Most of us are well aware of who our online competition is. We search through 10′s or even 100′s of keywords and to identify our top online competitors. But are they your only competition?

Who else might are you competing with? The answer is all around you, and you know the answer all ready, but it still just might surprise you.

Have you ever considered McDonalds, Conoco or WalMart to be competitors of your business? How about your grocery store?

Think about this for a minute – what is the definition of a competitor. Answer this, and you probably don’t need to read the rest of the article… but for the rest of you– a competitor is any person, resource or thing that wants money more than you.

When there is only a limited resource of money, a person can only buy so many hamburgers, pants and gas. Your job is to present your product or service as being vastly more valuable than a pair of pants. For those of you that are new to this, this is a concept called “marketing”.

Levis has been running ads for years (OK, when I was a kid they did ) and they have convinced teens all over the world that they have to have a pair of their jeans – not some cheap knock off pair.

It is Levi’s advertising that is taking away funds from your clients so that they can no longer afford your product or service.

So how do you compete with these indirect competitors? Well this might sound like a novel concept, but why not do the same thing that they do? I’m of course talking about advertising. And lot’s of it. Create your own brand awareness.

Your job as a business owner (while you have your marketing hat on) is to demonstrate that your business is more important than food in your customers belly. OK, don’t go that far … but you do need to convince your audience that your product or service is more important than a pair of pants or sneakers.

As the cliche goes, sell the sizzle, not the steak.

Levi doesn’t sell jeans. They sell a lifestyle. Imitate that, and you’ll be on track to promote your own “lifestyle”