog)
• Tips for Building a Marketing Mailing List (Internet Evolution)
• Conversation With Etsy About Their New Facebook Connect Implementation (All Facebook)

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy

Who Are You?

The first step is to understand exactly who you are and what you do.  This might seem obvious, but putting a bit of thought into this can help you understand what your market is (and who your customers are).  First you need to figure out who you are from your customer’s perspective – how they view your company and your products.  Second, what skill does your company possess that gives you a competitive advantage (your core competence)?  More about figuring out who you are in Monday’s post.

What Business Are You In?

From your pondering on who you are you now need to figure out exactly what business you’re in.  This should be related to your core competence, what benefits/value you bring to customers, and how you’re going to make revenue.  Ideally you’ll be able to narrowly define your market so that you are the market leader.  If that’s not feasible, you’ll still need to figure out what sets you apart in that market.

Who Are Your Actual Competitors?

Now that you know what business you’re in – who else is in that same business.  Avoid trying to look at a wider industry or related markets.  Just because a company does something in the same industry doesn’t mean that you should consider them competition.  By figuring out exactly what business you’re in, you’ll be able to focus on competitors who are in the same business – which makes things much more easy to tackle.

Next step: Figuring out how to market to your customers…

(photo by Sir Mervs @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: brand, marketing, branding, strategy, business, competition, competitors

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Since I’ve been going there, I’ve noticed that they have these really cool stickers with their logo.  I have stickers all over my laptop (it’s a geek thing) for companies that I think are cool, know someone there, or was at a launch party or something.  Free advertising.  Last night I asked how I could get one of their stickers.  I was told that they haven’t had them for 2 years or so.  PRFAIL!

Here’s an enthusiastic customer, who talks about you and wants to promote your business for free.  And you have no way to connect with them.  Sure they have tshirts and whatnot – I might get one sometime, but a sticker is actually better promotion for them.  I travel just about everywhere with my laptop.  It’s highly visible.  I even put some stickers on the inside of my rear window of my car.  Stickers cost you want to have around?  Maybe $100 for 100 or 200?  How much does it cost you in the missed opportunity to have someone get your name out there?  If you’re not willing to shell out the dough to have swag around, you might consider using a service like Zazzle where you design the products and then people can use their website to buy them (and have them shipped, etc.).

I’m not saying you have to have stickers.  Stickers might not work for your brand or product.  But you need to help the people who want to get your word out.

A free sticker probably isn’t too much to ask.

Technorati tags: pr, public relations, brand, marketing, branding, brand strategy, business, reputation, brand management

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Fundamental Entity (FE) – Who Your Customers Think You Are

In marketing terms, a fundamental entity (FE) is who your customers think you are.  This is your brand.  Many companies have different types of brands and some use more than one brand together.  For example, Ford is a brand, but it’s also used in conjunction with many of their car brands, ex. Ford Explorer.

Core Competence – What Are You Good At?

Your core competence is what makes you stand apart from your competitors.  It’s not easily imitated and is linked directly to customer benefits.  Understanding what your core competence is is important because this helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors and figure out who you are actually competing against.

Strategic Assets vs. Competences vs. Customer Benefit

To help figure out your core competence, it may help to list our all your strategic assets and the related customer benefits.  These are assets which help you do business and compete (ex. systems, processes, employees, knowledge, etc).  For each strategic asset figure out what benefit it gives to your customers (it’s not strategic if it doesn’t have an associated customer benefit) and then what competence you gain from that asset.  It may be that multiple assets fall under one competence.  Your core competence will be the one competence which sets you apart from your competitors and allows you to be competitive for the long term.

Seeing Through The Eyes of Your Customers

It’s important to always view your products, services, brand and marketing in the eyes of your customers.  They are the ones who purchase your products, after all.  Who You Are is who they think you are.  Figure out what you can offer in terms of benefits to them.  Figure out what sets you apart in terms of benefits you offer that no one else can.

Now you know who you are.

For further reading:  Christie Nordhielm talks more about this process in her book, Marketing Management: The Big Picture
(Amazon link).  She lays out a very straight-forward and easy-to-understand method for devising and implementing a marketing strategy.  I highly recommend her book (guess I should write a review of it, huh?)

(photo by Faithful Chant @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: brand, marketing, branding, brand strategy, business, reputation, brand management

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy