If you can quantify the differences between your product and your competitors’ products, you’ve hit the jackpot. For example, if your competitor only offers a one-year guarantee on its product, but you offer a five-year guarantee, shout it to the world in your copy!
Gather Your Quantifiable Evidence
To quantify your differentiators, you first need to gather your data. Nothing helps draw attention to the differences between products better than hard numbers, so do your research and create a list of the differences between you and your competitors. For each difference that you can quantify, crunch the numbers and add them to your list.
There are so many ways to quantify the differences between you and your competition. Get creative and have fun with it!
10 Quantifiable Differentiators
To help you get started, here are 10 differentiators that are often very easy to quantify:
1. Selection
How many styles and options do you offer in comparison to your competitor? You might not come out on top in every aspect of selection, but there is bound to be at least one thing related to selection where you beat the competition.
2. Price
This is the easiest differentiator to quantify. Just make sure you have current and accurate prices for your competitors before you claim yours are better.
3. Store Hours
Consumers want convenience and your extended or unique store hours might be just what they’re looking for. Ever try to go to a Hobby Lobby or Chik-fil-A on a Sunday? Both will be closed, and guess where consumers go instead?
Some consumers might wait and return to Hobby Lobby or Chik-fil-A on a different day, but most won’t be willing to wait. You can bet that the nearest Michaels and Wendy’s are happy to serve those customers on Sunday.
4. Customer Service Hours
Do you offer customer service outside of normal business hours but your competitor doesn’t? Consumers want instant gratification these days, so this quantifiable differentiator could be enough to help you steal a lot of business from your competitors. Promote it!
5. Delivery Hours
Everyone is busy and having to be home to accept a delivery at a specific time can be challenging. There was even a Seinfeld episode about it! If your delivery hours are more flexible than your competitors’ hours, make sure customers know it.
This applies to shipping times, too. If you ship all of your products out on the same day they’re ordered or ship all products via overnight or 2-day delivery, that is a great differentiator which is easily quantified.
6. Delivery Rates
Your free or cheaper delivery rates could be the main reason that consumers choose your business over your competitors’ businesses!
7. Parking Availability
If customers can’t find a parking space or have to park in a dark, dangerous lot to buy from your competitors, make sure your lot is accessible and safe. Now, you’ve got a differentiator with hard evidence that proves it’s better than what customers will get from your competitors.
8. Location
It’s all about convenience. If your business is more accessible, there is less traffic, or it’s closer to other great businesses or area attractions, promote it in your marketing copy. Letting people know just how easy it is logistically to buy from you matters!
9. Number of Employees
How many employees do you have on hand who are dedicated to meeting customers’ needs at any moment? Personalized service is important. It makes consumers feel special and gives them peace-of-mind that they’ll get the help they need when they need it. It’s also extremely easy to use as a quantifiable differentiator.
10. Free Tie-ins
If you offer free product tie-ins, that is a great way to differentiate your business from competitors without directly and obviously competing on price. For example, if you sell cameras and offer free batteries with a new camera purchase, that’s a great savings for customers which competitors might not offer. People love getting something for free (or at a discount), so make sure customers know about your promotional tie-in offers!
Shift from Smoke and Mirrors to Quantifiable Proof in Your Marketing Messages
Anyone can say their products or services are better than the competition, but unless you can quantify how much better your business truly is, you’re promoting with smoke and mirrors. It’s a lot easier to make a sale when you can promote with quantifiable differentiators, so start gathering your quantifiable evidence right now!
Loosely adapted from Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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This is absolutely right and I also would like to share an excerpt from a book that talks about building brand identity. It says the differentiator can be categorized as Approach (How we do things), Asset (What we own and control), Offer (Our products and services), Skills (The skills we apply) and Mission (The ideals that drive us).