How to stand out amongst everyone marketing themselves in the WORLD, not just those in your niche
It's the 2nd of Feb which means I'm officially caught up (that's a big lie - very not caught up aha) from my break! And it's time to get back into my weekly emails. WOOHOOO!!
Over the break, while I was meant to be on a break, ha! I got all inspired and FILLED my 'weekly email brain dump' section with so many topic ideas I want to talk about. So many so that it took me longer to pick a topic for today than it probably will take me writing this, ha! So there's some really good stuff coming. Keep your eye on your emails.
This idea actually came from watching a YouTube video from Grant Cardone. Now.... look. You won't hear me quoting him very often, ha! We don't share the same sort of values, clients, ways of working, teaching or have anything much in common at all tbh. But my partner Chris wanted to watch it, so I got through it until I heard what I'm going to share below and found it actually quite thought provoking, so I spent the rest of the video writing out what was in my head.
Now this isn't a direct quote, but he said something along the lines of - 'You aren’t competing with other people in your niche you’re competing with everyone.'
I hadn't really thought about it like that before. Mind you, I don't like the 'competition' mindset at all. I think as long as you have a solid brand and marketing strategy, there's not really any competition. But this made me think differently and kind of backed my theory.... you'll have to stick with me though for it all to make sense.
Grant's point of view, I believe, backs my beliefs on ditching the competition mindset.
Let me dig a little more into this.
If your ICA (ideal client/customer) has say, $200 of expendable money per week, a bazillion businesses are marketing themselves in the hope that $200 lands in their pocket. Not just the businesses in your niche.
Every day your customers are being marketed to by restaurants, clothing stores, hair products, electrical goods, courses, makeup, homewares, ebooks, entertainment, freebies, and everything else out there. Your potential customers/clients money could go anywhere. Not just to others in your niche.
I'm currently working through a course that was made 10 YEARS AGO!!!!!!!! It's a marketing course on the consumer psychology side of things. 10 years ago sounds ages ago in marketing land and yeah, it is when you are teaching platforms like social media or the tech side of things, but not a great deal of the sort of thing I'm learning about now dates because people's behaviours don't change much over time. But statistics certainly do change. I mention that because the statistic I'm about to share is likely SUBSTANTIALLY more than it was 10 years ago when the course was made.
The trainers in the course said that we get marketed to over 3000 times per day. THREE THOUSAND TIMES. Now with social media everywhere and with internet in our pockets etc, it'd be a bucketload more right? But regardless of the age of the course, the concept is still the same. We are unconsciously marketed to NON STOP through the day by so many types of companies.
So you aren't just 'competing' with people in your niche, you're competing with Apple, Coke, Officeworks, Maybelline, with a new drink bottle, with a fancy night out with their partner to a restaurant, with a new dress, with a trip to the Zoo with a holiday.
My point is, when you realise that you're not just competing with your niche, you're competing with everyone, you realise that there's really no point in trying to compete with every business in the world right? That's RIDICULOUS.
So why compete at all?
Why compete with people in your niche when you could support each other and help each other grow?
Competing isn't worth your energy or time. It's taking away time that you could be building your business to be something truly special so that when people DO decide that your niche is something they want to buy from, YOU stand out, you show up at the right time, you are different, they buy from you.
This really does reiterate the saying you just need to keep your eyes in your own lane. You don't need to think of people in your niche as competition, because the whole world is competing for peoples money. So just focus on you, focus on marketing yourself your best, focus on serving your followers, customers or clients the best you can, focus on building your brand, on creating awesome offerings/products/services and focus on your own vision, purpose and dreams.
If you do that, it doesn't matter what Apple, Coke, Officeworks, Maybelline, people selling drink bottles, dinners, courses, consulting, dresses, art, earrings, or what other businesses in your niche do. Because if you build your brand, focus on marketing yourself in a way that aligns with you and your audience, then when people DO think 'hmm I want to buy [your niche here]', you'll shine, because you're doing you, because you're in your own lane and you've created a business that is truly special, showcases your message in a strong and unique way and aligns with them.
So if you're someone who struggles with competition or comparison, I hope this inspires you to get out of competition mode (#communityovercompetition always) and supporting fellow small businesses even if they are in your niche. You may even find you grow more by supporting others because they'll support you back. Some of my best business pals do similar stuff to me! We support each other and we actually grow because of it.