By Kenny Atcheson

It is more important in this technological age to stand out than ever before.

Almost everyone has easy access to a list of competitors with a swipe of their finger on their smartphone. Consumers are exposed to more advertisements per day than ever before. People are wrapped up in social media, and attention spans have dwindled.

When everything starts to blend together, through the eyes of the consumer the only thing that separates one company from the other is price. If every business appears to be the same, the only way to win the new customer’s business is to lower prices and profit margins.

Here are three ways to make sure your business stands out in a crowded marketplace:

• 
Tell stories. Nobody else has your story. It automatically makes you unique. You will be perceived as a human rather than a faceless entity. Tell other people’s stories too, such as happy customers (with permission).
• Build up positive online reviews. You can use an automated system to collect customer feedback in-house so you can minimize outside complaints, as well as fix inside problems. That same system should automatically encourage happy customers to write a public review. Positive online reviews earn prospective customers and trust.
• Use a systematic approach to generating referrals. No customer is better than a referred customer. There is a trust transfer from happy existing customers to new, prospective customers. A good referral may not even look at your competitors, which will make it easy to stand out.

Small businesses must stand out as unique and trustworthy — otherwise the only way to earn new business is with lower prices, which won’t last.

Kenny Atcheson is a national keynote speaker, author, and well-known contributor to 27 national business industry magazines and other publications. Atcheson is a workshop trainer who offers a variety of marketing and advertising programs, employee training programs and private consulting. Atcheson is CEO and President of Creative Profit Pros LLC based in Henderson, Nev., and the author of “Marketing Battleground: How to Deploy Under-the-Radar Strategies to Explode Your Profits.”