Don’t bury your head in the sand! Yes, you can compete as an SMB against much larger companies. You will need to do some work and begin to think differently. However, with systems such as personalization and brand identity, you can give anyone a run for their money!

Offer Services Competitors Don’t

To stand out in a competitive market, your business needs to offer more than basic services. No matter the industry, sector or niche you are in, there are always essential services and products. While these have their place, the only way to get ahead is to innovate and provide something exciting. And it doesn’t matter about the size. For example, as a solo landscaper, you can offer a free edger service every season for customers who use your gardening service all year round. 

Compete as an SMB with Personalization

Personalization is everywhere at the moment, and many large companies are taking it pretty seriously. In fact, 89% of professional marketers consider personalization essential for business success^[1]. So, as a small business, how can you make use of personalization? Begin here:

• Understand the customer with data collection, personas and customer journey mapping.
• Tailor comms through personal messaging, recommendations and customer service.
• Use modern technologies such as personalization engines, AI/ML and CRM.

Request and USE Customer Feedback

Okay, so feedback is one of those things that everyone talks about and never seems to use. But why? Why even bother asking if you do nothing with the data? That’s a massive waste of time and a shame for everyone. Feedback is invaluable data because it comes straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. With methods such as online surveys, social media polls, and just asking, you can gain valuable insights into what customers really think about your business.

Compete as an SMB With Loyalty Programs

There are many ways you can influence customers and grow sales, and one of the best is with loyalty programs. In the US alone, over 90% of businesses offer a loyalty program^[2] of some kind, and for good reasons. You can compete as an SMB because loyalty programs just work:

• People simply enjoy being rewarded and will pursue benefits such as discounts.
• Your business can get to know a customer better using customer loyalty data.
• Loyal customers are less likely to switch to a competitor or new service within the niche

Come Up with a Solid SEO Strategy

You may or may not have heard of search engine optimization, also known as SEO. It doesn’t matter if you know it or not, and you can still reap the benefits. You can learn SEO and use it yourself, or you can hire an SEO expert through outsourced services. Either way, an SEO strategy that includes on-page optimization (keywords etc.), local optimization and backlinks will boost your domain authority. This results in higher search rankings against larger companies.

Compete as an SMB with a Strong Identity

A survey by Top Branding found that 71% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they recognize^[3]. For this reason alone, a strong brand identity is valuable. However, it isn’t easy and takes a lot of planning and time. To get off to a good start, remember these fundamentals:

• Your business’ online persona must hold values and be authentic in relation to them.
• Consistency is critical across branding, communication, visuals and tone of voice.
• Customers appreciate extra efforts in securing communications and user data.

Focus on Building a Web Presence

Building a strong brand identity is part of establishing a web presence. Given how many people use the web for finding services, especially local ones, you can’t sleep on this if you want to go up against larger businesses. A solid web presence relies on a few things, including a fast and reliable website, social media presence, and external influences such as customer reviews. By addressing these, as well as SEO, it is much easier to compete against pretty much anyone.

Summary

Offering services that go above and beyond the standard expectations will help you compete as an SMB against larger companies in your niche. Of course, you can almost guarantee repeat business with customer loyalty schemes, and a web presence boosts your online branding.

References

1. Contentful. 40 personalization statistics: The state of personalization in 2025 and beyond. https://www.contentful.com/blog/personalization-statistics/ 
2. Queue.It. 107 staggering statistics that show the power of loyalty programs in 2025. https://queue-it.com/blog/loyalty-program-statistics/ 
3. Numeri. our comprehensive list of branding statistics. https://thecoregroup.associates/numeri/welcome-to-our-comprehensive-list-of-branding-statistics/