Market To Mondays: Your Competitors’ Customers

Welcome to the latest edition of our new weekly blog series, Market To Mondays. Each week, we will introduce you to a new group of people you should market to. We’ll tell you who they are, why you should market to them, and how you might get started.

Depending on what industry you’re in, customers will have different levels of brand loyalty. But across the US, consumers are proving to be less and less loyal to brands and products than they’ve been in the past.

And it’s not just price that draws people away. Consumers are looking for companies that value them, make their lives easier, offering more effective solutions, etc.

So it should be no surprise that your competitor’s customers make an excellent target market. Not only do you know that they need what you have to offer – they’ve proved that by shopping with a competitor already – but you know exactly how you’re better than that competitor. Which means you can construct very specific messaging to lure those customers away.

But how?

Surprisingly, there are a number of ways that you can market to your competitors’ customers.

The most direct is calling them out in advertisements. The best current example of this is Sprint’s “Cut Your Rate in Half” ads that are running right now. The entire purpose of those ads is to attract Verizon and AT&T customers with lower prices. This can be very affective, especially for new companies in a market or industry who are looking to get their name out there.

Another option is targeting search ads to your competitors brand terms. This works on a smaller scale, but is a good strategy if you’re going up against a well-established brand in your space. You can also target Facebook ads to people who “like” or “follow” competitive pages on Facebook.

If you or your competitor have physical locations you can try outdoor advertising in the surrounding area to lure customers away. And depending on how big your competitors are, they may make their customer lists public and/or saleable. You may be able to buy a list of their customers and sell directly to them with direct mail, email or phone calls.

The point is this, just because someone has chosen your competitor in the past, doesn’t mean they are a lost cause. In fact, they are an easy group to target, and one that should almost always bear fruit. So don’t give up on them, ever.

Market To Mondays: Your Competitors’ Customers