Competitive Advantage in Marketing – Get Ahead of the Competition

Published by Jenn Neal on

competitive advantage in marketing

Looking for ways to create a competitive advantage in marketing? Find out how to set your business apart from your competition!

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TIP: How to create a competitive advantage in marketing

Time needed: 5 minutes

TIP: 4 Steps to Gain a Competitive Advantage in Marketing

  1. Niche

    Define a niche that is underserved

  2. Analyze

    Follow the data from your own customers as well as the competition to see how you can have a more simple and faster path 

  3. Framework

    Create your own framework and share

  4. Celebrate

    Make a big deal about celebrating those you are helping – create a unique identity for them with your framework and results

Creating a competitive advantage in marketing with Jenn Neal
Looking for ways to get your business above the competition? Here are 4 steps you can take to gain a competitive advantage in marketing.

What’s In This Episode

Competition is good for business and keeps you innovating and growing. But to make your business stand you, you need to have a competitive advantage in marketing. And creating that competitive advantage is not as easy as it sounds. Today, I’m sharing ways to create a competitive advantage in marketing and what we’ve done to do that here at Formula Done.

Jenn Neal - Content Activation Expert

Jenn Neal on Creating a Competitive Advantage in Marketing

It was the right idea, but the wrong implementation. And it was because I was so focused on my business, and helping people that I wasn’t looking at anything else.

-Jenn Neal
Creating a competitive advantage in marketing for your business sounds a lot easier than it is in practice. Today, I’m sharing an example of how I created a competitive advantage in Formula Done and am pivoting our marketing plan around my framework.  - Jenn Neal
Looking for ways to get above your competition? We’re talking about the different ways you can create a competitive advantage in marketing to boost your business to the top!
Finding Your Unique Competitive Advantage | The Content Toolbox
Finding Your Unique Competitive Advantage in an Oversaturated Market | The Content Toolbox

Competitive Advantage in Marketing – Get Ahead of the Competition

Have you ever wanted something so bad that it hurt? I have… several times, actually. As an entrepreneur, I want to see my business thrive more than anything else. I learned early on that to do so; I’d have to have an advantage. And I think we all know that creating a competitive advantage in marketing isn’t always the easiest.  

So, how do you do it? Well, it took some time for me to figure out, but I did! And now, I get to share some of the fundamentals I’ve used here at Formula Done to create a competitive advantage in marketing! Let’s dive in! 

Creating a Competitive Advantage in Marketing

Truth be told. Competition is healthy for businesses. (I said what I said.) 

Competition motivates you to keep growing and innovating. You’ll continue to create an advantage over your competitors as you learn and grow. 

As an entrepreneur, I want to keep growing and learning. Naturally, when Click Funnels introduced Expert Secrets at their conference, I was hooked. So hooked, I leaped down the rabbit hole and did precisely what they advised us to do – create a framework for our businesses that will make a competitive advantage in your marketing. And off I went. But instead of basing my framework around creating a competitive advantage, I was basing it on what I wanted for my business. And, as upset as I could have been when it didn’t work, I used it as a building block to find a formula that did work.

90% of Fortune 500 Companies already use competitive intelligence to gain a competitive advantage. - Competitive advantage in marketing with Jenn Neal
Companies are using CI to gain an advantage over their industry competitors. Businesses outside of the F500 should be focused on improving their own CI efforts to remain competitive.

The Data

I took a step back and looked at the data. What did my customers need that I could offer them? What were my competitors doing and offering? How could I stand out against the competition? That is what creating a competitive advantage in marketing is all about—showing your audience that you have a product that stands out against all the rest and why they should pick your product over your competitors.

So, I started analyzing data and paid attention to what my competitors were marketing and who they were selling to. (Unbeknown to me, this has a big fancy name – Competitive Intelligence – but you don’t need a big fancy name to do it.) This information helped me build a framework (or backbone) for my business that would give me a competitive advantage over my competitors based on data. In turn, that’s what helped me develop my newest product! 

Strategies for Creating a Competitive Advantage in Marketing

Okay, what strategies can you use to create a competitive advantage? I’m so glad you asked! There are a few different strategies, but I found that there are two significant ones. Actually, they’re the ones I used to create a competitive advantage for Formula Done – the focus and differentiation strategies. 

It was the right idea, but the wrong implementation. And it was because I was so focused on my business, and helping people that I wasn’t looking at anything else. - Competitive advantage in marketing with Jenn Neal
I dove into building a framework with the right intentions, but my implementation was all wrong. 
When I really understood that a framework was the backbone of my business, and that I needed to create what my own proprietary process would look like, it clicked. And that’s what we’re doing now!

Focus Strategy

Now, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I cannot stress this enough – it’s important to niche down. This was incredibly hard for me, and I understand that it’s pretty intimidating, but it’s one of the most important things you can do for your company. By niching down, you will create a clear outline of what your business does, who it serves, and what you have to offer. While serving a broad audience sounds awesome, it’s bound to throw you off your path. You’ll find that you no longer provide specialized services to your clients. Your competitive advantage is your unique service. And if you’re not providing it, you no longer have an advantage over your competitors. 

So, niche down as far as you possibly can. And when you think you can’t go any further down, dial it in a LITTLE bit more. The more specific, the better, and trust me, no one else will have a business identical to yours. You’ll be a shining star to your audience! 

(Find out more about how to niche down, check out our blog post, or check out our episode of The Content Toolbox!)

Differentiation Strategy

The differentiation strategy is a little bit different from the rest, and the primary way we’ve created a competitive advantage in marketing here at Formula Done! 

Companies analyze only about 12% of their entire collected data. That leaves about 88% of the opportunities and threats that go unnoticed.
Companies are missing out on huge opportunities by not using all their collected data. A Competitive Intelligence solution would help companies avoid letting opportunities slip by and better use their data.

Differentiation means creating a unique product that people can only find within your business. (Talk about having an advantage!) You’ll be the only one offering this product above the masses. And while people can try to get close to your product, they won’t have the same one. In turn, you’ll have a significant advantage, especially with your specific niche. Just imagine the number of people you could help with your unique product! 

How Formula Done is Creating a Competitive Advantage in Marketing

So, I’ve created a methodology and product that can only be found within Formula Done. During my process, I sat down and analyzed the data from my competitors and my audience. I looked at what services were offered separately from my competitors and what I could offer that would give me the one up above them. How could I take what my customers need and what my competitors offer and make it easier and more beneficial? This is how I developed Content Activation. 

Content activation is our framework – a method that can only be found at Formula Done. And although this all sounds so easy now, it took me about 2 ½ years of really dialing down, tweaking, testing, and perfecting this to make sure it worked. But, I can now market our product and prove that these gurus out there aren’t giving you the marketing materials you need to reach your full potential. 

And believe it or not, there’s so much more to come from Formula Done and our unique methodology! Stay tuned, and don’t miss an episode of The Content Toolbox (or blog post! They drop every Thursday!) and find out the fun, new goodies we’ve got coming your way! You definitely do not want to miss this!

What Is Competitive Advantage

Learn How a Competitive Advantage Works

Marketing Plans for a Competitive Advantage

What Is Your Content Marketing Strategy Template?

What would you say is your competitive advantage?