Does someone locally do exactly what you do, or close enough to make you jelly and insecure? Don’t worry. We’re about to do something about that right now.

This is part 2 in the Clients In Your Backyard series we’re doing right now on the podcast. Last week we talked about some ideas for how to start thinking locally. Today we’re going to dive into some of big objections that people face or are afraid of when they think of local marketing. Before I get started, let me just say if you don’t have a local business or want to reach a local market, this episode absolutely applies to you because let me guess - you too have competitors that you see and run into and probably drive you batty. Keep listening. This should help. We’ve all run into some people who seem to do the exact thing we do and it irks us. Not that we think we’re so special that we’re the only person in the world doing something, but because that fear rushes in that someone could possibly be better than us, or take our clients -- or the age-old fear even if we don’t usually talk about it: they’ll like us better. When I polled the members of my #girlboss Facebook group, this was one of the big challenges a lot of businesses with a local presence face. So let’s talk about it. Your competition is irrelevant. Don’t flinch when I say it. It’s true -- even if hard to swallow. In theory, it sounds so easy. Sure, Mallory -- just forget all about them and carry on. Well, kinda.

Here’s how to tackle your competition head on and win. There are two schools of thought, and sometimes we do both when dealing with our competitors. 1) Know what makes you different. Is it your niche, your process, your framework, your timeline, your deliverables, your quality, your attention to detail -- they cannot be mirroring you, so what makes you different? Knowing this alone will give you buckets of confidence to stop worrying about the others. 2) Know what they’re doing and do it better. This one is tricky because there is a fine line between following your competition and getting messed up in the head because of it or accidentally copying. Both are dangerous to a growing business. What I mean by “Know what they’re doing and do it better” is -- how do they typically operate, serve customers, etc. -- and where are there gaps? There is usually so much opportunity to fill the gap and needs that it also makes your competition irrelevant. 3) Stop caring what they do I recently counseled a client of mine to immediately stop following a main competitor on all channels for 60 days. While it’s good to know what they’re doing -- it’s also healthy to put blinders on if what they’re doing shakes your own confidence. You know what you’re doing. You are more than qualified. You can get as many or more clients than them. The biggest difference? Time and confidence. Own what you do, and if it takes unfollowing them for 60 days or more, than do it. 4) Collaborate with them This sounds crazy, but because I know that what you do and how you do is unique to you -- I also know that there is space in most niches for collaboration on projects, events, networking, referrals and so much more. When you draw the line in the sand and see them as competition and someone to do battle with, it cuts out the collaborative part of doing business that could be even more lucrative than “winning.” 5) Don’t out-do them because you can. There’s a time and a place for being more advanced and forward-thinking than your competitors. But being the frontrunner also means you teach them how to do what you’re doing well, and it leads to expensive campaigns, advertising venues you don’t want to go to battle in and spending your marketing dollars on things that don’t need spent - if you can avoid it. Work smarter at how you promote yourself and get in front of clients, but don’t worry about beating them on all platforms at all times -- it creates more work for you than necessary, especially on local marketing,...