Fall 2007 Newsletter
Positioning: The Key to Successful Marketing
By: Erin MillsAll successful marketing can be traced back to one important marketing fundamental that’s often ignored or neglected: positioning. Positioning is what you communicate to your customers about why they should do business with you versus a competitor. It should be the foundation for creating all of your marketing communications and the deciding factor for a prospective customer in becoming an actual client. From taglines to Web site copy, e-mail marketing to newsletters, collateral to customer service calls – positioning should be behind everything you do.
Here are some guidelines on creating positioning that will help you generate powerful marketing for your company, product or service:
1. Write a simple Flat Statement that articulates who you are,
what you do, who you serve and what the benefits are of doing
business with you.
Think about defining what category your company is in. It’s also
helpful to think about this from your customers’ perspective. Then
think about who is in your target customer segment. This will allow
you to broadly define who you’re going after. Next, think about the
high-level benefits your company category (you and your
competitors) brings to your overall customer segment.
Example: Sandy’s Candy is a candy manufacturer that provides
educational institutions with fundraising opportunities.
2. Write a Positioning Statement(s) that highlights the factors that differentiate your company from the competition: The Positioning Statement further defines who the actual person or entity that is going to purchase your product or service is. It also defines the needs your customers have when they come to you as well as describes who your most direct competitors are. Lastly, it outlines the most valuable differentiators that make your company or solution the clear leader.
Example: For individual schoolteachers who want to bring in private funding for their classroom’s educational programs, Sandy’s Candy provides a variety of candy fundraising programs. Unlike other candy manufacturers who offer fundraising, Sandy’s Candy combines world-class candy with small-scale prepackaged fundraising programs that make it easy to bring in supplemental funds.
Once you’ve drafted a Flat Statement and Positioning Statement, it's important to run it by existing customers, employees, business colleagues or the person on the street for a reality check. If they can easily understand what you’re trying to say about your business, you’ve accomplished your goal!
After you’ve positioned your company, start reevaluating your marketing communications efforts to see if you’re clearly conveying who you are and why customers should select you. Try examining your Web site home page. If it doesn’t clearly state what you do and why you’re different, you’ll be able to use your new positioning to revise your Web site copy to articulate your business more concisely. You’d be surprised how many Web sites make it impossible to figure out what the company offers and what differentiates them from their competitors. Use your marketing positioning to ensure that your business stands out from the crowd!
For more insight on how you can effectively position your company, contact us at: info@thinkmktg.com.
As seen in Yahoo! Small Business Insights: Erin Mills covered the subject
of positioning in an article she wrote for the Yahoo! newsletter in August. Part
of a three part series, the next article will appear in January 2008.
DARREN’S DESIGN TIPS
Using Photography Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank
Choosing photography for your marketing communications materials is just as important as its overall
design. Many clients think professional photography must cost a fortune and it can be quite costly to hire a
good photographer, rent a studio and lighting and go through rounds of editing and touch-up. But, getting
p owerful images doesn’t always have to eat up your budget.
Did you know you can access extensive online libraries of professional photos for relatively reasonable prices? You can choose to purchase individual photos for a one-time fee or purchase a subscription license to access a library of photos. On behalf of one of our clients, we’ve even compiled a custom library of categorized stock photos which resulted in tremendous time and money savings for them. Here are some of our favorite stock photo resources:
www.gettyimages.com
www.corbis.com
www.jupiterimages.com
www.veer.com
Can Your Clients Find You?
By: Lucy Zee
Overlooking simple details like a phone number, Web site URL and e-mailaddress listing can make you hard to find.
Companies spend a lot of time and money creating brochures, flyers, sales kits and Web sites all in hopes of selling their products and attracting more customers. However, in the rush to get a collateral piece printed or to go live with a Web site after months of editing and getting the necessary approvals, simple things like the proper contact information can often get accidentally left off.
Recently, we were updating our
mailing lists and in trying to find
people who had moved to
other companies, we were
amazed at how many
businesses didn’t even list
basic information such as
mailing addresses or a
general phone number. This
got us thinking that if we had
such a difficult time contacting
these companies, how many
potential customers must
these businesses be losing
simply because their
marketing pieces don’t list
their contact information?
To see if your next customer can easily find you, here’s a quick checklist you can use to review your current marketing pieces:
- Contact information on all printed marketing materials (business cards, brochures, flyers, advertisements, newsletters) should include physical or mailing address, general phone number, e-mail and Web site address.
- “Contact Us” button on your company Web site should include the same contact information in addition to specific sales or customer service contacts.
- Outgoing e-mail signature block should also contain basic contact information.
- Complimentary directory listings such as trade and industry associations, white and yellow pages and even search engine results should be regularly checked and updated.
Editors Note: We’re always looking for new story ideas. Please let us know about particular subjects that you’d be interested in reading. We’d be happy to hear from you! Emi Harden emi@thinkmktg.com
