How to Compete with the Big Guys
In talking with a group of start ups recently, I got into the discussion of how small businesses can compete against larger companies that have a great deal of process and marketing power behind them. After we agreed on the initial list of MUST-do marketing tactics for success, including email marketing to current customers and contacts, generating your own PR to make news, and sending direct mail to build lists and find leads, my thoughts went back to the question itself.
There is another option to challenge those big brands and the answer lies in the question – COMPETE! Find out if local media, analysts, industry magazines or bloggers have any scheduled product shoot-outs or competitions in the coming months. If not, maybe someone will consider doing a review of your product against a competitor and featuring the review on their site, show, or in editorial.
How do you make that happen? Make a few calls or send a few emails to the experts and ask what they have planned for competitions, reviews, etc that you can submit your solutions or products to compete head to head with the big guys and win. Hint: the summer months are a great time to submit any consumer products for features on holiday gift ideas, favorite things, and what-to-buy lists.
If you don’t come across any formal challenge or award in the short-term that will provide a stage, then try submitting your products to people that may be willing to feature a head to head comparison or editorial highlighting their findings. Recommend the two to three competitors you would like them to consider for a review and provide them with basic information on what you believe the differences to be. Now, you’ve created a story idea that can help them make a name for themselves and for you to shine.
Remember, you must surrender yourself to their final opinion, but even if you don’t get the top nod in the final edit you’ve earned the position of being mentioned in the same article and you’ve proven to be a real contender.
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May 23rd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
In addition to participating in competitions, consider forging partnerships with businesses + other organizations that serve the same kind of customers as you do. Your partnership can generate more value or visibility than even the big guys if you co-create a package or product to serve a situation that matters to your kind of customer. Or co-create a helpful how-to video + checklist (involving humor and/or inspiration and/or well-liked locals helps) and display that video at all partner locations and online sites + distribute elsewhere.
See. for example, how tiny firms in Seattle co-created videos for others and are creating a movie about the local independent business scene at How We Partner
May 24th, 2009 at 9:12 am
That is a really good idea. It is hard for me to explain on the website why my furniture is more durable than the competitors. An unbiased comparison could definitely do that for me.
May 25th, 2009 at 6:26 am
One of the ways we compete with “the big guys” is to make sure we rank with them in online searches. By spending time to make sure we’ve optimized our site has been a good way to get the attention of prospective clients.
We rank second to a company that’s much larger than ours and has been around for 20 years (we’re almost 2 years old).
Another way we compete is to show how our smaller company can be more flexible and meet our clients’ needs more effectively than the larger companies can.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I agree - there are many creative ways to as a smaller business, compete with bigger companies. I definitely think it takes a fair amount of thought and planning - finding innovative ways to stand out from the crowd and come in from a fresh angle. I spent some time brain storming with my team a few months back to try to come up with solutions and we have begun to see some signs of success from a few of the initiatives. One of these is having an online print store (http://www.digitallizard.com/small-medium-business.php sets these up for you - clients/employees can print material from a site where brand integrity isn’t compromised) it’s been amazing to see how impressed our clients have been with the store and it’s also helped give a more competitive/professional edge.