The Strategy for Competing Against Bigger Brands

1. The Strategy for Competing Against Bigger Brands New and small businesses have a significant challenge to compete against established brands. Here are some strategies that can be adopted. The challenge of SEO comes from the fact that often we have to deal with more established competitors. The need for strong digital marketing in healthcare arises from the fact that you would have to compete with the big fish in the pond. And that’s a challenge. Competing With Bigger Brands Is Challenging Content is still the king of SEO, and great content is usually highly rewarding. And, as a young business, you would think that the quality content in your websites, blogs and social networking platforms targeting user needs could get you up there. Besides, you offer a great service or product. So there shouldn’t be any roadblocks to deal with. Well, despite all this, you could still be in for some discouraging results in terms of traffic and conversions. That’s probably because the market you’ve chosen is extremely competitive. You could be competing in a space where there already are big brands competing. They’ve been around for much longer than you. So it will take time and a great deal of effort to grab a bit of their market share. Think Differently and Identify Untapped Opportunities As a start-up physician clinic or business, can you take on the big brands? It may seem an insurmountable task, but it certainly isn’t impossible. You will have to think differently from what the big brands do, because their scale of business, popularity, conspicuousness and goals are all different from

2. that of a small business or a start-up. There’s one thing you just can’t get away from - research, research and more research. You need research to find out the markets you can target. You have to figure out the markets that your business can cater to and carry out ample research on the competition that operates in those markets. You can particularly target markets that see less competition from the big brands. Are there other small brands vying for space? If it’s too crowded, you must look at other markets. You may need to come up with a niche market, offering something that others don’t. There’s an untapped opportunity out there you may have to identify. Look at Markets Good at Conversions You need to rely on hard data too. Your analytics platform can give you information on which markets are good at conversions. That can give you a clear picture of where you can grab a sizable chunk of the market share. Find just what your prospective customers in this field need beyond everything else, and which the existing businesses and brands are not able to offer. No matter how big brands are, no one is perfect. There could be something they left out which you can provide. That’s where you need to put your focus on. Next, find out topics that can rank in these markets. You can create different versions of similar content that usually does well in markets that are highly competitive. These can be localized content versions. These will help you rank higher more quickly since the competition is less in this niche. Make sure your content is great, and you can be up there. Focus on Long-tail Keywords Focusing on long-tail keywords can help you accomplish your goals. Just like how you tap into untapped markets, long-tail keywords can help you tap the unaddressed needs of your target audience. Long-tail keywords enable you to gain significant ranking potential for them, because many of them aren’t tapped into by the big brands. But thosekeywords do address the urgent needs of people. That’s better than trying to rank highly for keywords that are popular and have a great deal of competition. The advantage of long-tail keywords is that they are used by people who are more serious about buying a product or signing up for a service. They are probably quite close to converting. And it’s also easier to rank higher for them. So that’s what you need to be looking at. With tools such as Webmaster Tools, it is easier to research such long-tail keywords. And these long-tail keywords can also naturally appear in your writing. Target Local Audience You also need to target an audience that is on a more local level. The importance of local search is getting increasingly important. More and more people search for stuff with a local context - businesses geographically closest to them. So you have to focus on such locations. Your location is a great place to start.

3. Ask Customers to Review You Ask your customers to post honest reviews on your Google My Business (GMB) page. These days, ratings and reviews mean everything and make the crucial difference between people choosing your business or not. Don’t fake reviews, because Google may then suspend your listing. The advantage of focusing on these untapped markets is that there is tremendous growth you experience owing to the lack of sufficient competition. You are among the pioneers in the niche. You can quietly grow without the big competitors ever noticing. Greater Agility a Big Advantage for Small Businesses Small businesses do have some advantages over the big brands and names. They are more responsive to changing requirements. As a result, they score higher on the agility factor. Bigger brands are slower in making decisions. Any decision needs to be approved by the board and the concerned stakeholders. SEO strategy changes also require approval from the people in the management. Small businesses and start- ups don’t need to worry about that. Medical SEO can be challenging for small practices, but they can fulfill their objectives with some out-of- the-box thinking and smart strategies. (800) 941-5527