With over 7 million e-commerce websites, getting a head start on your competitors is brutal. Sometimes, having good products and services isn’t enough—you need to get ahead with a charming personality and a brand that people can’t help but fall in love with. But how exactly do you do this?

According to an Orange County marketing company, the following four tips will help you gradually look unique and attractive. We hope these are effective for you.

Focus on What Makes You, You!
Everybody has their reasons for setting up a business. It’s hard to go far in a career as a businessperson if you’re not passionate about what you’re providing—it’s not like many of today’s billionaires decided they wanted to create this or that for no reason. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple because they wanted to develop computers small enough to carry; Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA because he tried to make budget-friendly and durable furniture; Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google because they wanted a search engine that could find online data quickly.

You and the people you work with are exclusive to your company, which already helps you stand out from competitors. The thought process and passion that you put into building and running your business is something nobody else can have. In a sense, you want your customers not to buy just your products but also your brand.

You can do this in plenty of ways. Make sure your company’s vision and mission are consistent, for starters. For example, if you advocate for sustainable and environmentally-friendly products, reflect that in your products and packaging using recycled material and laying off the plastic.

You should also align yourself with influencers who represent your brand well too, and they can boost your visibility to prospective customers. For example, if you sell baby clothes, you can partner with a famous mom on Instagram to help sell your products to other moms!

Look Good, Feel Great!
As shallow as it sounds, you don’t have to act the part—you must look the part. That means being mindful of your aesthetics.

Website design is the most crucial aesthetic to consider. It represents your brand, after all—they’re the first things people see when they look at you and your products and services. Not only does your website need to look good, but it also has to function well; there’s no point in hosting a website that doesn’t even work! Additionally, you must refrain from using placeholders like ‘under construction’ or ‘unavailable’ as this makes you seem unpolished.

Of course, a website isn’t without great content; you must also be mindful of your content’s appearance. Invest in good photography for your product pictures and content images. Have easily readable text. Refrain from posting offensive content, whether text or image. Space everything out, so readers aren’t faced with blocks of text or a collage of pictures.

Listen to the Grapevine
Did you know that some companies fare better than others simply because they’ve got excellent reviews? One great example of this is Southwestern Airlines—despite their lackluster facilities and smaller budget, they have a better reputation than other airline giants like Delta and United. That’s because Southwestern has better customer service than the other two, which are notorious for their obnoxious customer representatives and extremely long holding times.

So, one way to differentiate your brand is to ask your customers what they like the most about it. Is it your high-quality products? Is it your superb customer service? Is it the entertaining content you post regularly? Encourage your customers to share why they picked you above all others!

Reviews are also nifty because you can use them to improve your business. They tell you what customers love and what they think can be improved. Listening to customer feedback is a skill, sadly, that many companies do not have, so if you take care of your reviews, then you’re already miles ahead of a ton of competitors.

Tell Some Stories
Branding isn’t just about selling the right products or packaging, it’s also about spreading your message with content marketing.

Start with a well-written blog filled with valuable information your customers would love. You want it to be a place where they can have their questions answered. You can address your customer’s needs and improve your reputation—if you can answer your customer’s questions quickly, you must know a lot about the industry! The same goes for any podcast, webinar, or video you produce.

Another way to tell your story is by being on social media. Millions of people use social media platforms daily to connect with loved ones. Build a relationship with your customers by building a community on social media. Facebook Groups and Discord servers are excellent examples of social media communities.

In an ever-growing and ever-changing industry, you must differentiate yourself from the crowd. Using these four simple steps, you can resonate with prospective and loyal customers, leading to increased web traffic and sales on your e-commerce website.