How do you stand out from your competition?

How do you stand out from your competition?

Do you ever notice when you’re watching TV or listening to the radio, you hear a lot of businesses claiming to be the “#1 best” in the region, or even greater, the world? If you’re claiming to be the best or are striving to be, it’s important to stand out against your competitors. No matter where you go and no matter what, there’s competition. For nearly everything nowadays. Especially when it comes to selling services or a product, it’s crucial to be different from the rest and prove that you are a prospective customer’s greatest choice. From the product itself, to deals, branding, customer service, and advertisements, reach for uniqueness! We’ve discovered the best 5 different ways to stand out.

Promote Personality and Uniqueness

While there is benefit to looking at big corporations and researching what things they have done to become a successful business, it’s equally as important to be one-of-a-kind. Maybe your prices and services are similar to that of your competitors; you can’t mimic personality. Think about it from a consumer stand-point: wouldn’t you rather work with a company that sees the importance in quality service and being their authentic selves?

Story

Your consumers are people, too! They, like you, have emotions and stories. By crafting your company’s story into your pitches or advertisements, people care, and they listen. Not only does it allow for a great connection with your customers, it lets them get to know you on a personal level.

Quality

Yes, it’s great to have top-of-the-line products and services, but quality goes further than material. When in customer service and sales, are you going a step further to please your customers? By practicing quality, you can use it to your advantage from standing out from competitors. When prospectives look at your business, they would rather see positive, 5-star reviews from past and current customers than just a quality product with limited help everywhere else.

Design

We have touched on it in our blogs, about the importance of branding and websites, but design is crucial to the success of your business! The logo, name, and slogan are the first things people see when they search your business’ services. From your facebook ads to your website, colors and fonts should be coherent. Making a logo with notable design or colors will help customers remember your business and bring a personal touch.

Speed

People want to get stuff done! We live in a world where we’re constantly on the go and we want things faster. Think about how many times you needed a last-minute gift and Amazon same-day shipping helped you out. Even if your prices are similar, providing speed and efficiency is something people care about and will remember.

There are so many ways to stand out from your competitors, even beyond this list, but these are some great starting points to incorporate into your business today. For any of your traditional, digital and unique marketing needs, we’re here to help. We understand that no two businesses are the same, and we want to celebrate and accentuate your personality and uniqueness through marketing.

The Importance Of Branding Your Business

Branding your business.

No matter how big or small your business is, creating a brand for yourself is crucial to the image, reputation, and success of your business. Branding yourself is beneficial to both traditional marketing and digital marketing, especially.

What does it mean to brand your business? It’s as simple as it sounds; a way for others to identify your business. From logo to language to advertisements. So, how do you get started? Branding can be somewhat complex, so we’ve broken down the different steps to make it easier for you.

Voice and Language

Is your company more laid-back and casual or professional? Do your morals fall around the importance of family, growth, community, or all of the above? Do you have a catchphrase you often find your employees and even consumers using? Once you identify the key parts that make your business your business, it’ll be easier to move forward.

Logo and Website

Visuals are everything! People will base their opinion of your business based off of not only the design of your logo, but how accessible and easy your website is to navigate through. Like your voice, your visuals should represent you and what you stand for. For example, we all know the iconic Nike swoosh. It symbolizes movement and speed. It depicts the art of movement, which is exactly what Nike is about. Once a logo is figured out, match the rest of your visuals on your website, advertisements, and video to that of your logo. This will bring familiarity and comfort to your customers.

Means of Marketing

While businesses can have great benefit from all forms of marketing, does yours have a signature way of marketing? Maybe it’s podcasts, digital art, or live streaming. The possibilities are endless and through trial-and-error, you can determine what your consumers love and look forward to and what may not be pushing a lot of traffic and engagement.

Be Authentic

Above all, most important is being authentic and real with your consumers. Across all platforms, customers not only love being able to interact with you, but showing off personality helps build trust. This goes for more than just communication with consumers. Make sure every aspect of your business is on the same page! From business cards to employees, promote yourself.

