Startup Guides > How To Dominate the Market - 8 Tips

These days, a variety of external forces - as well as internal ones - can affect the success of your business. Understanding how your business excels where your competition does not is a critical element in dominating your market. Incorporate these eight strategies into your marketing plan to push your organization into becoming an industry leader:

1. Create your own niche.

The most effective method for dominating the market is to create your own niche market. You're more likely to succeed at market domination if you're operating outside of the mainstream with little or no competition.

Finding a niche where you can leverage your passion for your work will greatly increase the likelihood of your business becoming an industry leader.


2. Develop your offerings.

Just because your business is successful now doesn't mean it can survive in the long term without significant changes. This is especially true if you're operating in a very competitive market.

Offering new or modified products to your current market segment keeps your business relevant in an ever-changing industry. Diversifying your product attracts new niches to your business as well.

3. Identify external forces.

A variety of external forces may affect your market, including economic, technological, political and other forces. These forces affect market trends and may hold the key to dominating your market.

For example, the dire state of the economy during and after a recession has a large - and predominantly negative - impact on spending and demand for luxury goods and services. Being aware of such external forces will enable your business to survive by taking advantage of any opportunities that arise due to these forces.

4. Provide value and solutions.

What value are you creating? What problem are you solving? Answering these questions is critical to dominating the market. Your products or services should create a solution or provide value in places where your competitors may be lacking.

Focus on the value you're offering so your prospects understand exactly why they want to do business with you. Identifying primary consumer motivators can help you realize your company's true value.

5. Communicate with your customers.

You may be offering your services to the world, but you can achieve greater success by understanding what attracts specific niches to your business. Creating conversation with your customers provides insight into where customers find the most value from your business - and where they don't.

Utilize feedback mechanisms and engage in conversation with your customers through customer service, tech support, web forums, social media and survey forms. For example, personalizing email communications is a good way to build trust online.

6. Hire credible talent.

In addition to communicating with your customers, you can establish credibility for your business through the hiring of experienced employees. If your employees are happy and know what they're doing, then it is reflected in their performance, and customers will take notice.

For example, hiring professional writers to write blog posts on company or industry news is a great way to enhance your credibility to prospective customers. It also encourages your readers to share your content and is a great resource for word-of-mouth marketing.

7. Implement a cost-leadership strategy.

Cost leadership involves offering the lowest cost in the industry on products or services. In order to successfully implement this strategy, your sales must still earn your business an acceptable profit after expenses. Try lowering your cost of doing business by consolidating operations or hiring freelancers and independent contractors.

8. Conduct regular competitive analysis.

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competition is critical to maintaining your competitive edge. Implement and regularly update a competitive analysis in your marketing plan to better understand where your business needs to compete most.

Identify how to provide a stronger benefit than the competition, and then innovation to create a competitive advantage that enables you to truly dominate the market. For example, in this age of technological advances, many companies are innovating tech products and services to provide a unique mix of value to consumers.

While dominating your market can make your business more successful today, you should continue to develop your business in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Change is hard to do, but you must improve your products and services before your competitors do. After all, competition drives innovation.

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