Assessing Your Competition

Often when we go into business we don't like to think about 
our competition and because they are the "enemy" we don't 
really want to acknowledge that they exist or could possibly 
be doing anything right. The problem with this thinking 
is that it gives your competition an ever increasing amount 
of power. Smart business owners know who their competition 
is, what they are doing and if they are lucky, how they are 
doing it. They know their competition's motto, their logo, 
their customer service ideal and how they reach their buyers. 
Simply put, they know as much as possible. 
Don't kid yourself into thinking that you don't have competition. 
Trust me, very few new businesses are original. If you 
are one of those very, very few....Lucky You, because that 
is the ideal situation, although still fraught with it's 
own difficulties. So gather your courage, admit to having 
competition and let's see what the competition has to teach 
you and make you more powerful.


First and foremost, identify who they are. This often easy 
online by simply doing a search of keywords in the search 
engines. Who came up? What are they doing that is the same 
as your business and what are they doing that is different? 
Do your business a favor and subscribe to their newsletter 
if they have one. (On the other hand, always check your 
subcribership and try to delete your own competition, they 
don't need your help. Or at least you don't want them to 
have it.) 


Make a list of every single aspect you can discover about 
your competition. Who are they? Where are they? How do 
they process sales? What methods of payment do they have? 
How fast does their site load? What are their meta tag/keywords? 
(Click View, Page Source to see) Who are their buyers? 
What are they doing better than you? How can you improve 
on this aspect? What are you doing that is better than they 
are? How can you shift your niche market so that it isn't 
exactly the same? What are their prices? How do those prices 
compare with your own? Ask and answer every conceivable 
question you can possibly think of about your competition 
and try to improve your own business so that you are the 
only conceivable solution. 


Finally, keep your competition in your peripheral vision. 
Don't forget they are there and continue to monitor their 
business methods. It's your best defense to out shining 
them. 



Look At The Niche Possibilities

Unless you have millions upon billions of corporate type 
dollars to launch your business, consider the niche possibilities. 
What can you do that slivers off a niche of your market 
and specializes in such a way that you become irresistible 
to your buyers? For instance, instead of selling desserts, 
sell brownies in ten different flavors. The best brownies, 
richest, chewiest, most delectable brownies in the world. 
Now you have a niche. When people think of brownies as 
people often do, they will think of you. Additionally, when 
they think of dessert they are also likely to think of you. 

Make notes. Where can you slice the pie so that what you 
are doing is specialized and therefore separates you from 
the masses? Every business has a niche possibility. Consider 
what yours are. Instead of selling gifts sell candles. Instead 
of selling books sell cookbooks. Get the idea? Now play 
with it and see what you come up with.



Discovering What Your Business Is and How It Fits In

This is very important. Your business is a small business. 
That doesn't mean it won't become a big business. It might 
even grow to become a corporate business. But right now, 
it's a small business. You wouldn't put adult size clothes 
on a toddler. Don't do the same to your business because 
just in the same way that adult clothes would fit a toddler 
so will your small business fall out of corporate sized solutions. 
Make the most of what you are. You can't mass advertise 
like your corporate other, but you can reach targeted audiences 
through articles in the right publications. You can overcome 
corporate deep pockets by acting like a small business and 
offer human solutions, more service, friendliness, one on 
one, and much more. Understand who you are and develop it. 
It will become a foundation of strength that pulls your 
out of the big guys shadow. List all the reasons being a 
small business works for your potential buyers.



Discovering Who Your Buyers Are and Then Locating Them

So who are they? Who, specifically are the people who would 
buy your product? Well start with what you are selling and 
answer the obvious. Yes, in your notebook. Are you selling 
baby clothes?
Then your buyers are most likely to be women, in the age 
group of between 20 and 35. How expensive are the baby clothes? 
If they aren't then your buying audience maybe younger, 
couples with less money. Blue collar workers. If the baby 
clothes are quite expensive, then your audience might be 
dual working couples in an older category. Professional 
white collar couples. See how this works? Define what you 
know about your buyers. Understand who they are personally 
and their habits. Evaluate what income bracket they might 
be in. What do they do in their spare time? What magazines 
do they read? What newspapers? Think as if you are your 
buying audience.


