As society begins to adapt to a digitized economy, many businesses begin transitioning online promotions and transactions to gather a larger audience group. When starting a new business, it is difficult to attract new customers, especially if there are so many other businesses with similar products competing with the same group of customers. In many cases, customers are already loyal to certain businesses and companies, making it difficult for newer businesses to get the necessary exposure and attract attention. The blog will discuss several business methods startup businesses may follow to spread their influence in the digitized community.
Method #1: Make a Plan to Nurture a Competitive Advantage
Rather than focusing on immediate success when starting up a business, it is best to prepare measures for steady business growth. By focusing immediately on competing against big-name companies, startup companies will be at a great disadvantage. They do not have enough resources to help them maintain their momentum in the case that the company really does manage to increase engagement in a short period of time.
Businesses should always be sure to maintain a positive image by doing the right thing and being open to customers engaged in the business. It is great to start developing a level of transparency right from the start. To create a healthy relationship between the consumer and retail relationship, customers have the right to know the intentions of the business and the underlying factors behind the product. Customers need to feel ensured that the product and company are safe and user-friendly without any underlying intentions. Building trust would increase both user engagement and influence other individuals to explore similar products.
Method #2: Focus on Placing Barriers to Entry
Oftentimes, small startup businesses are kicked out of the competition early on because of their lack of influence on their products. Large companies, with more engagement and attention, sometimes take advantage of the little-known influence of their competitors to adapt new innovations to their own products. Startup businesses will not be given the chance of building momentum because the product would have already existed in the industry.
Barriers to entry keep large competitors from stealing product ideas through patents, copyrights, and economies of scale. With barriers to entry, only a single business would sell the product. Customers would be likely to be loyal to the brand and its product since it would only be sold through one single platform. In a similar way, established companies also build barriers to entry to avoid competition from taking advantage of their loyal customers. This is why it is important to always have an innovative environment to persuade the intended consumer that your business is better.
Method #3: Understanding Adversity and Current Events
With the influence of the internet, especially on social media, it is very easy to gain or lose the support of a business. For any business, it is essential to understand social problems in our society today that have influenced the mindset of the consumers. With the attentiveness to issues such as a pandemic, discrimination, etc. in our current society, smaller businesses are extremely vulnerable to anything. Startup businesses that initially developed to share a similar cause may be affected positively by such issues. Having shared support for a similar cause will influence other individuals with similar mindsets to support the product under the consideration of emotional or monetary support.
However, it is important to always research and gets facts straight before engaging in any voices of opinion. Researching and making the right decision play a huge role in the success of a company. Business leaders should know when to share a public opinion and when to restrain from involving business with the voices of others. It will also be important to raise awareness of the products that the company is producing and the type of impact its production may have on the environment and society as a result of widespread distribution.
Method #4: Using Large Digital Platforms for Product Exposure
The vast internet can be a huge benefit for developing companies to gain immediate momentum. Anything can be easily shared with multiple audiences within seconds if the right strategy is used to promote the existence of the business. Luckily, there are resources that help companies gain the exposure they need without focusing too much on advertising. Large digital platforms such as Amazon and Google create a platform to reduce unnecessary startup costs by allowing businesses to profit by selling through these platforms. These large platforms are often relied on and trusted by many consumers, allowing the use of customizing and cross-selling products from different platforms. Companies are able to get the exposure they need by borrowing the influence of these big-name companies.
Method #5: Creating original software application programs to attract consumers.
Many starting businesses rely on packaged programs designed by software vendors to create their websites for them. However, packaged programs are not customized just for the company. It shares many similarities with existing websites that prevent the website from appealing to its users. This is why is it important for consulting companies to think from the approach of the developer to understand their vision to create a website that is customized to their needs and intentions exactly. This will help businesses gain a competitive advantage to stand out from the already competitive crowd.
Another option is for businesses to create their personalized software development team that is solely focused on developing the website for that one business. These employees are most valuable because their responsibility lies in focusing on one single business rather than adapting and supporting multiple different businesses. These companies are responsible for coming up with strategic solutions to business strategies and making decisions to accommodate the intended consumer groups.
This is exemplified by Patrick Doyle, CEO of Domino’s, when he improved his business strategy upon the installation of his new position. He aimed to improve user experience through the software and mobile applications through innovative features such as progress tracking. With this, Domino’s was able to rise in profit and benefit proficiently.
Sources
https://www.santander.com/en/stories/digital-economy
https://hbr.org/2021/01/in-the-digital-economy-your-software-is-your-competitive-advantage
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/06/28/competition-challenges-in-the-digital-economy/
