Why you aren’t remarkable and 5 things you can do about it…

I am reading Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah creators of a company called Hubspot.com and one of the sections that really resonated with me is the notion of being worthy and more specifically being as Seth Godin describes…remarkable.

Whether it is from a personal branding or a branding for a business perspective, very few of us really spend the time needed to determine how we are or could be remarkable.  And when I say remarkable, I mean much more that just unique.  It is something that makes you or your business different in a way that matters to your target market.  So, not just a competitive advantage, but a meaningful competitive advantage.

How can you make your company remarkable?  Here are 5 easy steps:

1. Know thyself—do some soul searching for you personally and for your business.
2. Determine what really makes you remarkable—spend time figuring out why people should be talking about you/your product and buying from you.
3. Communicate why you are remarkable—social media is a great way to get people and prospects to understand quickly why you are remarkable…but remember, don’t “meform” in social media…inform.  And, the best thing about using social media to communicate why you and your company are remarkable is that it only really costs your time (and brain power).
4. Use a smaller net—focus your business on remarkable things, don’t try to be all things to all people…if your target market finds you remarkable, they will pay more for you.
5. Be consistently remarkable—while it is true that things in motion tend to stay in motion, staying remarkable takes work, a lot of it.  Some companies like Apple are really good at staying remarkable, but they have “people” for that.  So for us little people, we have to take a few minutes out of each day to focus on what makes us remarkable today and what could make us remarkable tomorrow.

Ok, so why do you need to be remarkable?  It’s simply really; companies that are remarkable don’t get caught up in the commodization of their product or service offering.  People will pay more for remarkable products and services and more importantly, remarkable brands.

How are you remarkable?