If you own a hair company, you know the competition is fierce. You have to stand out. Being a unique company can be difficult. Here’s how to beat competition.
There are hundreds of beauty brands on the shelves. In fact, seven companies own 182 different beauty brands. There are so many that new brands of hair products seem to appear every time you visit the salon or drugstore.
If you own a hair company, then you’re no stranger to the amount of competition out there. There are products for every type of hair and hair condition. You have to do a lot of work to set your unique company apart in today’s market.
Don’t stress if you’re not sure what you need to do to succeed. Follow this list of ten tips to get ahead of the competition.
1. Set Up a Killer Website for Your Unique Company
Your website is the first place consumers look to learn about your company. That means it is very important that you take the time to design a website that will impress consumers.
Give your website a modern design. Include detailed information about your products and why consumers should buy them. Make the sure that the content on your website matches your personality on social media.
Incorporate social media posts in a sidebar so consumers can easily follow your business on sites such as Twitter or Instagram. Social media is one of the best ways to promote your business, so don’t neglect this step.
Need an example?
This company has a website that has a clean design and is easy to navigate. It includes information about the product they sell and the science behind it. In addition, the company has an informational blog to help consumers with their hair care needs.
2. Show How Your Product is Different
Customers have the choice of many different products that meet their needs. So why should they buy your products?
The first thing to do here is to make sure that your product grabs their attention. The product design and label are the first things most consumers see when they shop. Look around at popular trends in labeling and don’t skimp on the design.
Once you have a shopper’s attention, draw them in with facts about your product. What does it do? What ingredients does it contain? How is it different from the competition?
Put enough information on the label to get the shopper to buy your product, but don’t let it get cluttered. If you have more to say, direct shoppers to your website to learn more about your product.
3. Brag a Little
Has your company received awards for excellence? Don’t be afraid to brag!
Consumers want the best product for their money. Displaying awards on a prominent section of your website encourages consumers to buy your products.
Shoppers rely on reviews to make sure they are getting a good product. Add accolades from celebrities and beauty industry insiders to your website.
Include a section where people who have purchased your products can leave reviews. Do not filter out bad reviews! Shoppers will have a hard time believing that you received 1,000 perfect reviews.
If you get a negative review, respond to it with an apology and ask what you can do to improve their experience.
Worried about keeping your website’s appearance clean? Add a tab to the front page so all the awards and reviews are together on a separate part of your website. Seeing the awards and positive reviews in one place will encourage shoppers to buy from you.
4. Focus on Customer Service
It may seem old-timey, but word of mouth is still the way a lot of businesses grow in popularity. Word of mouth happens on a much larger scale today. Product reviews and blogs dedicated to finding the best beauty products are a major popularity booster.
One major thing that differentiates one business from another is stellar customer service.
Good customer service is key to your company’s reputation and its profits. Make sure to respond to all customer inquiries and complaints as soon as possible. If the customer is unhappy, do what you can to make it right.
Let’s say you ship a product to a customer and it arrives broken. Don’t blame the carrier. Companies who apologize and replace the broken item are far more likely to receive favorable reviews.
Feeling generous? Include samples or other incentives in the replacement order. Small touches like this are sure to make customers excited about your company.
5. Admit When You Make a Mistake
Mistakes happen. Every company makes them. The problem with mistakes isn’t that they happened, but that some companies refuse to own up to them.
Own up to everything that happens, even the smallest of mistakes. All it takes is one unanswered customer review to tank your sales.
If a customer is over-billed, apologize and refund their money as soon as possible. If a customer receives the wrong product in their order, send them the right one. One of the reasons Amazon has been so successful is because of their prompt attention to errors.
If you see customer complaints on social media posts about unrelated products, address them on the public post. Always offer to make it right. Other customers will see that post and feel more comfortable purchasing your products as a result.
If something happens on a large scale, like a bad batch of products, address it right away. Send your customers an email apology with a description of how you’ll fix the issue. Post that apology to your website and social media so all potential customers know that you are proactive in fixing your mistakes.
6. Serve Niche Markets
If you want to a dedicated customer base, then you need to specialize.
There is a huge demand for products that meet the needs of people with specific issues. Companies that develop products for a broad range of people can’t create a product that meets the needs of people with specific issues.
Do some market research to determine what kind of specialized hair care products customers want. Try to pick an area of the market that isn’t cornered by a competing company.
Develop your specialized product using consumer feedback and reviews.
7. Guarantee Your Products or Services
Customers view new companies as a financial risk. This is true even if your company has been around for a long time. If a potential customer has never heard of you, they will hesitate when buying your products.
The best way to ease new customers’ minds about your products is to provide a guarantee. Most companies who offer guarantees do a standard money-back guarantee. Customers try the product for a specific amount of time, and if they don’t like it then they can return it for a full refund.
This lets consumers know that you stand behind your product and that they won’t be out a bunch of money if they don’t like it.
8. Treat Your Employees Well
If you think employee satisfaction isn’t an important part of your business’ success, you’re wrong. Happy employees are vital to the success of your company.
Companies with unique and exciting cultures tend to be more successful than their competitors. One reason for this is that happy employees are more likely to produce a good product. Think about it, do you want an employee who hates their job to be in charge of customer service.
Happy employees contribute to success because word gets out about companies with great benefits. Facebook and Google are famous for their company cultures and excellent benefits. Many people list them as their dream employers.
You don’t have to make your company a dream employer, but you should do everything you can to keep your employees happy.
9. Charity Work
Giving back to the community may seem like a great way to lose money, but it actually brings in more profits in the long run.
Charitable giving and philanthropic efforts improve public perception of your company. This means shoppers will feel better about buying your products because they know a portion of the sale will go to a good cause.
Bonus points for companies that give back to their local community.
10. Be Quirky!
Consumers today love companies that have a personality.
Take Purple Mattress for example. The company started with a Kickstarter featuring a humorous video advertisement in 2015. The video went viral and Purple made $75 million in web sales the following year.
Purple’s success came from the personality they portrayed in their videos. The videos were weird enough to get consumer attention and informative enough to drive sales.
Want to replicate Purple’s success? Do some research on the traits of your target market and create quirky videos geared toward their tastes.
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You put a lot of time and financial resources into your business. It’s important that you do everything you can for it to succeed. The best way to do that is to outshine the competition.
Standing out from the competition is a tough thing to do in today’s beauty market. You know you have a unique company, but does anyone else know that? Following these tips ensures that consumers take notice of it, too.
Want more info on business success? Check out our blog for more articles on growing your hair business.