How to stay ahead of your competitors

Staying ahead of the competition is one of the most important parts of business, and you need to consider different ways in which you can get one over on your competitors. This involves keeping track of your competitors and the marketing activities they are carrying out.

For small businesses, advertising is one of the hardest factors to get right. It can be very costly to undertake and you need to ensure you are getting a good return on investment. Smaller businesses often find that the market is monopolised by larger businesses who have more money to spend however this isn't entirely true. Whilst larger businesses may have more to spend, this doesn't necessarily mean they will get any further or that the advertising will be effective. Larger businesses can spend millions on advertising which doesn't pay off, whereas smaller businesses are more likely to watch their pennies and thus succeed with advertising.

The only way an advertising campaign will actually work is if someone actually sees your advert. They also need to believe in your brand enough to want to purchase from you. This is something which very few brands actually manage to do, as you need to have enough creativity to be able to capture attention. Your brand needs to be placed everywhere, not only on television adverts but also radio and in printed adverts as well. Of course, you don't want to perform a brand overkill but you need to ensure that your brand is visible enough for others to see.

For smaller business who find it difficult to keep up with larger organisations marketing budgets, you may choose to use promotional items as a way of advertising instead. This is because they are often cheaper in cost and considered to be more effective. You can also choose from many different items and relate them to your business.

When choosing your promotional items then you should consider what your target market would like. For example, if you are targeting corporates then you may consider corporate gifts, or USB's. Similarly, students are likely to enjoy receiving a binder or promotional pens. The product you choose is important as you need it to work for your target audience. The correct distribution of the products is also important, there's no point investing in promotional items if they aren't going to get in the hands of the right people.

How do you stay ahead of your competitors? Do you use a promotional product campaign?