"Standing Out in Competitive Industries: Building Virality and Leveraging Differentiators"

Glasp

Hatched by Glasp

Sep 01, 2023

4 min read

0

"Standing Out in Competitive Industries: Building Virality and Leveraging Differentiators"

Introduction:

In today's competitive business landscape, it's crucial for brands to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Whether you're operating in a crowded market or launching a new product, understanding how to leverage your differentiators and build virality into your offering can make all the difference. In this article, we will explore strategies for both aspects and provide actionable advice to help brands thrive in competitive categories.

Lean Into Your Differentiators:

When operating in a popular space, it's essential to focus on what sets your products or services apart from the competition. By identifying and emphasizing these unique selling points, you can attract and retain customers more effectively. Consider the success of companies that have prioritized their differentiators on social media and Amazon platforms. By doing so, they have not only increased product subscriptions and recurring revenue but also reduced the cost of customer acquisition. Therefore, it's crucial to be in relentless pursuit of what makes your brand unique.

Consider Your Full Funnel:

One common mistake made by product marketers across industries is failing to think holistically about their sales funnel. To effectively build virality into your product, it's important to consider every stage of the customer journey. From awareness to post-purchase engagement, each touchpoint presents an opportunity to create a viral effect. Additionally, don't forget to focus on enhancing the consumer's actual product experience. By continuously engaging customers post-purchase, you can build loyalty and encourage them to come back for more.

Give Content Creators Power:

Influencer marketing has become an incredibly powerful tool for brands, but it's essential to ensure authenticity when collaborating with content creators. The most effective influencer campaigns resonate with the creators' audiences and allow them to maintain control over messaging. Audiences are highly perceptive when it comes to inauthentic material, so brands must avoid inconsistent or overly corporate messaging. By empowering content creators and letting them speak in their own voice, brands can create genuine connections and drive virality through trusted channels.

Building Virality into Your Product:

Now, let's explore nine actionable ways to build virality into your product:

  • 1. Two-Sided Reward: Create incentives for users to invite their friends and for their friends to accept the invite. This creates a gifting effect and encourages viral growth.
  • 2. Appeal to Vanity: Tap into users' vanity and competitiveness by exposing metrics that they can drive up. LinkedIn's early success was partly due to showcasing the number of connections on user profiles, incentivizing users to invite more connections.
  • 3. Collaboration: Build products that facilitate collaboration or communication between coworkers. These inherently viral tools can spread quickly within organizations.
  • 4. Embeds: Enable others to embed your product into their websites, expanding its reach and visibility.
  • 5. Artifacts Shared on Social: If your product creates unique and interesting content, encourage users to share it on their social networks. Pinterest's success was fueled by allowing users to pin items from the web and share them on Facebook, creating a browsing black hole.
  • 6. Artifacts Shared via Messaging: Create artifacts or URLs that users are expected to share via messaging apps, increasing the likelihood of viral growth.
  • 7. Signatures: Include your product's branding or a call-to-action in users' email signatures, amplifying its exposure with every communication.
  • 8. First Message on Existing Messaging Platforms: Leverage existing messaging platforms to send the first message introducing your product to potential users.
  • 9. Highly Visible Hardware: If your brand includes hardware products, prioritize visibility. A prime example is Square, which made credit card processing more accessible and visible to businesses. Another example is the outdoor Nest Cam, an innovative security camera that gained attention through its design and functionality.

Conclusion:

Standing out in competitive industries requires a combination of leveraging differentiators and building virality into your product. By focusing on what makes your brand unique, considering the full sales funnel, empowering content creators, and implementing actionable strategies for virality, you can significantly increase your chances of success. Remember to continually adapt and innovate to stay ahead in the ever-evolving business landscape.

Actionable Advice:

  • 1. Identify and emphasize your unique selling points to differentiate your brand effectively.
  • 2. Map out your sales funnel and optimize each stage for viral growth.
  • 3. Collaborate with content creators and empower them to maintain authenticity in their messaging.

By implementing these strategies and continuously refining your approach, you can position your brand as a standout in any competitive category.

Hatch New Ideas with Glasp AI 🐣

Glasp AI allows you to hatch new ideas based on your curated content. Let's curate and create with Glasp AI :)