Marketing people will often tell you to focus on the competition as part of your marketing strategy, I disagree. The competition should never be a core component of your strategy, there will ALWAYS be competition out there and if you spend too much time focusing on them and what they are doing you are likely to lose sight of what’s really important. Obsessing over the competition has you putting energy in the wrong place. That mentality gears you up for a battle instead of concentrating on bringing something to unique to the people that you serve.
Being aware of your competitors is a wise practice, know who they are and what they are offering and at what price point and then get busy spending your time on delivering new value to your customers/clients. If you can create a NEW marketspace for what you are doing then your competition becomes irrelevant.
There are always fresh opportunities to utilize ALL new media outlets to drive value—start looking at your communications and your social media plans—are you using them to create value and solution oriented conversation for the people that you serve? Or are you still trying to do everything like you used to do it? In order to remain in the game you MUST evolve into the new conversations and the new mediums.
Look for ways to be disruptive, innovative, authentic and creative…start thinking about your business in new ways and then let the competition start worrying about you!
