How to write a brand positioning statement

“Picture this: You’re preparing to launch your new product. You’ve likely spent countless hours, days, weeks, months, even years determining what sets the product apart from the competition and developing your brand identity.

But how can you ensure your marketing efforts are aligned with the brand?

Positioning.” – HubSpot https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/positioning-statement

One of the most important aspects of marketing is developing a positioning statement. A positioning statement is an intensely focused, exact message that you want to communicate to your audience about who you are and what you do. Some people call this their elevator pitch! It’s not as simple as saying “We sell footwear.” You need to say something like “We sell high-quality, fashionable footwear for men, women, and children at affordable prices.”

In this blog post we will teach you how to write a positioning statement so that people know exactly what it is that your company does! This is especially important if you’re a new brand or if you’re in the process of re-branding.

Let’s start with some common mistakes people make with brand positioning statements.

Statement Examples – Common Mistakes:

Mistake #1: Making your positioning statement too vague. For instance, “We’re a shoe company.” What type of shoes? Do you have any more specific information that would help potential customers identify with what you offer?”

Mistake # 2: Not having a clear goal for the positioning statement. You need to know what you want your customers to do. Do you want them to buy your shoes? Do you want them to become a reseller for your company?

Mistake #3: Too many keywords. You need just one or two key words that will help potential customers identify what it is that you do.

Now, let’s talk about how to write not just a good positioning statement but also an effective one…

How to write a positioning statement

Target Audience:

Part of defining your positioning statement includes identifying who your target market is. One of the best things you can do for your business is to clearly define who your potential customer is. This will help you tailor marketing and sales strategies specifically to that target market, resulting in better ROI. By defining your ideal customer you’re letting the rest of the population know who your business can help and who you’re not suited for. For example – SocialManas target market is medium-sized service based business owners in the United States.

Gain a clear understanding of who your customers are
“Writing an effective positioning statement is next to impossible without understanding your customers. Not sure what your customers need? Sending your customers surveys and looking at your support data is a good place to start.” – https://www.zendesk.com/blog/positioning-statement-examples/

Product and Service Offerings:

Now that you know exactly who your target market is it’s time to clearly identify what service or product consists of. Most businesses fail to define their products or services in a way that makes them stand out from the competition. This leads to lost sales, low conversion rates and unhappy customers. The solution is defining your product by its benefits rather than features. Decision making made easy.

For example, SocialManas own positioning statement provides:

• LEAD GENERATING STRATEGIES – Increase leads and sales by developing a comprehensive marketing strategy that works for your business.
• WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT – Let us design, build, and manage your website. We’ll help you get found online!
• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION – Get more traffic to your website with our SEO services! Our team of experts will create an SEO plan just for you.

Unique Value Proposition:

Lastly you need to be as concise as possible and clearly state what results your company does for its target market using key words. Or in other words what is your value proposition, innovative approach or unique selling proposition?

By pinpointing your customers pain points you can influence your target customers purchasing decision by highlighting the solutions to those problems.

Your customers are looking for benefits, so they can see how you’ll make their lives better in some way and why it should be them who gets to come into contact with you each day.

What this means is that when somebody walks through your door or clicks on one of those ads online advertising what does a company do? They’re making an investment in themselves financially because just like anything else marketing-wise if there’s no return coming back then people will stop investing time and money into whatever product or service being offered by that particular enterprise. Working your positioning statement into your mission statement is a strategy that has been used by Multi-Million Dollar companies.

For example our unique value proposition is, we increase the rate of leads and sales with high converting traffic finding your target customer by leveraging popular social media platforms with your brands messaging and services.

By adding your brand name into your positioning statement you’re establishing your brand identity and creating a connecting between your mission and your brands persona.

Positioning Statement Template

Who – Clearly state WHO your ideal customer is. Identify your target markets. Who is your buyer persona?

What – Clearly state WHAT problems your product or service solves for your target audience. What brings your customer satisfaction to the next level? What brings them the most value? What is the main benefit?

Why – Clearly state the positive difference between your business and your competition. What sets you apart from other brands? Add in your core values. Try to also work this into your mission statement.

Positioning Statements Examples

Nike – “At Nike, we’re committed to creating a better, more sustainable future for our people, planet, and communities through the power of sport.” Their target audience is athletes but their specific segment is not well defined.

Apple – “Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.” Their target audience is not well defined.

Alexa – “Alexa.com is a trusted source of insights into digital behavior that marketers use to help win their audience and accelerate growth. Subscribers to the Alexa Marketing Stack leverage rich competitor and audience insights that help them better understand their audience, discover opportunities for growth across multiple marketing channels, and manage the day-to-day workflows of planning, creating, optimizing, promoting, and measuring the effectiveness of their content marketing.” Their brand’s position is clearly defined, we can see exactly who their target audience is. This is a great example of a good positioning statement.

One common way is publishing your brands positioning statement on all marketing material like brochures and websites. Leverage this internal tool to its full advantage. Create blogs around your new brand promise. Publish press releases. Include your brand positioning in social media postings.

This will tell customers or clients what makes up your company identity and why they should buy from you instead of someone else. You might not think placement has an effect but if someone trusts where their product came from then chances are more likely for them to be willing to purchase with less questions asked about price or quality after seeing their trust verified by the name on top of the branding piece. Your brands voice and culture should be crystal clear in all of your marketing efforts.

Key Takeaways:

In order to maximize your brand’s potential, you need a well-written and persuasive strategy. Creating an effective brand positioning statement should be one of the first steps in that process!

A great way for businesses to get more customers or clients is by creating clear messages with strong strategies behind them. Each product or service your business provides can have it’s own unique product positioning statement.

A well-written and persuasive strategy is key to maximizing your brand’s potential. Creating an effective brand positioning statement should be one of the first steps in that process! If you’re not sure how to get started, we can help you create a plan tailored specifically for your business needs.

As a brand positioning agency, we can help you leverage your message to help you find more of your perfect customers.

Utilize your positioning statement into other forms of your content. Oftentimes business owners or social media managers struggle to find time and inspiration to create content for your social media, blog posts and emails. Learn more about our Social Media Marketing services here.

What Can A Marketing Agency Do For Your Business? Contact SocialManas Today.

SocialManas Digital Marketing Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency in Bethel, ME with over 20 years of experience. We specialize in social media management, website development and facebook advertising.