Your difference

A core concept in marketing and branding is to ensure you are distinctive, and have the number one place in your potential clients' minds. You should read the classic marketing book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout to understand this concept. Then put it to work in your business.

You cannot be everything to everyone. You must be unique and special and if another business already occupies that space in your marketing universe, you lose, unless you have mega-bucks to waste.

The challenge is to find and define your 'first'. You can do this by narrowing your speciality or geography, or both, or (more difficult but effective if you can pull it off) develop some signature uniqueness in the way you sell and/or deliver your service.

I learned this lesson the hard way some years ago when I tried to publish the best business publication in my region. Someone else occupied the space. The business flopped. Now we publish the first regional construction industry publications in distinctive regions and are careful not to rush into the space if we can't immediately obtain the number one position in potential clients' minds. This is the first Construction Marketing Blog.