How Do You Stand Out in the Crowd?

As more and more businesses and brands move to the online space, it’s becoming much harder to stand out from the crowd. In such a competitive space, you may find yourself getting bogged down and constantly worrying about staying on top.

It goes without saying the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition from real-world transactions to the digital marketplace. Now brands have to focus on their online presence and the digital relationships they build with their customers.

From TikTok marketing to competitor bidding, we’ll talk you through the best ways to stand out from the crowd.

1. Have a Plan

In order to do well against your competitors and stand out from the crowd, it is essential that you have a strategy. This includes identifying where you are now, where you want to be in three, six or twelve months in terms of your goals, whether they are brand awareness, organic traffic or search ranking, and the steps needed to achieve those goals. 

Part of your plan should also include knowing and strengthening your brand identity. Your customers should know exactly what to expect from your brand. A good way to ensure this is by having a clear and consistent brand voice across all of your platforms. A great example of a brand that does this is Lidl. Lidl is very well known for its wit and humour across all social media platforms, especially Twitter.

2. Acknowledge Digital Marketing Trends 

If you want to stay on top of the digital world, you’ll also have to stay on top of digital marketing trends. For example, TikTok marketing is a huge global trend right now, and data shows that Instagram reels are also 22% more popular than longer Instagram video posts. Due to dwindling attention spans and the constant desire to scroll, long videos aren’t tolerated anymore. Brands and businesses must capitalise on short-form videos if they want to stay relevant in contemporary society. 

Nowadays, most people have phones which are capable of capturing a good quality TikTok or Reel making it accessible to everyone. However, it’s no good to film any old video and hope for the best. For the best chance of TikTok’s and Instagram’s algorithms favouring your videos, you should take part in TikTok trends and challenges and use trending sounds. 

3. Don’t Forget About Google

While trends are important, it’s not all about TikTok marketing; you also need to consider your online presence elsewhere. For example, on Google search, it’s important that you use a unique selling point (USP) in your headlines. Communicating a USP in digital marketing is one of the key factors in getting potential customers to convert to your website. For example, your USP might boast the lowest cost, the most experience, the highest quality or any other trait that sets it apart from your competitors. 

If your business also does competitor bidding, you can give users a reason to click on your website by bidding on your competitor’s brand terms. If someone is looking for your competitor’s products or services, then it is very likely that they’ll be interested in what you have to offer too. For example, if you were to search Deliveroo, an ad for Deliveroo would be the first result as they are also bidding on their own brand name, but you would also see results for Just Eat and Uber Eats. The other results may also contain a USP to try and attract users to click on their website instead. 

However, while you can bid on competitors’ brand terms, you cannot use their brand in your ad copy if their brand is trademarked. You will also find that some users are looking for a particular brand rather than a general product or service, so you will avoid other websites despite them having competitor bidding and USPs. link

4. Know Your Audience

In order to connect and build a relationship with your audience, you need to know who you’re engaging with. You need to define your target audience’s age, gender, income, interests and the types of content they consume. Once you understand who you are talking to and connecting with, you can tailor your content and copy to resonate with your target audience. Having a tone of voice that your audience can relate to will help you to stand out much more than if your brand had a generic tone of voice with no brand personality behind it.

Not only do you need to tailor your tone of voice to your audience, but you also need to be engaging with them. This involves replying to their comments and questions, interactive social posts and stories, and ultimately meeting them where they spend their time. Once you understand your audience and have gained their trust, you’ll know what they expect and want, for example, which influencers they want to see you work with and user-generated content.

5. Be Transparent

In a world where millennials and Gen Z are running the consumer scene, brands must constantly adapt as these generations define what business looks like. Gen Z is especially interested in what goes on behind the scenes; they favour the human element of brands and businesses. 

If your target audience is millennials and Gen Z, the best thing you can do is show what goes on behind the scenes, the faces of your brand and any mistakes that happen, and when and if your brand does make a mistake, own up to it rather than trying to keep it hush-hush.

To Conclude

Trying to stand out in digital marketing can initially seem overwhelming, but when you break it down and create a strategy, it becomes much more manageable. Plus, when you have a strategy and keep track of results, and what worked and what didn’t, you can continuously tweak your action plan to help you achieve your goals and help your brand stay on top.