Establishing a position is a lot easier and quicker than establishing a brand. It helps your clients to understand the benefits of your products and services and if it’s right for them. Firstly start by answering the following five questions:
- What problem does your product/service solve for your prospective clients?
- How does the competition solve the same problem?
- What benefit does your product/service deliver? Often companies talk about features but people buy based on emotion therefore you need to talk about the emotional benefits your product/service will provide.
- What makes your product/service better than what is currently available?
- How is your product/service unique and why is that of relevance to your potential clients?
Once you can answer the above questions with confidence you are on your way to creating a solid positioning for your business. To gain greater insight into the positioning of your business you should also think about the following:
- Make a list of your audiences and for each grouping identify what their urgent needs are.
- Examine the competition – ask how are they positioning themselves? How do you differentiate your product/service from them? What do your customers care about and how are you communicating that to them?
- Go out and talk to potential clients to get a better understanding of their wants and needs. This should be carried out once a year as part of your client audit.
- Brainstorm – write down all the ways you want to be perceived by your clients and write down the qualities of your ideal client.
- Review the results from the above points and distill the essence into a few pithy sentences. Test out your draft positioning statements on friendly clients, colleagues, friends and family who know what it takes to run a successful business.
When you have all the information as outlined above you will be able to start crafting your positioning statement and supporting key messages; generally it’s a couple of sentences in length. It tells a client what you do, who you’ve done it for and how you are uniquely placed to solve their problems. These key messages should not be outlined once but over and over again at every opportunity, they become part of your business’ DNA; in a crowded market place repetition is vital…so start communicating.
