I've mentioned many times that you need to stand out in the marketplace if you want your free content to really take off to help you build your business. Now, it's time to talk about practical ways to do that. I can't give you any specific answers of what you can do.
For one thing, I have no idea what your niche is. For another thing, the point is that you need to be you. You need to do things differently from anyone else. What I can help you do is become more creative and innovative so you have the confidence to get out there and test new ideas for free and paid products that can help grow your business in amazing ways.
There are so many competitors out there. There are no doubt both terrible and wonderful free and paid products in the marketplace by you and by others. But, you have to do even better. You can't just put out the same old thing everyone else is putting out. That's not to say that you can't tackle the same topics. But, it is to say you need to do it better and differently. You need to serve a need that is not being served.
If your business, and your products, both free and paid, are not remarkable, your business is not going to stand out or survive. You need to be different and do differently. You need to be able to take risks and try things no one else has tried before. By the way, no one is saying that all of your free or paid products are going to be successful. What I am saying is that if you take risks, some of them will pay off –big time.
One of the most important things you can do to help yourself stand out is to research what's already out there. You need to figure out what your competitors are doing. You need to take stock of what you've already done and what you've already put out. Then, you need to figure out where the holes are in the marketplace. You need to do things that no one else has even thought of doing.
You also need to network with the thought leaders in your niche. If you want your products and services and content to really take off, then you need to target people who will help spread the word. There are certain people in your niche who tend to find the newest things first. These thought leaders then tend to spread the word to other people.
Part of this is being innovative, and the other part of this is targeting the right people and getting "in" with the right people in your niche. You're going to be doing a lot of new things-- it's really exciting to be a thought leader. You won't get people's attention if you’re doing the same old thing you've always done. You will get people's attention if you network and make it clear that what you are doing is bigger, better, and different in a very life-changing way.
How to Make a Splash in Any Marketplace
This means your products cannot be boring. You have to take risks and accept that some of your risks will be criticized. Sometimes, people are afraid of change. For instance, when Twitter was launched people compared it to Facebook. It was very different, and some people were not sure that it would really take off. Now, both social networks are extremely popular and for different reasons. When Ellen DeGeneres took her celebrity-filled selfie at the Oscars of 2014, she sent it to Twitter, not Facebook. It broke records. Each social network serves its purpose and does things no one else had thought of doing before.
If you want to make a splash, you have to be aware of the fact that your "splash" might not take off right away. If you're doing things differently, you have to get those changes and differences in front of the people who matter and who will help spread the word.
One of the easiest things you can do to make a splash in any marketplace is to offer something truly and totally remarkable, completely for free. This is what the smartest companies in the world are doing right now. They are building their business on the idea that you should provide a lot of value to people for free.
More important than making money right away is becoming popular very quickly. You want to become one of the most well-known brands and companies in your marketplace. This means attracting people with free products that are really different from anything else out there. When you become popular with free products, people will move up to your paid products.
You probably already know that you need to get people to know, like, and trust you. The first part of that is getting people to know you. Then once they know you by finding, spending time with and consuming your free product, if it’s good, they’ll progress to liking and trusting you.
After that, getting them to be a paid customer becomes much easier.
Part of this will be brand recognition. Another part of this will be the fact that you already proved yourself by offering something fantastic for free. They will know that if they got such wonderful value from your free products, they are bound to get even more unbelievable value by working with you one-on-one or taking advantage of one of your higher end products –or even your lower end products. You are going to establish yourself as someone to trust and who really provides amazing results.
All you have to do is be different. Research what the competitors are doing and do things better than they are doing. Figure out what people want and provide it to them. It really is a simple formula (for lack of a better term) that needs to be repeated because so few companies are willing to truly be different. That is what you have to do if you want to make a splash in your marketplace.
Doing Better Than the Competition
So, how do you do better than the competition? First of all, you can't just copy what they're doing. You can't just assume that because one company has been successful that you can be just as successful by doing the same thing. You have to be different. The only way any businesses are going to survive now and in the future is by being different.
There's bound to be a particular company that is considered to be the leader in your niche. Study them particularly closely. Do they innovate? Can you say that they do things differently? If they tend to be stuck in the past and they're hesitant to move to new technology and ideas, then it'll probably be very easy to overtake them soon.
But, if they are constantly innovating and coming up with amazing ideas no one else has ever thought of, then they're definitely something to study. You should be getting ideas from a variety of places. They say that there are no original ideas on earth. I think that's probably true. But that's not what creativity is –it's not about creating completely, 100% new ideas. It's about becoming inspired by what's already out there to form new connections.
There's a great book out there that I highly recommend. It's called "Steal Like An Artist" by Austin Kleon. This book is all about how you can become inspired by everything around you to come up with innovative, creative ideas. You need to seek input from all over. You need to investigate your competitors and what people are doing in other marketplaces. You need to allow yourself down time so those creative ideas can build in your subconscious.
It's so important that you allow yourself to become more creative. It's so important that you allow yourself to take risks. Study the competition, absorb what's around you, and think outside the box. Try new things, focus on what the people in your niche need and how you can provide value to them. That is how you do better than the competition – every single time.
You can read the remainder of this post or download it in PDF format here.
If you find this content helpful, you can find lots more like it, that you are free to use for your own purposes, at my site: http://www.PLRContentSource.com