Right now, Google is showing your prospective customers the details of all your competitors – including those competitors who charge less than you.
So, your prospective customers now know you’re not the lowest priced provider. The question is: How do you plan to convince them that you’re worth the extra money?
Generic marketing promises do not work
We are in one of the worst economic cycles in living memory and your prospective customers are thinking a LOT harder, before they spend their money.
They demand value.
It’s not enough for you to claim that you offer great customer service or that you go the extra mile or that you care more. Why? Because the bargain basement providers make those same generic promises. Those promises are so common now, that we are almost blind to them.
If you want someone to even consider spending money with you, when there are cheaper alternatives, you need to avoid generic promises and get specific.
The answer
You may already have an attractive proposition, which your cheaper competitors can’t match. If you do, you need to communicate it effectively and make it extremely visible in your marketing.
If you don’t already have a compelling, non-generic reason for prospective customers to buy from you, you need to create one. This is not about developing some snazzy marketing slogan! It’s about building something into your existing product or service, which has genuine value and is not already being offered by your competitors.
For example
You can be yet another accountant or the only accountant in your area, who offers a monthly networking event for their clients – so they become part of a community and not ‘just a client’.
You can be yet another web designer or the only web designer in your price range, who redesigns their client’s Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts – so they match your client’s beautiful new website.
You can be yet another window cleaner or the only window cleaner in your area, who also cleans the windows on your customers cars.
You get the idea.
Step outside of the ordinary
Take time to think of a genuinely valuable, attractive proposition to offer your prospective customers. A USP is not enough any more. There has to be something, which prospective customers can see as offering them genuine value. A Purple Cow may grab people’s attention, but there has to be value behind it if you want to attract paying customers and not just glances.
Put on your thinking cap and look at your products or services through the eyes of a prospective customer. What needs do they have, which you could serve by adjusting your offering?
Give this exercise the time it deserves. It’s what your prospective customers will be focused on for the foreseeable future.