How to Build a Successful Competitive Displacement Campaign

In the dynamic and crowded B2B technology marketplace, gaining a competitive edge is crucial for businesses to thrive.

Yet, standing out doesn’t always mean having the right content and messaging about how you’re the best solution to solve a customer’s pain point. Your ideal customer might already use a product or service like yours. You don’t need a campaign to sell to them; you need to create a compelling reason that you’re the better solution and persuade them to make a change.

What is a competitive displacement campaign?

A competitive displacement campaign is a strategic marketing initiative designed to identify, target, and win over customers currently using a competitor solution. Beyond offering a specialized deal to entice customers, this campaign involves a targeted, proactive, and comprehensive approach encompassing market analysis, value proposition development, messaging strategy, and implementation tactics delivered through a full-funnel, multi-channel strategy.

The goal is to position your solution as the superior alternative to the competition, effectively convincing customers to switch.

Successful competitive displacement campaigns help you:

• Expand market share
• Increase revenue
• Enhance brand reputation and equity
• Elevate the customer experience

This article will provide insights and guidance on the key steps and considerations for creating and implementing a competitive displacement campaign.

Step 1: Assess the Competitive Landscape

You can only gain a competitive edge in your space if you first understand the competitive landscape. An assessment of the competitive landscape starts with conducting a comprehensive analysis by gathering the following information about your direct and indirect competitors:

• Names and positioning of their products and services
• General information about their pricing
• Distribution channels they use
• General overview of their customer base
• An idea of their Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP)
• List of marketing channels they use
• Their value propositions

You can gather some of this information by scanning a competitor’s website, but it takes a healthy combination of primary and secondary research to understand the ins and out of a company. Include industry research from reputable analyst firms, technographic data, and customer feedback.

Next, evaluate how your competitors position themselves in the market and the messaging they use to communicate with customers by assessing their unique selling points and value propositions. Considering these points will help you identify potential areas where you can differentiate yourself and craft a compelling value proposition.

For example, if Company A fails to emphasize the scalability and flexibility of its solution, another marketer can create a display ad highlighting those attributes of their solution. By addressing gaps, marketers can create key advantages of their offering that may make customers think twice about their solution.

Finally, keep a pulse on market trends and shifts that may impact the competitive landscape. Do this by monitoring industry news, staying informed about technology advancements, understanding changing customer preferences, and keeping an eye on emerging market players. It is essential to identify any disruptive forces or new entrants that have the potential to reshape the competitive dynamics. This thorough analysis enables you to proactively adapt your competitive displacement strategy and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

With research completed and a good idea of where the market stands in terms of competition and the market landscape, you can then turn your attention to developing your approach.

Step 2: Identify Target Accounts and Personas

To effectively identify target accounts and personas for your competitive displacement campaign, leverage data to pinpoint businesses that would benefit from switching to your offerings and who within those target accounts act as key decision-makers and influencers driving purchasing decisions.

These are the various types of data that will help you gain these insights, including:

• Firmographic Data: Company information like geographic location, size, and industry
• Technographic Data: Indicators of an account’s investment in other technology solutions
• Behavioral Data: Historical data that shows you how an account engaged with content and messaging
• Intent Data: A collection of signals that helps marketing and sales teams understand when potential customers are actively looking for or interested in a solution

Developing buyer personas is crucial for understanding your target audience’s needs, pain points, and motivations. Detailed and accurate buyer personas provide insights into challenges, preferences, decision-making processes, communication channels, and desired outcomes, enabling personalized and resonating campaign strategies.

Regularly updating and refining buyer personas is essential to align with evolving needs, preferences, technologies, and behaviors. By staying in tune with target accounts and personas, you can optimize messaging, content, and campaigns to engage and convert ideal customers, ensuring long-term success for your marketing efforts.

Step 3: Craft Compelling Content and Messaging That Communicates Value

Compelling content and messaging effectively communicate the value your offering provides to your target audience. It should highlight the specific benefits and outcomes customers can expect from choosing your solution by emphasizing how it addresses pain points, enhances efficiency, saves costs, or drives growth. Personalize the content and messaging for different buying committee members to ensure it speaks to their specific needs and motivations. By emphasizing how their solution benefits individual roles and helps achieve objectives, you strengthen your message and increase the chances of winning over the buying committee.

You must also recognize competitor differentiation and be prepared for objections. This includes identifying factors such as superior quality, innovative technology, cost-effectiveness, faster delivery, exceptional customer service, or customization options that competitors may emphasize. You build credibility and trust with your audience by acknowledging these points of differentiation and proactively addressing potential objections.

Aligning the value proposition with customers’ pain points and challenges is crucial for effective messaging. Leverage data to understand your target audience’s needs, desires, and frustrations. By identifying the specific problems or issues they encounter in their business operations or processes that their products or services can solve, you can position your offerings as the ideal solution that surpasses what competitors provide. This alignment between customer pain points and the value proposition helps establish a strong connection, resonates with the audience’s needs, and reinforces the relevance and effectiveness of your solution.

Step 4: Activate a Multi-Channel, Full-Funnel Account-Based Strategy

You can gain a great advantage over your competitors by activating a multi-channel, full-funnel account-based strategy that ensures you’re in front of the right buyers, with the right information, on the right channel.

In contrast to traditional marketing and ABM strategies that target buyers with disjointed information and content, implementing a multi-channel, full-funnel ABM approach delivers a unified and consistent personalized experience across all digital touch points. This approach ensures messaging and content align seamlessly throughout the buyer’s journey, enhancing the overall customer experience and driving engagement with the buying group and key decision-makers.

To fully understand the impact and performance of a multi-channel full-funnel strategy, you must implement robust tracking and measurement mechanisms to continuously analyze and evaluate campaign data. By closely monitoring key performance indicators, engagement metrics, and conversion rates, you can more easily identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize and enhance campaign outcomes.

Conclusion

A competitive displacement campaign plays a vital role in helping businesses gain a competitive edge in the dynamic and crowded B2B technology marketplace. By conducting a comprehensive assessment of the competitive landscape, identifying target accounts and personas, crafting compelling content and messaging, and activating a multi-channel, full-funnel account-based strategy, you can effectively position their offerings as superior alternatives and persuade customers to switch.

Madison Logic is the only ABM Platform provider with comprehensive intent data through ML Insights that you need to gain that competitive edge and convert your best accounts faster. Discover why we were named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: B2B Intent Data Providers.

Want to dive deeper into learning how to build more strategic ABM campaigns that help you gain a competitive edge? Click on the links below for more helpful insight:

• The 2023 Full-Funnel ABM Playbook
• Now is the Time to Get Real About Creating Demand
• Thriving in Uncertainty: Why Persistent ABM is Crucial for Demand Generation Success