Every industry has its big-name brands – the household names with huge budgets and decades of built-up authority. But that shouldn’t deter new players from coming onto the scene.
Sure, the largest companies in your space may have marketing teams the size of your entire payroll, but you shouldn’t be trying to compete head-on with the giants. Instead, you should be capturing the areas of the industry that they’re less focused on.
For example’s sake, I’m going to pop my feet into the shoes of a small car insurance company, but these strategies apply to any industry where you’re facing established, well-funded competitors.
Own the niche
SEO is vital for any company with an online presence, but even more so for lesser-known brands. The big leagues dominate the SERPs for broad keywords: for the term ‘car insurance’, emerging companies in the space will struggle to find the resources and budget to even attempt to compete with Compare the Market, LV=, and Aviva (the top three at my point of Googling).
But that’s okay, because you don’t need to.
How brands can dominate niche topics
- Focus on ultra-long-tail keywords – Answering hyper-specific questions your audience is actually Googling, either through dedicated blog content or on-page FAQs, helps to capture traffic with clear intent.
- Target specific groups of people – Create content around terms like ‘best car insurance for city drivers’, ‘car insurance for uni students living away from home’, and ‘best car insurance for low mileage drivers’. The users searching for these terms are in need of specific results, not just generic car insurance content. You may find that your company actually has offerings that the bigger brands don’t, such as specialist insurance for imported vehicles. Competitor research can reveal your USPs, so don’t skip this step in your research process.
- Answer niche questions – Questions such as ‘how does pay-as-you-go car insurance work’, ‘can you get car insurance with points on your license’, and ‘how to get car insurance after your policy was cancelled’ can also help target users of specific intent. While these searches have considerably lower volume than ‘car insurance’, someone searching ‘temporary car insurance to borrow a friend’s car’ knows exactly what they need, and if you’re the one providing that answer, you’ve won their attention.
Be human
In a sea of robotic brand communications, your personality is an actual competitive advantage. The big brands often have strict brand guidelines and layers of legal and compliance review, which can strip personality out of their content. While you may have similar constraints, it’s likely to a much lower extent – so use that freedom!
How brands can show personality
- Show your founder, team, or story – Was your company created after the founder was hit with another unreasonably priced renewal quote? Did they experience poor support after a large claim? Tell your audience why your company exists. People connect with people, not faceless corporations.
- Refine your tone of voice – Your tone of voice should be consistent across all platforms, tailored to your target audience. If your insurance is aimed at young drivers, don’t write like you’re talking to boomers or Gen X. Slip into the online cultural space that your audience resides in and match their language and energy.
- Share behind-the-scenes content – Share information and insights about your team to help your audience feel personally connected with them. This could include sharing photos of your team members’ cars, or interview-style video content where they share their biggest car insurance gripe (high pricing, curfews, etc.). This authenticity builds trust in ways that polished corporate messaging never will.
Create a community
‘Community’ is a bit of a buzzword in the social media space at the moment, but for good reason. Trust is the new currency, and consumers are more likely to support smaller, values-driven businesses over the corporate giants – you just need to get in front of them. You don’t need millions of followers; you need an audience of the right people who genuinely care about what you’re doing.
How brands can create a community
- Engage directly with comments, DMs, and community conversations – Alongside actively replying to engagements on your social media accounts, have an authoritative figure from the business create accounts on sites like Reddit and Quora, sharing insights and using their expertise to answer relevant questions. But don’t just drop links to your website in response – actively participate in the conversation to build true authority.
- Encourage user-generated content (UGC) – UGC, such as reviews, testimonials, and social posts, all help build the feeling of community. Encourage customers to share their experiences with your company on social media – real experiences can be much more valuable than standard marketing copy. Prompt participation with social media prompts like “show us your first car”, or “what’s your dream car?” This sort of content is free to generate, but can be really effective.
- Create a space for your community – Give your audience somewhere to interact, whether it’s a private Facebook group or a Discord server. You could encourage users to ask car-related questions or share photos, but make sure you have someone moderating the conversations – unsavoury messages in a private group are still affiliated with your brand, even if you didn’t post them.
Win on experience
While you’d expect the big companies to offer a seamless, refined customer experience, it can often be the opposite. With such a high volume of queries, many big-name brands resort to AI bots for their first layer of communication, and it can be difficult for a customer to meet the requirements for being put through to a human agent.
As a smaller brand, you have every opportunity to excel at customer service. While you may have fewer resources, investing more into your customer experience is what turns first-time customers into repeat buyers.
How brands can improve customer experience
- Be fast, personal, and memorable – If a customer contacts you, provide them with a genuine human response as fast as possible. Answer any questions thoroughly and alleviate any concerns they may have. Make the customer feel like they matter, because they do. Add personal touches to your comms with personalised messaging, such as a “Congrats on your first car! Here’s what to check before driving it” email for new young drivers, or a renewal reminder email that prompts customers to check their details are up-to-date, with an explanation of how these details can impact the premium price.
- Frictionless website user experience (UX) – Good UX looks different for every industry, but all online businesses should prioritise website speed and accessibility, ensuring their website runs well on any device. A car insurance company could design a one-page quote flow with real-time pricing updates that explain why the price has gone up or down with each change, increasing trust and transparency throughout the quote process.
- Retarget visitors effectively – A user who got an insurance quote but didn’t convert is likely still interested, so bring them back with targeted messaging that addresses their specific concerns using information from their quote details. Young driver? Share some resources. Adverse driving history? Explain how your experts can curate the best deal for their circumstances. If potential customers feel seen and heard, they’re likely to return and give your brand another shot.
Strategic partnerships
Partnerships are vital for small businesses. Instead of competing for attention in an already crowded space, insert yourself into existing customer journeys by partnering with brands that already have trust and traffic in adjacent spaces.
How brands can leverage partnerships
- Find complementary brands – You can get in front of the right audience without collaborating with your competitors. Instead, choose brands in industries adjacent to your own. For example, a car insurance provider may partner with car dealerships, garages and mechanics, driving instructors, or breakdown and roadside assistance providers. All of their customers need insurance; partnering puts your foot in the door.
- Create campaigns with value – Paying a company to promote your own is one method of partnership, but co-creating campaigns that provide value to both of your audiences is a better route to explore. When partnerships feel valuable rather than transactional, the audience is much more likely to listen.
- Partner with a driving school to create a “first-time driver’s guide” with insurance tips
- Partner with a garage or mechanic and create an informative content series about maintaining your car’s value, and how this impacts insurance costs
- Partner with a personal finance influencer to create a guide to managing the total cost of car ownership
Succeeding as a small business can look different to large brands
Forget trying to out-budget big brands; it’s unrealistic, and you don’t even need to. The big players in your industry may have brand recognition to power their sales, but you can win on relevance and personality. These are fundamentally different games, but your game is increasingly becoming the one that matters.
Don’t view your size as a disadvantage. Use it as a competitive edge.
And of course, if you need help doing that, let’s have a chat! 🙂