It’s Labor Day, which means the long summer days are drawing to a close, and a shift in seasons is upon us. Along with cooler temperatures and shorter days, fall always brings with it, for me anyway, a sense of new beginnings and a chance for a fresh start.

As the fun of summer ends and you shift your focus to your business and the coming school year, you have an excellent opportunity to check in with your business goals and the steps you can take to move your brand in the direction you want to see it progress in the seasons ahead.

This brings us to today’s post, which focuses on three ways you can move your business towards your brand goals this fall while rising above your competitors.

Read on for three easy ways to beat business competitors and get a fresh start for your business this Labor Day!

1. Create buyer personas

One of the best ways to improve your brand, and in the process beat your business competitors, is to carefully craft buyer personas for your ideal customers. This will help you clearly target your services to the audience that you are trying to reach, setting your brand apart from similar area businesses in your industry (ie: the competition).

So what is a buyer persona, you may ask? A buyer persona is a semi-fictional character, reflective of the type of customer that you would like to attract.

To create a buyer persona, you should use market research and data regarding your current customer base. From this information, you can craft detailed buyer personas, that will put you into your customer’s shoes, helping you figure out how your brand can better serve them.

By developing buyer personas, you will give your brand a clear direction and focus. Knowing your brand’s ideal customers will help you focus your time efficiently and effectively, resulting in increased business.

2. Start using that analytics tool you’ve been wanting to try

A new season is a great reminder to finally accomplish those pesky to-do items that you can never seem to check off your list.

One important goal, that you may have been delaying, is incorporating some sort of analytics into your website. It’s just one more time-consuming process, right? Wrong!

There are many easy-to-use and affordable analytical tools out there like Google Analytics, Hubspot, Moz, and Raven, that will do the hard work for you, identifying the areas that your website is doing right, and the areas that need some improvement.

By taking it a step further and analyzing your website’s performance, you can figure out what areas need your focus in order to rise above, and beat, your competitors.

3. Optimize your website

Your website is a valuable tool that has the power to make or break your brand. This is why it is crucial to make sure that your website is being utilized to its full potential in order to beat your competition.

As you move into the new season, give your website a quick check over to ensure there is nothing that you can improve upon to garner better results in the coming year.

Not sure where to start? We have a handy checklist that can help you determine if your website is making the cut.

Treat this as that back-to-school quiz that your children are all dreading. It’s your chance to see how your business scores, and a valuable opportunity to identify key areas to focus on this fall.

After all, if you don’t know what you are doing wrong, how can you fix it?

We hope you enjoyed a sun-filled summer and a relaxing Labor Day weekend. Now it is time to get off the beach/out of the pool/away from your grill and back to the office so you can focus on making your brand the best it can be this year (and beating your competitors in the process)!