In virtually every business category, competition is fierce, and it can be hard to separate your brand from all the noise—and even harder to break into the industry launching a new business.

When business owners and entrepreneurs think about ways to improve their market share and rise above their competition, they typically tend to focus on tried-and-true methods. But in today’s hyper-competitive environment, business owners need to think outside traditional tactics in order to see any kind of impact on brand visibility.

1. Focus on your USP

If you launched your brand based on research and strategic insight, or participated in any brand development exercises, it’s likely you spent a great deal of time developing your USP (unique selling proposition). This is the key element that sets you apart from your competition.

Over time, business owners can lose sight of this quality and begin to make marketing decisions based on conditions in the market, or trying to follow the lead of the competitors. Getting back to basics and taking another look at your USP can help you bring focus back to what makes your brand different.

2. Don’t be all things to all people

Another way businesses can get lost in a sea of competition is trying to be too many things to too many people. So often, in an effort to broaden services or products, entrepreneurs end up diluting their brand and creating confusion in what your core business offerings are.

This isn’t to say offering brand extensions isn’t a positive step, but there’s a fine line between strategically expanding products or services and becoming so over-extended your brand no longer resembles its original purpose.

3. Niche down

Some of the greatest opportunities today are found in niche marketing. Many entrepreneurs find themselves chasing the same customers and try to reach the broadest possible audience.

Unfortunately, this usually creates a situation of ‘quantity-over-quality’ in that you may be reaching a broad audience, but the number of people who are actually interested in your product is very low. As a result, this shotgun approach provides very limited sales and conversion numbers.

Focusing on highly-niche audiences gives you the advantage of reaching a higher number of customers more interested in your products and services.

Consider this; would you rather have a few hundred highly-engaged customers loyal to your brand and potentially creating repeat business and referrals? Or thousands of potential customers who never engage with your brand and may never make a single purchase?

4. Acknowledge change

It isn’t new news to anyone that nearly every industry and business has experienced significant changes and challenges over the past two years. When businesses hit downturns, customer communication can sometimes take a back seat, or some owners even fail to accept there’s a problem.

Any challenge should be viewed as an opportunity, and shifting economic or market conditions are no different. This is the time to get ahead of communication with your customers and take proactive approach that nurtures your relationship with them.

Acknowledging business challenges and being transparent with customers doesn’t take a lot of time, but can yield huge benefits. For example, if your company is experiencing supply chain issues that affect your ability to maintain inventory or affecting product delivery, make this clear. If customers know their orders are going to be delayed by issues out of your control, this takes the burden off of you.

5. Focus on customer service

Today, business and customer loyalty is won and lost on the strength of customer service.

Everyone at some point has had to deal with customer service departments within businesses, and historically this hasn’t been a positive experience. Some brands have seriously neglected this service and have taken the approach that it doesn’t really matter or have any long-term impact on their business.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, and in fact, customer service is one of the most consequential touch-points for your brand. In our social media driven world, a single customer having a bad customer service experience can quickly go viral, throwing your business into immediate ‘damage control.’ We’ve all seen these scenarios play out almost a daily basis.

Companies that prioritize the customer service experience have realized the direct affect this has on their overall brand perception. Whether it’s creating a seamless and efficient return policy, expediting refunds, or elevating customer concerns internally to quickly resolve any issue, this brand interaction has an immediate—and sometimes long-term effect in the minds of customers.

6. Ask your customers

I’ve said before, one of the greatest sources of information regarding your company comes from your existing customers or client base.

Reaching out to your customers, regularly and before business stress happens, can help inform strategic decisions and help nimble businesses adapt and prepare for change before it becomes a problem. Simply asking ‘what are we doing well?’ or ‘what could we be doing better?’ shows that you value your customers’ opinions. This simple action can be a key differentiator and set your brand apart from your competitors.

Most customers who remain loyal to one company over another do so because they feel they have a relationship with the brand, so the importance of regular engagement can’t be overstated.

Things you should avoid doing

In any competitive landscape, business owners sometime become reactive and can make common mistakes that are counterintuitive to standing out from competitors:

Competing on price – There’s nothing that will kill a business quicker than trying to ‘out-cheap’ the competition. This is nothing more than a race to the bottom, and rather than making your products or services more attractive, they become viewed as commodities.

Wasting marketing dollars – Focusing on marketing in media channels where your customers interact is a better use of budgets than trying to cover every possible channel. When it comes to paid media, putting all your eggs in one basket is perfectly acceptable if it’s highly targeted.

Following the leader – It’s easy to look at your competitors and think ‘hey, they’re doing this, I should do the same thing.’ This is the opposite of what you should do because it runs directly counter to your efforts of standing out. Simply viewing someone else’s strategy and thinking it will work for you is a huge mistake and a waste of time.

Being yourself

Your brand has unique qualities and is the primary reason customers buy your products and services. So the best—and most important takeaway is that you shouldn’t lose sight of what made you stand out in the first place.

Over time, brands can slowly drift away from a core message or benefit. Going back to review your USP and the individuality that got you started can be the best way to recapture that energy, and once again, stand out above your competition.