The Why Delta And Differentiation
Published by Daniel A. Dahlen on
In my last post here, I went over the “alignment delta” and how starting with search marketing can help small businesses align their digital marketing efforts with their ideal customers.
Essentially starting with search can help you answer or clarify the following questions:
> Who Your Customers/Clients Are
> Where Your Customers/Clients Are Located
> What Specific Problem(s) Your Small Business Solves
> Where Your Customers Look Online To Solve Their Problems
And just a quick recap – a “delta” in this sense means a very small change, distance or gap.
So if you’re not clear on the answers above, then your “alignment delta” is large – meaning you’re not very well aligned with your most important/valuable customers.
As you have better, more clear answers to the questions above (and implement them into your digital marketing plans) the smaller that delta gets — with the ultimate goal of it running to zero – meaning you’re perfectly aligned with your ideal customers.
Even if you have a good handle on these questions, going through the process of aligning through search will help refine things even further, in most cases.
Once aligned, the next challenge comes from other small businesses that have the same alignment – offering the same service to the same customers in the same location/area and on the same digital marketing channels.
This is where the “Why Delta” comes in – the gap or distance between why your customers choose your competitors and why your customers should choose your business.
> Why Do You Do What You Do For Your Ideal Customers/Clients?
> Why Should Customers Choose Your Small Business To Solve Their Problem or Need?
Often I’ve found that the answers to these two questions can be the same – essentially the reason you do what you do is the reason why customers/clients should choose your business.
However you answer those questions, if you don’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing or why your customers should choose your business over others, then your “Why Delta” or gap is large (again, the goal is to see your delta go to zero) – you’re not doing things much different than others in the same space; at least not enough for your customers to prefer your small business over others.
While only answering those two questions may seem overly simplified (and can be much harder than it looks on the surface), they help create a starting point for differentiating yourself from others.
The “Why Delta” In Search & Social
They can also help you answer two important questions for your digital marketing efforts related to search & social.
Why Do You Deserve Better Positioning In Search? (Why Should Search Engines Recommend You Over Others In The Same Space)
Why Do You Deserve Your Customer’s Attention On Social Media? (And Why Should They Follow You)?
Much like the first two questions above, the answers to these questions can often be one and the same.
As you’ll see in future posts (either here or in email), these two questions will have their own “delta” or gaps to examine as we look closer at search & social.
“Differentiation” – Mathematics vs Marketing
The use of the term differentiation in the marketing world isn’t very far away from how it’s used in the mathematics world.
In the math world, differentiation is the process of finding the rate of change (a difference, or delta) of a function at a given point in space (the technical word for this is finding the “derivative“).
Although the goal is slightly different (pun intended), what we’re trying to achieve is a measure of a gap, distance – or delta.
In math differentiation, we’re identifying what that delta is over time (how fast something is changing).
In market differentiation, we’re looking at a delta that helps your small business stand out (this can also be referred to as “positioning”) – so it’s easy for your ideal clients/customers to both find & prefer you over your competition.
Identifying your “Why Delta” through those questions above can help you close that delta to zero and create the differentiation you need.
With your “Alignment Delta” and “Why Delta” now sorted, your small business is now perfectly aligned with your customers and has started differentiating itself from competitors.
Up next we’ll look at your “Relevance Delta” – establishing and maintaining relevance with your customers/clients through your digital marketing activities.
