How Brand Positioning Will 10x Your Leads and Sales

ever noticed how some Brands seem to
have the biggest wins and the fastest
growth think slack Airbnb MailChimp
monzo the list goes on you've seen this
in action yourself you find a company
that just seems to resonate with you and
you get what they're about you might not
be able to put your finger on exactly
what it is but you just seem to like
them immediately they feel different
even if what they sell is kind of the
same what is that the answer is amazing
brand positioning today we're going to
look at how to audit your Brand's
existing positioning to get this effect
or if you're a new company design your
positioning from the ground up first up
what do we mean by positioning
positioning should form your brand rules
these are the things that set you apart
from your competitors without great
positioning you might find that your
customers find it difficult to know why
they should buy from you rather than
your competitors this can be especially
clear in very competitive markets and by
the way positioning isn't just about how
your brand looks either it's about the
way that you communicate through all of
your marketing activity on your website
in your social posts in your PPC ads
let's look at the Instagram profiles of
two vegan tube runs so you can see
exactly what I mean this first one
Will's vegan store has lots of pictures
of people getting Outdoors there on the
beach there in the park they're out
walking climbing mountains posing in
rustic settings well said nature so it
feels like there's a clear audience of
maybe slightly more wealthy affluent
customers they're selling a lifestyle
that needs reliable shoes that last a
long time and the price point and
presentation of the products on their
website reflects this but this brand koi
footwork couldn't be more different this
is people wearing alternative fashion in
predominantly Urban locations this
definitely feels like it's catering to a
younger audience who are going to be
more price conscious and that matches
perfectly with the products listed on
their website so whilst the issues might
not last as long as the ones from Will's
vegan store they're priced to reflect
that and they'll help their customers
keep on trend for a lower price when you
take it right Back to Basics these two
businesses are basically selling the
same thing vegan shoes but the way that
they're positioned means that they
appeal to completely different customer
groups and as a side note this is one of
the ways that smaller Brands can compete
with larger Brands by identifying a
particular customer segment that's not
being well served and by optimizing
their product offering to resonate with
that audience so here's how to build or
refine your Brand's positioning to start
building your positioning wall you're
going to need the following bricks and
don't worry we're going to go through
these in a bit more detail and look at
some examples in just a sec first up
competitor positioning so this is
looking at how your competitors are
positioning themselves in your space
customer and Persona pain point so what
worries and objections your potential
customers might have why they would and
wouldn't buy from you their buying
habits and more and by the way if you
don't have a buyer Persona yet stick
around until the end of this video we'll
show you how to make one your
positioning and messaging guide so this
is the positioning that you choose and
how you plan on communicating it and
your positioning in action this is how
you plan to communicate your positioning
in your daily marketing so let's go
through each of these steps in turn and
look at some examples so that you can
start building your positioning or audit
your Brand's existing positioning
yourself or if you'd rather have one of
the marketing experts here at exposure
ninja take a look at your brand and
positioning request a free website and
marketing review all you need to do is
go to exposureninja.com and fill out the
short questionnaire we'll then send you
a 15 minute video showing you how to
generate more leads and sales through
your website and online using digital
marketing strategies like the one we're
talking about today go to
exposureninja.com review to request your
free website and marketing review today
right let's start with competitor
positioning you can't make changes to
your existing positioning if you're not
sure what else is out there and what
you're going to be competing against you
need to know which spaces are being
filled and which spaces are empty so
being able to dig and see what your
competitors are doing is the knowledge
that you need to stand out when we're
doing this for clients we'll do things
like analyzing their competitors
websites analyzing their social posts
and how they present through social
media looking at any display ads and PPC
ads that they're running through things
like The Meta ad library and often we're
looking for the messages that they
consistently emphasize and the implied
positioning in the imagery and the style
of the post that they're sharing of
course you want to look for the errors
that they're doing really well so you
can copy mimic and take influence but
you also want to look at the areas that
they're falling behind so you can
ruthlessly exploit them for example you
might notice your competitors websites
aren't particularly clear with the
audience that they're targeting so you
know okay we need to make sure our
audience is super clear or you might see
that your competitors are getting loads
of negative comments on social media
about their customer service well that
might tell you that you want to
emphasize that aspect of your offering
for example look at how different
lemonades website is to agria pet
insurance both of these companies are
selling pet insurance but to completely
different audiences that have totally
different values lemonade is all about
speed service ease of use whereas Agri
is focusing on trust so maybe when
you're doing your competitive analysis
you notice that one of your competitors
has a fantastic tone of voice and you
want to make sure that your tone comes
across as well as theirs does for
example if we look at MailChimp versus
clavio we see that they have a
completely different perspective some
customers might opt for clavio over
MailChimp because clavio might feel more
serious and like a safer option whereas
some people might go for MailChimp
because MailChimp seems more fun and
interesting and more aligned with their
