Copy a Different Industry

It can be hard to differentiate your brand when there is significant competition. Without a unique campaign, your target audience will not differentiate you from other companies vying for their attention.

Copying the marketing techniques of other industries might be one way to separate your brand’s image.

Find out how you can copy a different industry to attract customers in this article.

Why Could Copying A Different Industry Work For Your Brand?

In crowded marketplaces brands can suffer from limited exposure to the target audience. This is because the customer has so many options to choose from, while having a limited amount of time to make a purchasing decision.

To overcome this, you need to discover new ways to differentiate your marketing efforts to intrigue your target audience. There are numerous options available, however sometimes these require significant work and costs. Often, changing focus and trying marketing techniques common in other industries might offer better rewards.

What Does Copying A Different Industry Mean?

Different industries tend to have a different style of marketing. For instance, recruitment companies rely on cold calling and online marketing companies tend to market with blogs, email and other online activities. This is generally because their audiences are focusing on these channels to discover new brands and interact with existing suppliers.

By using a different marketing model for your business, you can stand apart from your competitors. For instance, software companies could attempt to send lumpy mail to potential customers or accountants could attempt to cold call.

It is not just the method which can be copied. In some cases creating materials other industries would develop can support marketing efforts. Examples include accountants creating blog content on how their clients could use social media or writing compelling email copy.

What Are The Benefits Of Copying A Different Industry?

Copying a different industry has many benefits. In the majority of cases, differentiation is particularly powerful as a method to grab attention and reward your brand significantly.

Other benefits include the longevity of the marketing efforts. Because the differentiation separates your brand from others in the market place the marketing campaign is remembered for longer. This can give better returns on a single marketing campaign.

There is also a benefit for your staff. Your staff’s performance is dictated by several factors, including repetitiveness of tasks. If staff feel they are continually producing similar content or marketing activities their performance can drop. This can lead to poor results and expensive campaigns.

By switching old techniques with newer and different options, you are allowing your staff to expand their skill set and create more interest in their work. This then increases their output and performance, offering your brand better results.

Finally, the last benefit is the media exposure your brand can achieve if the method is unique enough. Journalists enjoy telling stories about how businesses are performing and discussing unique campaigns. By running a distinct campaign for your industry, your brand’s story can be picked up by media outlets. This will then increase your company’s exposure.

Should You Just Use Another Industry’s Marketing Techniques?

One of the common mistakes in this marketing method is to rely solely on the marketing techniques of the other industry. While this may be great at attracting attention, it might not be very good for closing sales.

Generally, customers have certain expectations how businesses should interact with their audiences. While the novelty factor will attract them, if there are long lead times from attraction to sales, that novelty will wear off.

There are many reasons why customers may demand this. Authority is one with customers trusting brands who stick to certain marketing avenues. Many service industries for example require the customer to trust the brand. Trust is not easily developed in a single phone call or meeting.

The customer may have doubts about the authenticity of your product and abandon the sales process, never to return again.

This is why it is important for your business to consider how the different marketing technique can align with your closing sales technique.

If, for example, you close the sale online you need to have a method to encourage your audience to go online and buy your product. However, this can be very difficult if you use personal contact methods such as door-to-door sales or cold calling. Better techniques would concentrate on marketing methods such as social media, email, blogging, pay-per-click, etc. If you aren’t using one of these methods adopting it might be the best option for your brand.

Therefore, it may be the best tactic to use another industry’s technique to attract your audience, and then use the traditional marketing efforts to build a relationship with the higher traffic.

What Industries Should You Copy?

The best way to determine which marketing techniques your business should copy would be by looking at the marketing materials you receive. In this correspondence, whether over the phone, mail or online you will instantly see content which stands out to you. This is the type of content you want to develop.

Take notes how they designed their marketing campaign and what made it interesting for you. Then do some research into the best practices for their marketing technique before launching a campaign. Ensure you have the resources to back up your marketing campaign with the traditional back-end sales process, which will match the customer’s expectations.

Conclusion

In a crowded market place it can be very difficult to have your brand stand out from the crowd. By copying the marketing techniques of a different industry you can separate your brand from your competitors. This will create intrigue and more of your target audience will be attracted to your new marketing approaches. You can then lead them down your sales process to gain higher revenue.

Action Steps:

• Look at the marketing contact you have with other industries and identify what interests you.
• Select one or two methods to copy and do some research into what the best practices are.
• Run a unique campaign for your industry and see the results.