Give Your Marketing Strategy a Solid Foundation

How do you create strong brand positioning in your market? By developing a market positioning strategy. Marketing strategy can be intimidating. You understand sales, of course. But marketing? Why do you do it, and what’s it really for? And how do you write a positioning statement?

Why you need marketing

Marketing is one of the most powerful tools your business has. In the long term, it determines your success. It creates awareness, boosts reputation, and helps to develop and maintain demand. 

Marketing informs your customers about what you do, for who, how, and why. Without this, there will be no sales to make.

When you have a steady flow of business, it’s tempting to put marketing to one side. But when things slow down, how will you attract new clients to your firm? You turn to marketing and expect quick results. Unfortunately, It doesn’t work this way. Marketing works when you do it consistently. . When you start and stop, you’ll become discouraged with it. You’ll tell everyone how “it doesnt’ work”.

Marketing is just like any other part of your business – it requires strategy and tactics to implement the plan. What often happens is that business owners come up with the tactics, but not the strategy. And therein lies the problem!

You’re more of a marketing strategy expert than you think

Given the aims of marketing, who better to develop a strategy than you?

Marketing brings all the pieces of your service market fit together. Who knows your clients better than you (read our article, ‘The market segmentation process for agencies: strategies for success’) and the niche in which your firm operates (see ‘How to specialize your agency’)?

Understanding your customer – why they buy from you and why they value your products or services – is as basic as marketing gets. 

The 5-step positioning statement formula

Your positioning statement is the foundation on which you build your marketing strategy. It’s straightforward to do, and yet few business owners write one. If you haven’t yet developed yours, your marketing efforts are likely to be scattered, causing potential clients to scratch their heads.

This five-step positioning statement formula will help you define every question your marketing strategy must answer. All you need do is fill in the blanks:

• Step #1: We work with (your target market),

• Step #2: whose problem is (their problem).

• Step #3: We provide (the service you deliver),

• Step #4: that delivers (the benefits your service delivers).

• Step #5: We’re different because (your unique qualities).

It couldn’t be easier, could it?

A positioning statement example

Let’s see this in action, using our own positioning statement as an example:

• Step #1: We work with owners of small agencies as they work to cross the $1M barrier,

• Step #2: Who find themselves stuck trying to grow, but they are out of hours, energy, and ideas to push the business any further.

• Step #3: We provide peer groups and 1-2-1 coaching

• Step #4: This helps them simplify their business, charge more, and get better help.

• Step #5: We’re different because our industry experience helps us accelerate clients through the U-curve.

Putting this into a simple, no-nonsense statement has tremendous value. It is the foundation of our marketing efforts. Every piece of marketing we do springs from this – our elevator pitch, sales presentations, website, blogs, emails, and so on. Here it is in a single paragraph:

‘We help owners of small creative agencies to smash through the $1M barrier where they frequently get stuck trying to grow. We take them from overwhelmed exhaustion and provide them with a roadmap to a simpler, more profitable business through 1-2-1 coaching and peer feedback. ’

It’s time to develop your positioning in marketing

Every business owner should be able to articulate their positioning statement. If you find it challenging to define your positioning, you may not yet have a deep enough understanding of your client’s needs, or you may not have a narrow enough target market. 

Here’s what to do:

1. Speak to your clients. Don’t assume you know their problems and needs.

2. Segment your clients into similar categories.

3. Describe how your firm addresses each need in each segment.

4. Look at your competitors – how do they address your clients’ problems?

5. Based on your information from 3 and 4, write a statement that describes the single most compelling reason that a customer would do business with you. Make sure it states your distinctive advantage. Keep it short. Keep it clear.

Voilà! You have just authored a Positioning Statement.

Over to you! Develop your firm’s positioning statement.

When you have, feel free to email it to Anchor Advisors – we’ll be pleased to give our honest opinion and help your business present a stand-out positioning.