personality outside of work what you're
really going for when you choose your
positioning and your style is that you
get that feeling in your customers that
ah this business gets me so when you're
comparing yourself against your
competitors think about why would
somebody choose them over you don't just
focus on price here think about how
they're positioning themselves to be
more attractive or safer or more
appealing to those customers another
example here look at how Asana and
teamwork both project management
software companies position themselves
differently on their product pages
notice how Asana is focusing on
statistics like improving employee
satisfaction improving the company's
efficiency they're talking about the
benefits of scale and how many large
companies use Asana meanwhile teamwork
is talking about how teamwork is the
best option if you're managing a lot of
client work they're very specifically
focused on service companies who need
things like time tracking and
collaborating with clients you should
also consider why someone might not want
to buy from your competitors based on
their positioning and sometimes it might
be because they're positioning and what
they're selling is a bit mismatched for
example maybe their tone is really fun
and young but actually their target
audience is more serious and mature we
recently worked with a luxury clothing
brand selling high quality sportswear
and the quality was reflected in the
price but their branding was really
youthful their ads got loads of clicks
from younger more budget hungry
customers who were expecting to see fast
fashion products at fast fashion prices
so we needed to help this brand
reposition their offering to cater to a
demographic that had higher disposable
income and cared more about the quality
of their products than just purely being
trendy finally try and notice the things
that your competitors are doing really
well maybe they have a super clear
target audience and the objections that
they handle on their website are
absolutely no fighting this audience's
fears and concerns or maybe the content
they're pushing out exactly matches
where Their audience is at and the
things that they're interested in or
maybe the imagery that they use really
effectively communicates how they think
they stand out in your space for example
notice how on the website of d2c Shaving
companies Supply they've got this great
headline high performance grooving the
product imagery looks really high-end it
looks really premium so customers know
from the look of this website and even
just a few words of copy that this is
going to be a more premium offering so
think about how your own First
Impressions things like headlines and
product imagery reflect your positioning
in the market once you've had a look at
your competitors you also need to have a
look at your customers both your
existing customers and your ideal Target
customers now we're going to be focusing
on their pain points but you also want
to ask them other questions like what
they're worried about what are their
objections to purchasing from you what
they like about your brand what was it
that made them choose you over the
Alternatives what their demographics are
Which social groups they identify with
what their buying behavior is like for
example do they tend to do loads of
research before buying something or are
they really impulsive a quick tip on
this people aren't always great at
identifying their own behaviors and
patterns so you might need to ask them
for some examples say how did you choose
what car to buy for example other ways
that you can connect with your Target
customers are putting a survey together
and running it across social and email
marketing paying for market research
which is a great option if you're a
brand new business with no existing
customers or you're looking to Target a
new audience checking out data research
from companies like gwr yougov or Gallup
and of course doing some social media
stalking I mean research on Facebook
Instagram Tick Tock Pinterest wherever
your audience is hanging out you can
also look at who's engaging with you
most on social media and do these people
represent your perfect ideal customer
finally you can look through your
customer email history your reviews and
live chat responses to find the common
issues and questions that come up from
your customers you can use this research
along with your buyer personas to
establish the pain points of your ideal
customer and what you're going to do to
resolve them a great example is UK
insurance company direct line now
previously getting home insurance claims
paid out has been a bit of a nightmare
so if there's an emergency the customer
has to put their hand in their pocket
and cross their fingers that they get
the pay out later on direct line knows
this and they've used some of these pain
points in their positioning for example
offering to fix your uncontrollable
leaks really quickly sending you a
replacement device within two hours
they're positioning themselves not on
price but as the insurance company that
you really need to get back up and
running as quick as possible of course
though your positioning needs to be
authentic with the service that you're
offering it will be pointless for direct
line to focus on the backup that you
need if you were on hold for six hours
waiting to get hold of someone while
your leak was pouring through your house
that type of mismatch between
positioning and what you're actually
offering can lead to really problematic
reviews so it's important to make sure
your positioning on the front end is
consist system with your offering on the
back end now you want to Define your
positioning clearly so you can make sure
it's implemented consistently start by
reviewing your personas and your
competitors what's most important to
your personas and how do you stand out
against your competitors now quick tip
here if you're struggling to pin down
the exact positioning that you want try
thinking about just a few words that
represent it for example personalized
service trustworthiness ease of purchase
okay let's compare two Brands selling
the same thing life insurance and see if
we can identify what their positioning
is now here's dead happy their
positioning is very much about rebellion
and wanting to seem completely different
to other life insurance companies
there's a sort of anarchistic vibe here
everything from the logo with the a
being upside down to some of the
hand-drawn fonts they focus on ease of
use get life insurance in a jiffy and
