Four tips to help you stand out in an oversaturated market

Starting any business is daunting, whether you’re aiming to have a startup, a small eCommerce business, or even doing some freelance work.

The self-employed route is not only rigorous, being paved with lots of obstacles, but it’s exhausting, to say the least. You can have the best product that can solve any major issue that a customer is dealing with, but if the market is oversaturated, it’s going to feel next to impossible to stand out. Businesses are constantly being dished out such whether it be freelance work, startups, or even just small businesses that make consumer goods.

Now more than ever, the barrier to entry for becoming an entrepreneur is fairly low. For many businesses you just need to have an idea and a stable internet connection in order to create a business. But low barriers to entry also mean higher stakes for failing and more competition.

Small businesses tend to fail within their first year. Statistically speaking, it’s around 90%, and you can expect by the fourth year, a business will begin to actually “make it” and begin to start succeeding. Four years is a long time, especially when trying to create a successful business.

As more businesses are coming out, it means that more businesses need to be creative in how they stand out. Standing out and getting known in any oversaturated market is possible, but it does require a lot of hard work and determination. So here are four helpful ways to get yourself to stand out, even in the most oversaturated of markets.

1) Understand that content is king

You’re going to need to be creative in how you plan on doing your marketing strategy. Marketing is far more than just posting a few pictures on social media or paying Google (or some other search engine) for ad space. No, if you’re wanting to stand out, you’re going to have to build an effective content marketing strategy. 

Content is king, and consumers love to see the content. There are a lot of businesses thriving, and it’s all thanks to their content strategy. You want to think outside the box, you’ll want to provide value, and you want to keep your audience entertained so they’ll stay engaged.

 Creative content is also a great way to build trust with your audience as well. It’s a fantastic way to reach out to your audience and build a connection. You want them to know that you’re helpful, that you’re going to provide them something of value. There are multiple ways to create engaged worthy content such as

  • eBooks
  • Courses
  • Workbooks
  • Blog posts

There are plenty of successful marketing content strategies out there. You just want to make sure that you’re bringing a lot of value. But a successful content marketing strategy should also include more than just engaged-worthy content. They should also focus on building high-quality backlinks, forming partnerships, SEO rankings, and customer acquisition as well. Just remove the fluff, and let your unique voice be heard.

2) Be socially and ethically responsible

Customers want to purchase from business owners who have the same point of view as them. You should speak up about your beliefs. Make sure you inform your audience of how socially responsible you are, as this is going to let your target customer know that you’re trustworthy and authentic. Even if your work is going to be automated, it should still be sincere. 

However, you should be sincere, as customers know when a business is being a hypocrite. If you have beliefs, then show them, be genuine. If you care about workers’ wages then make sure you fairly pay who you outsource work to. In general, you should make your business ethical, and it should truly be ethical. It shouldn’t be some type of lie to build your business. Be authentic in your beliefs and actions.

3) Look into helpful resources

There is an array of helpful resources online that you can utilise to help you grow your business. One of the biggest and most popular would include how to get Estonian E-residency. This is known for helping out a lot of businesses. Just look online to see what sort of programmes, and resources are available online for you to use. It may require some research or asking around, but it will definitely be worth it to get your business to take off.

4) Enhance your website

We live in an age of speed and reliability. Customers want results immediately. Your website is going to have to be fast. A delayed website would massively decrease your chance of getting a sale. Your website should be able to get fully loaded within two seconds. Sure, it does sound a bit impossible, but you can do it. Always look into ways you can optimise your website such as looking into the hosting company you use, lazy loading pages and compressing images

Photo by Mikail Duran