Help yourself out by subscribing to the trade publication 
specific to your business. Every single industry has one, 
even funerals!!! Find yours by going to the local library 
or, better yet, university library and seeking out directories 
of Trade Journals. This will become an invaluable resource 
for staying on top of selling trends and what your buyers 
are doing. Join groups online that share an interest surrounding 
the service or product of your business. This is where niche 
marketing will really help you out because people love to 
talk to people who love all the same things they do. Follow 
them. Listen to them. Join them. And learn from them. 

Buy books about your trade, buy mainstream magazines around 
your trade, buy the publications that your competition advertises 
in, and read, read, read. This is immensely important as 
it teaches you about your buyers. Keep a healthy section 
of your notebook about all the things you learn about your 
buyers and finding them will become easier and easier. You 
have to know who they are, you have to understand them before 
you can find them and sell to them. 



Reaching Your Buyers and Exercising Your Plan

So now you know who your buyers are and your learning more 
about them everyday. The next question is how will you reach 
them? What methods will you employ to get your service in 
front of them? Online businesses have several avenues including:

Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
Join the lists that include your buying audience. Participate 
responsibly by supplying valuable information and reasonable 
responses. Always use an email tag as this alone will serve 
as your ad.

Email advertising
Purchasing Opt In Advertising that goes directly to an email 
box of your targeted buying group.

Newsletter Advertising
Advertising in newsletters whose subscribers are your buying 
audience. In other words, the people most likely to be interested 
in your service or product.

Article Writing and Ezine Submission
Write and submit articles to Ezines whose readers would be 
interested in your products or services.

Writing a Newsletter
Writing, maintaining, and building your own subscriber base 
by writing a weekly or bi-monthly newsletter.

Reciprocal Links
Exchanging links with web sites that compliment, but don't 
compete, with your business.

Strategic Alliances
Aligning yourself with people who can push your product or 
service for you. Who will stand behind you by referring business.

Word Of Mouth
Encouraging word-of-mouth referrals by asking your clients 
who they know that would be interested in your services or 
products.

Press Releases
Get the word out regularly to the media. Remember article 
space in publications out performs ad space ten times over.

Business Cards
Do you need a business card if your business is online? Yes. 
Every time you go out make it a point of giving out at 
least three business cards. Make sure your domain is clearly 
and boldly printed on it. Use both sides of your business 
card. Be creative. 

Direct Mail Copy
Put together a direct mail package about your business and 
snail mail a set number of copies to targeted groups a month. 
Inform clubs, associations, organizations and more about 
what you do. Offer them a special discount. In the end 
it will pay you back ten fold.

Now that you have some ideas about how to reach your buyers, 
put together a plan that you will follow with out fail every 
single week. Persistence builds momentum. Stay with it 
and the sales will be yours.



Evaluate The Results

Finally evaluate the results of your marketing efforts. 
Consistently ask your clients how and where they heard about 
you. Keep a detailed outline of which marketing methods 
are bringing in the most business and give more attention 
to the winners. Marketing takes diligence and observation. 
Dump the methods that are not performing and increase what 
is working well. Even within a marketing method. For instance 
don't dump Newsletter advertising if the first campaign doesn't 
work. Don't make a decision based on one ad. Make it based 
on ten. Then if it doesn't work, look to other newsletters 
that might bring in better results rather than dumping the 
method as a whole.
__________________________________________


Charles Carboneau is the President and CEO of CashConnection. 
CashConnection has pulled together 20 years of Internet 
experience and cutting edge tools to create an 8-Step Internet 
Success System for you, so you can start, run, and maintain 
your own profitable online business.For your FREE Five Page 
Report visit www.cashconnection.com today!

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