they have this sort of morbid sense of
humor like make a death wish which is
basically choosing where you want your
life insurance payout to go just in case
you didn't realize they were trying to
be different they use phrasing like life
insurance redesigned to show that
they're focusing on being an alternative
to what else is out there it's clear
that they want to focus on being a
rebellious brand and they have a younger
audience look at this wording here our
prices are based on who you are today
not that wrinkly weirdo you might be in
20 odd years well that's not going to go
down particularly well with the wrinkly
weirdo demographic is it by contrast
let's have a look at Polly Polly also
sells life insurance but you can see
they are targeting mothers they call out
their audience there and they emphasize
the parts of life insurance that are
going to be most important to mothers
they're using super emotive language
like every 22 minutes in the UK A child
loses a parent they depend on
financially this is designed to go
straight into the heart of the mother
whose worst fear is leaving their
children unable to fend for themselves
by choosing this really specific
audience they can focus the copy lasered
on Mothers every word on this site is
calibrated towards this target audience
so just like the vegan cheese example
earlier these two businesses are
essentially selling the same thing life
insurance bill look at how their
positioning means that how they
communicate this product how they
resonate With Their audience and how
they communicate the benefits of what
they do against others is completely
different is your positioning this clear
is your target audience as evident from
the copy and the design of your website
so think about how your positioning
needs to be communicated on your website
and the different aspects of your
marketing that your potential customers
will meet as they go on that journey to
become a buyer this is where positioning
in action comes in this is where you
take all of the positioning work that
you've done and figure out exactly how
to implement it in your daily marketing
activities for example if part of your
positioning is about Speedy service
you're going to need statement for your
website that communicates this really
quickly like talk to a real person 24 7
within five minutes something like that
feels real to the customer and
communicates so much of what you're
about of course this needs to flow
through to your service teams customers
can't be on hold for hours service reps
need a quick Speedy script that can get
to the heart of the issue and get it
result as quickly as possible if you
have a quote process on your website for
example this needs to be Snappy the ux
needs to be very Speedy to get the
information out of the potential
customer and into your quote engine as
quickly as possible or say your
positioning is all about ease but you
need to make it as easy as possible for
people even at the top of the funnel to
get the information that they need from
you maybe by signing up to your
newsletter or downloading the guides or
becoming a member or whatever your call
to action is every marketing touch Point
needs to reflect those same values this
is all about the consistency of the
experience maybe someone in the middle
of the funnel needs to be able to learn
a lot about your products simply from
your pages rather than having to talk to
people or hunt out information elsewhere
the person at the bottom of the funnel
needs to convert quickly through a fast
checkout or easy to fill in forms that
have drop downs rather than requiring
people to type out loads of info or
maybe your positioning is all about
sharing knowledge in which case you need
to be posting loads of content on your
blog or in your knowledge base you need
downloadables and guides that people can
check out to learn more about what it is
that you do if your positioning involves
sharing knowledge then your top of
funnel content is going to be loads of
information sharing your expertise maybe
giving people downloadables and ebooks
that they can get in return for an email
address your middle of the funnel
messaging might include practical ways
that your customers can improve their
lives and get closer to their goals your
bottom of the funnel calls to action
might involve sharing Knowledge from
your team with people through a free
consultation or a free website a
marketing review from a marketing expert
let's look at how disruptive banking app
monzo positions themselves throughout
their funnel the content at the bottom
of the funnel really emphasizes youthful
energy and ease of use on social media
it's all memes brightly colored posts
and tips and tricks for young people to
manage their money their middle of the
funnel content really highlights the
benefits of banking with monzo linked to
their positioning using phrases like
banking Made Easy open a full UK bank
account from your phone online banking
that makes a statement get it this is
clearly targeted at a younger audience
that wants a much easier and more modern
experience with their bank for their
bottom of the funnel traffic if you head
to the sign up page you get director to
download their app the steps listed on
this page are really simple download the
app have some ID ready you're done on
the home page monzo highlights that
setting up a bank account is really easy
they know that Their audience values a
really fast and easy experience so
that's what they emphasize so you can
see how your positioning applies to all
areas of your marketing funnel from the
top of the funnel where you're using
particular language and colors and
images to call out your perfect customer
all the way down to the bottom of the
funnel where you're mentioning the
specific things that you know your
customers most care about in order to
motivate them to take an action so if
you follow this four-step process
research and competitor positioning
finding custom and Persona pain points
identifying your positioning and
messaging and putting your positioning
into action your Brand's positioning
should be much clearer than it was
before and chances are much clearer than
most of your competitors of course this
process works best if you have a solid
customer Persona built out if you
haven't done that yet then check out
this video which shows you exactly how
to do it step by step thanks for
watching and subscribing and let us know
in the comments who's your favorite
brand based on their positioning until
next time see you soon