So, you’re in a “saturated” niche.
Everyone’s selling the same kind of product, making the same claims, using all manner of confusing or annoying jargon…
You’d hate to copy them and throw generic copy on your own website, but is there any other option?
Actually, yes.
You can stand out from your competitors, even if you’re nearly identical to them…
Without fighting a price war.
In fact, you could use what I’m about to share to charge more and still pull in customers like mad.
First, we’ll have to talk beer.
The Tale of Claude Hopkins and Schlitz Beer
There once was a beer company called Schlitz. You may have heard of them.
Back in the early 20th century, they faced off against numerous other beer companies that all used the same word to sell product:
“Pure.”
Every beer brand bragged about its product’s purity.
Problem is, “pure” doesn’t matter to the consumer when everyone’s beer is pure.
(Kind of like the “best XYZ in America!” shtick.)
Schlitz didn’t know how to stand out from their competitors, though.
At some point, they met legendary ad man Claude Hopkins and wanted his help to find a way to beat the competition.
Hopkins was ready to take them on as a client but, being a great marketer, wanted to tour Schlitz’s facilities first and learn more about the company.
While on the tour, Hopkins got a first-hand look at the intricate processes that went into creating Schlitz beer.
It astounded him…
But Schlitz’s people told Hopkins every beer company brewed their stuff in almost the exact same way.
That didn’t matter to Hopkins.
No one else was using these processes in their ads.
Hopkins knew the first beer brand to advertise that process could gain a massive advantage.
Schlitz (perhaps reluctantly) accepted his advice, and the brewing process was detailed in various pieces of marketing material.
Can you guess what happened?
In a mere 6 months…
Schlitz became the best-selling beer in the USA.
Nothing changed about their product, process, or company. They simply found an angle no one else was using — even if that angle was based on a mundane industry standard — and showed it to the buying public.
After all, the general public was ignorant to the brewing process. To them, beer just “happened” and the “freshest ingredients” or “purest taste” were just generic marketing words.
Hopkins’ idea explained why the beer was so great, helping it stand out from everyone else just making the claim.
Not to mention detailing the process offered some extra proof (pun partially intended).
Lots more lessons in this story, such as telling a story, making the simple complex, and dealing with “the curse of knowledge,” but maybe I’ll cover those another time.
Now, let me demonstrate this to you with a modern example from my own client work.
This Works In Any Industry
Recently, I took on a real estate software company as a client. They hired me to rewrite their homepage, then a series of landing pages focused on specific aspects of their software and managed lead gen services.
Like any good marketer, I started by gathering information about their business and customers. Turns out, their company was co-founded by a real estate agent. Additionally, an obvious pain point was that many software options of this type are clunky, hard to use, or don’t offer the necessary features.
You’ll see why this is noteworthy in a second.
Then, I asked them who their main competitors were… and they gave me a few names…
So I studied those companies.
I poked around their websites and analyzed their homepage.
I noticed that none of their main competitors noted anywhere that they counted agents among their co-founders.
Hmm…
An idea popped into my head.
What if we used that on the homepage? What if we put it right below the “hero” section (that part at the top of your homepage with the headline) and turn it into a little story?
An agent knows other agents’ needs better than a developer, after all. They can tailor the software to the target customer’s needs better.
So putting that in the copy will instantly resonate with agents.
The client loved the idea, naturally.
Here’s the thing:
I bet tons of real estate software companies had agents or other industry professionals as co-founders… but I didn’t see that listed on competitor websites.
Hell — I bet this applies outside this niche, too. For example, some accountant out there probably started an accounting software company without software dev experience.
Stand Out… Without Being Unique
Here’s the takeaway:
Find something — ANYTHING — relevant to your product that your competitors aren’t talking about.
Even if everyone in the niche does the same thing…
They might not be talking about it.
Of course, the issue business owners run into is knowing their product, business, or field too well.
The “curse of knowledge” I mentioned earlier.
Business owners are immersed in their business every day…
So they may not realize that what is “obvious” to them is a golden marketing angle.
That’s where a copywriter like myself can come in.
I have that outside perspective… but I also have the marketing smarts.
You can hire me, too. Just fill out this form and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!