Scaling a business requires that you gain, and grow, market share. There is a ton of advice about how to capture market share, but not all of it is feasible for smaller companies. Marketing is one of the largest line items in every company’s budget. There are ways to capture more of the market with a lower budget, which is important for the small and midsize businesses that are much more financially constrained than large companies. Here are three, cost-effective – and even cost-saving – ways to gain market share that involve strategic market positioning:
Specialize: Own a specific niche or underserved segment.
Many business leaders are fearful of narrowing their focus or target market. They believe that doing so will limit the opportunities to achieve their goals. Another concern we’ve heard business leaders voice is that the entire market can benefit from their offerings. However, as true as that might be, there is a lesson here in the adage: “There is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.”
Instead of trying to compete head-to-head with established players across the entire market, position yourself as the undisputed best choice for a particular type of customer. This could be an industry vertical (accounting software specifically for law firms), a company size (built for mid-market companies, not enterprises), or a use case (project management for creative agencies, not generic teams).
When you become known as “the solution” for a segment of the market, you win a disproportionate share of those buyers because your product, messaging, and features all speak directly to their specific needs. Competitors trying to serve everyone end up resonating with no one, while you dominate your chosen territory. And it may even make expanding to additional segments in that market easier.
Stand Out: Differentiate on a dimension the market leader ignores.
Identify where incumbents are vulnerable. Maybe they’ve become bloated and complex, or they’re focused on enterprise customers and neglect smaller buyers, or they compete purely on features while ignoring experience. Position yourself as the opposite: the simple alternative, the affordable option, the delightful-to-use choice, or the ethical provider.
Instead of trying to be better at everything, become dramatically better at the things that matter most to a significant segment in your market. Clear differentiation attracts the attention – and loyalty – of a market that has been frustrated by lack of fit for their needs. Make you market feel seen and they will beat a path to your door.
Innovate: Create a new category or reframe the problem.
Rather than fighting for share in an existing market on existing terms, position your solution as solving a different or broader problem. Salesforce didn’t just position as “better CRM software,” they positioned as “no software” and pioneered cloud-based business applications. HubSpot didn’t compete as another marketing tool, they created “inbound marketing” as a category. By reframing the problem, you solve or creating new language around it, you attract customers who might not have even been shopping in your original category, and you set the terms of competition on your ground rather than playing by incumbents’ rules.
Each of these approaches uses positioning to carve out space where you can win rather than trying to out-muscle established competitors in a fair fight.
Interested in additional ways to affordably gain market share? Connect with me on LinkedIn.