Seek Professional Advice

Branding can be a lot of work. There are a lot of moving parts that need to work to come together to make a beautiful, meaningful brand for your business. There’s nothing wrong with reaching out and asking for help. Whether it’s solely for digital advertisements, communicating, or all of the above, Paragon Marketing Group has got your back!

7 essentials to brand awareness

brand awareness.

Recently Paragon has taken on a new effort of working with non-profits to help them grow. We feel it is very important and the more we give the more we receive.

While visiting these non-profits it is amazing how many of them have no brand guidelines. Now, this is not only for nonprofits, but with small businesses, as well. What is a brand guideline you ask? A brand guideline is how people view your company or non-profit. It is how they recognize it is you. Brand guidelines are a roadmap to automatic recognition of who you are.

 

Here’s what should be included in your brand guidelines.

  1. Your history, vision and your top values for your organization.
  2. Your mission statement including what we call “tone of voice” requirements. Yes, the tone of voice is important and must be spelled out as to what can and can not be said and how!
  3. Color palette is essential. Typically your logo will decide this for you but if you have a two color logo then add a couple of colors that you feel go well with it and stick to them.
  4. Where and how your logo can be used is one of the most important things that you will spell out. Can it be used on certain types of materials and on the website? How much white space around your logo? Can it be combined with any other logo? Does it always have to be color or can you do black and white? What sizes are allowed to be used? All very important.
  5. What fonts are people allowed to use is another one that needs to be thought of. There are literally thousands of fonts out there so do not leave it to chance. A good rule of thumb is having 1-3 options of fonts.
  6. What type of photos can be used with your logo? Not only the style but will you require special lenses, lighting. Maybe with your brand, you only want black and white with people in it.
  7. Please provide examples of the following: a business card, letterhead, brochure or pamphlet. Maybe provide a picture of proper use and unproper use of your logo.

Now, none of this matters if nobody knows about it.  Then you are not really creating a brand. Every time you send out your logo to anybody include these guidelines. If they don’t understand them then ask for a proof prior to print or publication. You must know where your logo is and how it is being represented at all times!

 

7 essentials to brand awareness

brand awareness.

Recently Paragon has taken on a new effort of working with non-profits to help them grow. We feel it is very important and the more we give the more we receive.

While visiting these non-profits it is amazing how many of them have no brand guidelines. Now, this is not only for nonprofits, but with small businesses, as well. What is a brand guideline you ask? A brand guideline is how people view your company or non-profit. It is how they recognize it is you. Brand guidelines are a roadmap to automatic recognition of who you are.

 

Here’s what should be included in your brand guidelines.

  1. Your history, vision and your top values for your organization.
  2. Your mission statement including what we call “tone of voice” requirements. Yes, the tone of voice is important and must be spelled out as to what can and can not be said and how!
  3. Color palette is essential. Typically your logo will decide this for you but if you have a two color logo then add a couple of colors that you feel go well with it and stick to them.
  4. Where and how your logo can be used is one of the most important things that you will spell out. Can it be used on certain types of materials and on the website? How much white space around your logo? Can it be combined with any other logo? Does it always have to be color or can you do black and white? What sizes are allowed to be used? All very important.
  5. What fonts are people allowed to use is another one that needs to be thought of. There are literally thousands of fonts out there so do not leave it to chance. A good rule of thumb is having 1-3 options of fonts.
  6. What type of photos can be used with your logo? Not only the style but will you require special lenses, lighting. Maybe with your brand, you only want black and white with people in it.
  7. Please provide examples of the following: a business card, letterhead, brochure or pamphlet. Maybe provide a picture of proper use and unproper use of your logo.

Now, none of this matters if nobody knows about it.  Then you are not really creating a brand. Every time you send out your logo to anybody include these guidelines. If they don’t understand them then ask for a proof prior to print or publication. You must know where your logo is and how it is being represented at all times!