The Undeniable Value Of Differentiation

With all the people offering products and services online, what sets yours apart from the crowd

You cant argue this, to succeed you need to differentiate yourself.

Online businesses come and go every day and about 90% fail.

The reasons online businesses fail vary from situation to situation, heres a few:

It could be that the business owners didnt educate themselves properly
It could be that the netreprenuer didnt market correctly
It could be that the webmaster didnt develop a product people were actually willing to pay for
It could be that the newbie didnt spend enough time creating and leveraging the right types of relationships
It could be that the inexperienced Internet marketer didnt remember to be thorough and calculated with their product offering, sales copy, packaging, traffic plan, etc.

All of the above reasons are valid and one of the most common reasons the product offering itself fails, is because the niche market that the business owner is marketing in is semi-saturated and the marketer had no differentiator.

A differentiator is anything that makes your unique selling proposition differ from any other by the benefits it delivers to the user. Those benefits need to be itemized in the sales copy to make sure the prospect will understand what makes the offering specific to his/her needs.

A differentiator could simply be a different angle or viewpoint on some problem or product not currently realized by anyone else.

How many ebooks have been written about Internet marketing Hundreds if not thousands...the ones that make money have easily identifiable differentiators.

A differentiator could be an added bonus to your product offering that the prospect cant get anywhere else.

**Simple example:

Suppose there are 2 products that a prospect is considering purchasing.

* Product offering #1 offers a bonus that can be easily found on the Internet.

* Product offering #2 offers a bonus that is exclusive to this offering itself that cannot be obtained anywhere else other than through this specific offering.

If both products are equal in benefits to the user and have the same price, which product offering will the prospect choose

Of course, the prospect will choose Product #2 because of the exclusivity of the bonus. That exclusivity is a differentiator.

A differentiator could be a discount on a service that no one else in your niche offers. A differentiator could simply be a promise to respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours.

The trait that defines a truly effective differentiator is uniqueness.

A differentiator could even be something as simple as the packaging of the sales process of a product or service itself. The packaging of a product includes graphics, format of delivery, appearance of web presence, etc.

With regards to graphics, it is important to understand that people respond positively to visually pleasing graphics regardless of whether the end product of offering is actually affected by those graphics. Due to the average persons reluctance to buy online, the better things look, the better the prospect feels about moving forward with a purchase.

In the online world, the prospect decides to purchase a product or service that is being marketed to them somewhat virtually...it is intangible to them until they buy. In this instance, a differentiator could be something as simple as slick graphic or choice of product format-pdf, exe, audio, RAM, MP3, etc.

Before you can actually identify a truly effective differentiator for the product offering, a good amount of competitive intelligence needs to be done within the appropriate vertical niche market.

Begin by reviewing all products and services that could be perceived as competitors in that niche market and define the differentiator from there.

Whatever type of differentiator is chosen, its vital to make certain the prospect clearly can understand the value of it by itemizing the benefits it brings to them.

This is often overlooked and equates to unrealized sales.

Be humble, work smart, keep it simple.

Karl Augustine

The Regular Guy

About The Author

Karl Augustine

Author of 9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid When Starting An Online Business.

Publisher, Starting Smart bi-weekly ezine for new and semi-seasoned Internet marketers.

E-marketplace - Facts and Fictions

Not long ago, industry pundits were touting B2B marketplaces or exchanges as Internet era panacea for productivity and cost-cutting problems of corporate world. Buoyed by excessive investor interest and driven by a desire to cash in on the enormous dot-com valuations of late 90s, marketplaces were sprouting like autumn mushrooms. With the collapse of stock market, it did not take much time for burgeoning B2B marketplaces to come to a screeching halt!

When in 2001 high profile marketplaces like Chemdex, a life science marketplace started to tumble down, and most of the marketplaces started to show sign of disappointing growth rate, it became clear that something is wrong with the prevailing business model of b2b e-marketplaces.

Optimists claim nothing is wrong with B2B e-marketplaces, as a new technology, it is merely going through the normal evolutionary stages. Others feel that business processes are way too complex an issue, substantially based on human behavior and intricate relationships; and this complexity will prevent wide spread implementation of online supply chain mechanisms through B2B exchanges.

But, the truth is probably somewhere in between! There is no doubt that any business, irrelevant to its size, is able to create some sorts of value if they use B2B marketplace effectively. As far as B2B E-commerce is concerned, most agree, that eventually businesses have to do significant part of their transactions online. The only thing is - it might take a bit more time for widespread adoption, than initially expected.

Slow implementation of B2B e-marketplaces is a natural consequence of some inadvertent stumbling blocks.

The investment in B2B sector started to dry up at the end of 2001 as unrealistic expectations of many investors and funds did not materialize. As a result of this, many exchanges were forced to close down; and much needed transformation in the technology process slowed down in existing ones due to liquidity challenges.
Many early marketplaces were built in a hurry to exploit prevailing at that time budding stock market. For these marketplaces, value creation for the participants was not a priority. By the time they realized that members need something more than comparison shopping and product display ability, it was a bit too late for quite a few of them.
Contrary to popular believe, buyers did not start flocking on to the e-marketplaces as expected. As it became clear, buyers require real incentives in order to go through the complex process of online dealing. In most cases, in order to get integrated to an e-marketplace, buyers are ready to learn, hire professionals, and invest on technology if they know that most of their offline suppliers are available on a particular exchange. But, until then, they prefer to refrain from changing their way of doing business.
There are number of reasons why suppliers dont expedite the process either. They are mainly scared of comparison shopping and brand dilution. Complexity of back end office integration and product catalog conversion also creates major impediment in mass adoption of e-marketplaces within the supplier community. Suppliers with websites, who previously had disappointing e-commerce experience, are also quite skeptical about the benefits that they might achieve from exchanges.
Many exchanges revenue depends on the percentage-based transaction fee, imposed upon the participants. Some companies consider that these fees will reduce their net profit margin, especially, in a down market. This is another cause, why many are not very keen to participate in e-marketplaces.

All these conditions are maybe right and, probably mass scale adoption of e-marketplaces wont take place another several years. However, dont think that companies should relax. As some industries are more advanced in their adoption of B2B technology, companies should constantly check where they stand. If their competitors are already practicing e-business actively; or many of their suppliers are by now on some sorts of exchanges, this is the right time for these companies to consider their online business approach seriously.

The sooner companies understand the benefits that they can reap from B2B exchanges the better it would be for them. For suppliers e-marketplaces offer benefits like liquidity improvement, cost savings, better inventory management, demand forecasting, dynamic pricing etc. Buyers benefits include: cost reduction, real-time purchase, best available price and many others. Research indicates that companies, thanks to B2B exchanges, can gain remarkable cost reductions: 20 to 40 percent of overhead expenses, 5 to 15 percent of buying cost, Purchase Order processing cost from US$ 75 to just US$ 6-8; and decrease of document errors from 20 percent to less than one percent.

Apart from these benefits, early adoption of B2B marketplaces also has great implications for companies. Early birds get considerable information advantage over their competitors; have enough time to learn from trial and error and participate in setting the rules for the exchanges as opposed to - forced to abide by the rules as it would be the case for late-comers.

Whatever approach the companies decide to take in their quest of B2B technology, one thing is for sure that the e-marketplaces are here to stay. Over time, they will definitely evolve and their business models will also change, however, there is no doubt that a major portion of e-business will transact through e-marketplaces in near future.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of , a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade. An author of many B2B and business related articles; he publishes a bi-weekly E-zine for online business community. You can subscribe to his newsletter free of charge from .