It’s no secret that top positioning is a great way to gain the trust of future clients and to win over new customer bases. But how does a company go from just another mainstream company that does x, y, and z—to a brand leader worthy of being a powerhouse performer in your industry? Well, it doesn’t happen overnight, but it will happen by changing your story and, quite possibly, your focus.
Are you an expert is your industry ( aka brand leader )?
One of the biggest things to learn when positioning your company is acquiring the role of expert status. Being a brand leader means positioning yourself as being number one at something. It doesn’t matter what it is, so long as you’ve got it firmly stated so that your customers know that you are number one. You want your name to come up first every time they think about this topic. This is going to be your building block. From here, you can move vertically and grow and launch your business.
Do you have a niche?
One of the best ways to do this is to choose a niche market . It’s always great to have a general and broad focus—that just means you want to change the world. But if you really want to deliver you are going to have to narrow it down and make some room for yourself. For instance, if you want to start a teaching business, it’s great to want to help all of the teachers in North America. However, you probably aren’t going to be able to have that type of outreach without gaining a large following first. However, if you have experience teaching a foreign language abroad in a specific country in Africa—you may have a real niche topic that you can teach to other people who are moving there for teaching abroad opportunities. You can leverage your work there to expand to other countries, and eventually become the number one expert on teaching foreign language abroad teaching tactics.
Are you specific enough?
See how having a specific niche allows for a more targeted message rather than just being broad and generic. In your message you can’t talk to everyone and be heard. You have to talk to that special audience that is looking for the solution you have to their problem.
If your customer cannot be pinpointed to a specific need and identifiable characteristics, you are probably being too general. Many companies have had this experience, and once they nail their customer avatar down to a science, they usually find that their revenue spikes, their profits soar through the roof, and they’ve found a very happy new customer base.
Customer service is always first
The biggest thing you want to do to grow your business is gain a positive reputation as a company that takes good care of their customers. This begins to develop credibility and gain trust. To be a brand leader you also need to start leveraging the use of other experts to help sponsor and promote your business. Having influencers will help speed up the process to becoming a recognized brand leader and open the door to new opportunities.
Give value first
Before you start approaching influencers to help you, you need to give first. Think of some creative ways to their attention because they are in high demand so your offer needs to be appealing. For example, let’s say you want to interview them. You could try to reach out and offer to buy 50 books in exchange for the interview. You could offer to donate to a cause they are passionate about. You can help promote their upcoming book to a large audience reach or into a market that they aren’t in. Point is, if you want to become a brand leader, you can make it happen but you have to do a little hustle to get there.