In era of short attention spans, try to stand out
How do you stand out among the crowd? Because, online especially, you have but a few seconds, literally, to get someone to remember you. Or they won’t.
You are busy, I know. You are almost too busy to read this article, right?
We all are uber-busy these days. We have things to do, pings that pinged, emails to respond to (and, just maybe if we are being totally honest, a few cute kitten videos to watch).
The same is true, unfortunately, for your customers.
Today, online especially, between the tweeting and texting of short bursts of information, attention spans are shorter, and it is difficult to not only catch someone’s attention and keep it, but actually influence it.
So, how do you stand out among the crowd? Because, online especially, you have but a few seconds, literally, to get someone to remember you. Or they won’t.
This is what works:
Have a niche
Trying to be all things to all people usually means you will be nothing to no one. Take a website, for example. If you want your site to get noticed, the key is to make specific pages devoted to specific products or ideas.
Doing that does two things:
It means when people get to that page, they know what it’s about, quickly. That’s vital.
It also means Google will index the page well and rank it higher, thus increasing the odds of someone finding it.
It’s not just websites. Online, in social media and branding you need to have a niche.
Be unique
Next, within that niche, you need to be unique, different and special. Let’s say you are a lawyer. Your niche might be divorce. And your unique value proposition within that niche might be “divorce for women only.”
See how that makes you stand out? It gives people a reason to remember you and gives you a way and places to market your business, all at once.
Make it personal
The thing small business has that its corporate cousins do not is that personal touch. Use that. Amplify it.
Recently, I bought an expensive online course. The main reason was the teacher sold it with a video of him speaking directly into the camera. He was friendly, seemed honest, and he made a connection.
The personal works, especially for small business and especially online.
Use video
Videos are great because they are personal.
Also, in the YouTube era, they need not be expensive to make. And people love watching videos online. Where else can you get someone’s uninterrupted attention for three minutes online?
Have a great name
Recently, my wife asked me to clean the decks. Off I went to the hardware store to find some product for the task. What did I choose? 30 Second Outdoor Cleaner. A great name that extols the benefits of the business or product is one of the best things you can do to hack through the clutter and noise online. Other examples: Jiffy Lube
Baja Fresh Quickee Mart
Have a great tagline
Even if you can’t have a name that indicates the benefits of the business, you still can have a great tagline that does the same thing. If you use that tagline wherever people see your business name, they will begin to associate it with the business. That’s the ticket.
Repetition is the key
Wherever people find you online and wherever and however you market your business, service or product, repeating the same message, name and tagline is what gets you noticed and remembered.
Today’s tip
A lot of surveys come into my Inbox. They give an interesting portrait of the state of small business today. Two surveys give some insight:
The first is that small businesses and midmarket companies alike are increasingly seeing the value of tech and are upping their IT budgets and focus. This was a key insight from a recent Deloitte tech report called “Closing the Gap.”
The second is that small businesses are very optimistic right now. We see this fully in the biannual Bank of America Small Business Owner Report (note: I do some work with them). For instance:
71% of small-business owners are optimistic that their
2017 year-end revenue will surpass 2016 business revenue.
81% of Millennials expect their revenue to increase in 2018.