To succeed in the heavily populated world of Internet businesses, you need to know exactly what your business is, and what differentiates it from all other online businesses. You need to develop a Unique Selling Proposition, a USP.
When I go to e-commerce trade shows, if I had a nickel for every time I see the phrase "e-commerce solutions," I'd be a rich man. So you have a solution. A solution to what? If 20 other companies offer an "e-commerce solution," why should I do business with YOUR firm? Unless you have a ready answer to that question, your days in business are numbered. You've GOT to know what makes you different, better, or more capable than your competition.
Amphibious Case Study
Just for fun, we're going to develop a USP for a new dot.com start-up. Let's say you've looked deep into yourself for your areas of expertise. And all you can find is that you love amphibians. Ever since you were a kid you've taken in frogs and toads as pets. You developed the first Salamandaria in your local town zoo. You have nearly every book ever published on amphibians, and you subscribe to the scientific journals that carry amphibian research. You love amphibians!
Examine at the Competition
You scour the Web looking for amphibian sites. I looked up the word "amphibian" in Copernic 2000 (http://www.copernic.com) to see what I could find.
Kingsnake.com -- "the information portal for the reptile and amphibian hobbyist." http://www.kingsnake.com It has links to various nature magazines, discussion groups, etc.
Amphibians discussion list, dedicated to the distribution of knowledge, care, and breeding of all amphibians. This is where you'll find many of your potential customers. http://www.onelist.com/messages/amphibians
Big Apple Herpetological -- reptile and amphibian supplies. http://www.bigappleherp.com They claim to be "the world's largest online reptile and amphibian supply catalog... over 600 reptile products, same day/next day shipping, full product consultation and the GUARANTEED lowest prices." (See their USP stated clearly in their brief ad?)
The Herp Mall. http://www.herp.com/ Provides Web services for various herp (reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, chelonians, etc..) dealers, supply dealers, and event coordinators. They claim 25,000 visitors per day. Here's where you can advertise.
There are also numbers of local reptile and amphibian societies
Where's the Gap?
One thing became pretty clear is searched for amphibian businesses. While reptiles are well serviced on the, amphibians are left out, second best. Most sites tilt toward reptiles. Could you become THE commercial amphibian site on the Net? There's a gap online. The only question I have is whether the market is large enough to support an online business focusing primarily on amphibians?
With this narrow a niche, I doubt that you'll have many amphibian product advertisers clamoring for space in your advertising calendar, so you'll need to look for revenue streams primarily in product sales.
A number of names are taken, but you'll still find some good ones left:
WartyToad.com
FrogLover.com
NewtBabe.com
You could probably find others. But I like FrogLover.com. Yes, AmphibianLover.com is available, but it doesn't have the ring of truth, the same kind of rhythm as FrogLover.com. Yes, FrogLover.com meets my four criteria for a good domain name: (1) short, (2) memorable, (3) related to your core business or business name, and (4) hard to misspell.
Here's a USP to Fill the Gap
Now let's formulate a USP that fills the gap we've observed in the online amphibian world:
"FrogLover.com is your one-stop shop for amphibians: supplies, books, information, research, and gossip -- the most comprehensive amphibian site on the Web."
Your Unique Selling Proposition differentiates you from any of your competitors. Now armed with this USP you can develop a Web business that doesn't have ANY direct competitors. You're on your way.
Exercise: Write the first draft of a USP for your business. Then study two of your chief competitors and write a USP describing them. Now review and rewrite your USP in light of what you've learned.
Note: We'll be looking again at competitive analysis in coming issues. This was just a first run.
