As business gets more crowded you’re probably asking yourself: How the heck am I supposed to stand out online?

We have an answer for you! In fact, we have five ways you can think about standing out from the crowd.

It's true the online business world feels crowded, but here’s the unique thing about running an online course business or a knowledge business: People can choose WHO they want to learn from.

There may be a thousand voices shouting about how to design websites, but when someone's in the market for a web design course, they're hunting for the one that clicks with their vibe.

They're looking for a creator whose style aligns with their taste. That's your in!

If you can set yourself apart from what else is out there, you can give someone a reason to choose you. And now, the million-dollar question:

Why is someone going to choose you? Your SOUCE.

That's not a typo, we're not talking about delicious special sauce, we're talking about your business SOUCE.

And why "SOUCE?" Because it's weird, it's quirky, and it's unforgettable. And unforgettable is exactly what we're shooting for in this article to help you stand out online!

You have to remember that marketing isn’t about blending in. It's about making a freaking statement. It's about getting noticed in the chaos.

You COULD take the path of least resistance, follow the pack, and scramble to outwork your competitors, OR you can rewrite the script and play YOUR game by YOUR rules.

To Have Your Business Stand Out Online You Need S-O-U-C-E

We looooove a good acronym around Wandering Aimfully, and the weirder the better! So, let's go ahead and break SOUCE down for you:

S stands for your Superpower (aka what are you really good at?)

EVERYONE has a superpower. There's something you can do better than most people.

• You might be seriously gifted at breaking down big, complicated concepts into bite-sized nuggets.

• Or you are the most obsessively organized person you know.

• Or maybe you just have the biggest heart for helping people and you have a knack for knowing exactly what someone else needs to hear.

Whatever it is, ask yourself HOW you can incorporate that superpower into your business and your brand.

Next up we have O as in Own your weird.

Personality-wise, what do you think makes you quirky compared to everyone else around you?

In the real world, you might be afraid of showing people your weird. But in the online marketing world, weird is wonderful. Weird is GOLD. Weird is memorable and distinct and yes, weird will even make you money.

Here's the question you should answer to help your business stand out: What parts of you feel like they don’t fit into the crowd? How can you play that up in your business? We (Jason and Caroline Zook 👩🏻‍🦰👨🏻‍🦲) LOVE being silly, coming up with loads of inside jokes, and laughing about poop humor, and those are the first things that attracted us to each other. We took these quirks about ourselves and made an effort to incorporate our random metaphors and weird comedy bits into our podcast and our live coaching for our Wandering Aimfully members.

We’ve built our entire brand around being UN-BORING because so many business coaches are kind of dry and take themselves way too seriously.

Fellow weirdos know when they find us that we’re the right coaches for them. We stand out online, especially in a very crowded space (online business coaching), by leaning into being weird and easily detracting anyone who needs a non-silly biz coach.

Moving on to U, which stands for Uniquely qualified.

What is the overlap of skills or experiences in your background that is rare?

What’s that cocktail of your talents and perspective that collide to create magic?

For Example: You might be a tech-savvy designer who's also a psychology buff. Combining aesthetics and user experience with psychological insights? That overlap is your advantage and it will set you apart from your competitors!

Then we have C, which is Contrary to convention

In what ways do you disagree or disrupt the status quo? Think about some of the common narratives or perspectives in your field, and ask yourself which ones you have a different take on.

This is not about disagreeing just for the sake of it. It’s about looking for opportunities to zig when everybody else is zagging.

That’s how you create CONTRAST with your peers and that contrast will act like a bat signal to customers that align with your point of view.

The final ingredient in your Special SOUCE comes from the E which stands for Extra mile

What’s the above-and-beyond thing you’re willing to do that others in your field aren’t? It doesn't have to be something wild and crazy, a couple of simple things most people don't do are:

• Personalized customer interactions

• A unique guarantee your business can provide

• Unparalleled customer support and experience

For instance, we run our coaching program using a lifetime pricing model, which many people shy away from. Once you pay for our WAIM Unlimited program, you still get access PLUS you get access to ANY evergreen product or program we create in the future.

We still get email replies from our customers when we let them know their payments are done but they’ll continue to get our coaching sessions and they write back to us in actual disbelief because they’re not used to programs doing that. Even though we promised it to them, it still stands out because many online business owners don't keep their promises (that alone is a simple differentiator!)

If you want to stand out online, you need to showcase your Special SOUCE

When you find that one or two things that are almost UNREASONABLY great in your customers’ minds, they WILL tell people about it. In a time when it feels like you have to use social media to promote your business, word-of-mouth marketing is still king!

It's time to embrace that Special SOUCE of yours, to dare to be different, and to reap the rewards. Stop doing things like everyone else in your niche is doing them.