In the words and voice of my mother when scolded as a child. That's how it sounds the title of this sounds and feels. And for good reason.
Brand positioning is no longer a "nice to have" luxury. It's more about brand than ever nowadays.
Getting to the heart of your audience largely depends on your brand's perception. Why should your people choose you in addition to, or over, anybody else?
A clear cut positioning statement will easily and quickly show how your brand should be the one that's in your audience's phone notifications, saved in their IG, favorited in their Google Maps, and bookmarked in their web browser.
When we're done with this blog, you'll get:
Let's get into it.
First, let's define brand positioning:
How your business distinguishes itself from the competition, clearly detailing the specific value you've promised to deliver to your audience.
It creates a specific perception in the audience's mind of what your brand stands for in juxtaposition to everyone else in your market/industry. Effective positioning can create a powerful pull on the people you want to attract, engage, and delight — ultimately deepening your audience's affinity and driving up revenue.
Brand positioning is not just a marketing buzzword; it's a fundamental strategy that can determine the success of your small business in a crowded marketplace.
It Sets You Apart from the Jump: Effective positioning focuses on and elevates the uniqueness of your what you do, how you do it and who you do it for, instantly shouting out how you differ from competitors.
It Directs Your Marketing: Know how to work your brand into your everyday marketing with easy-flowing alignment with your people's needs.
It Guides Your Audience's Decisions: Get your people to understand you and your WHY, allowing them to align their needs and wants with your offerings.
We'll say it again and again everywhere that we can.
In the words of T'Challa's mother: "Show them who you are!"
You are different.
Everything from your human experience to how you approach your business.
Use that.
Lean into what makes you unique and weave it into positioning gold. For our team, it took us a little while to uncover what truly made us different. We were too busy doing what we do for our clients. But now that we've got it down, we're honing in on it. Branding agencies? There's a gajillion of them all over the place. So what makes us different?
Framework's Positioning:
We are the only Atlantan branding agency that gives you back your time, eliminates stress and frustration by framing the brand and growth strategy of your small business or early-stage nonprofit into what you always dreamed it could be.
So how did we do it?
Here's how, plus some added lessons learned.
Defined Our Unique Selling Proposition (USP): What are things that you're doing differently than others in your market or industry? Reflect and list these then narrow them down to 2-3 points that you can quickly go off on. Remember that your USP is the cornerstone of your messaging and should be talked about everywhere and in everything you say and do. This is the thing that makes your people's ears perk up and their intrigue peaked.
Get to Know Our People Better and Better: Describe and detail who your people are. What do they do for a living? What do they love? What grinds their gears? Who do they prefer to hangout with and where? Do they have habits and hobbies? What do they want (in relation to your business)?
Now for the positioning statement formula you can use to put it all together:
[Brand/Business Name] is the only [Business Type] that [Unique Selling Propositions] to serve [Short Descriptor of Your People] so that they can [Brand Promise(s)].
Let's look at our positioning again to see if it holds up:
We are the only Atlantan branding agency that gives you back your time, eliminates stress and frustration by framing the brand and growth strategy of your small business or early-stage nonprofit into what you always dreamed it could be.
Yep. Even though we played with the order of how we said it, it has all the makings of the formula. Feel free to go off of this template and create something more robust or less specific, but never lacking in those top three P elements: your USP, your people, and your promise.
Now here's what to do with all of that.
Create Value-Based Content: Create content that highlights your brand's unique value, appeals to your audience's interests, and triggers actions from them, moving them down the marketing funnel. (Literally this. What we're doing with this blog: sharing from our experience and how we serve clients while providing valuable insights that you can put into action today.)
Effective CTA's: Design clear and consistent calls-to-action (CTAs) in-line with your positioning — leading to more conversions. (CTAs are what you want your audience to click on throughout their online experience engaging with you — big buttons on website, social commentary for DMs, etc.). Bonus if you can link the CTA prompt to an intrinsic human need. Here are some examples:
Monitor, Adjust, and Improve: No one has the perfect marketing formula when they first start. It can take as long as ahem a couple of years to research, experiment, and define your brand's formula. So keep at it! And remember to use data to monitor, adjust, and improve your funnel consistently, based on consumer behavior and market trends.
In a nutshell, your brand's position in the market plays a pivotal role in shaping your business' image, giving the exact instructions for how to frame what you do in marketing, and turning your business into a profitable one — faster.