The Undeniable Value Of Differentiation

With all the people offering products and services online, what
sets yours apart from the crowd?

You can't argue this, to succeed you need to differentiate yourself.

Online businesses come and go every day and about 90% fail.

The reasons online businesses fail vary from situation to
situation, here's a few:
*It could be that the business owner didn't educate themselves
properly
*It could be that the netreprenuer didn't market correctly
*It could be that the webmaster didn't develop a product people
were actually willing to pay for
*It could be that the newbie didn't spend enough time creating
and leveraging the right types of relationships
*It could be that the inexperienced Internet marketer didn't remember
to be thorough and calculated with their product offering, sales copy,
packaging, traffic plan, etc.

All of the above reasons are valid and one of the most common
reasons the product offering itself fails, is because the niche market
that the business owner is marketing in is semi-saturated and the
marketer had no "differentiator".

A differentiator is anything that makes your unique selling
proposition differ from any other by the benefits it delivers to the
user. Those benefits need to be itemized in the sales copy to make
sure the prospect will understand what makes the offering specific
to his/her needs.

A differentiator could simply be a different angle or viewpoint on
some problem or product not currently realized by anyone else.

How many ebooks have been written about Internet marketing?
Hundreds if not thousands...the ones that make money have easily
identifiable differentiators.

A differentiator could be an added bonus to your product offering
that the prospect can't get anywhere else.

**Simple example:
Suppose there are 2 products that a prospect is considering purchasing.

*Product offering #1 offers a bonus that can be easily found
on the Internet.

*Product offering #2 offers a bonus that is exclusive to this
offering itself that cannot be obtained anywhere else other than
through this specific offering.

If both products are equal in benefits to the user and have the
same price, which product offering will the prospect choose?

Of course, the prospect will choose Product #2 because of the
" exclusivity" of the bonus. That exclusivity is a differentiator.

A differentiator could be a discount on a service that no one
else in your niche offers. A differentiator could simply be a
promise to respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours.

The trait that defines a truly effective differentiator is uniqueness.

A differentiator could even be something as simple as the packaging
of the sales process of a product or service itself. The packaging
of a product includes graphics, format of delivery, appearance of
web presence, etc.

With regards to graphics, it is important to understand that people
respond positively to visually pleasing graphics regardless of
whether the end product of offering is actually affected by those
graphics. Due to the average person's reluctance to buy online, the
better things look, the better the prospect feels about moving
forward with a purchase.

In the online world, the prospect decides to purchase a product
or service that is being marketed to them somewhat "virtually"...it
is intangible to them until they buy. In this instance, a
differentiator could be something as simple as slick graphic
or choice of product format-pdf, exe, audio, RAM, MP3, etc.

Before you can actually identify a truly effective differentiator
for the product offering, a good amount of competitive intelligence
needs to be done within the appropriate vertical niche market.

Begin by reviewing all products and services that could be
perceived as competitors in that niche market and define the
differentiator from there.

Whatever type of differentiator is chosen, it's vital to
make certain the prospect clearly can understand the value
of it by itemizing the benefits it brings to them.

This is often overlooked and equates to unrealized sales.

Be humble, work smart, keep it simple.

Karl Augustine
" The Regular Guy"
(c) Karl Augustine
http://www.9mistakes-online.com
http://startingsmart.9mistakes-online.com