Blog

In the oversaturated digital marketplace, having a great product or service just isn’t enough to stand out. You need to find a way to be memorable. That’s where positioning comes in for your business. Positioning is the process of defining your business's unique traits and identity that resonate with your clientele. It's about subtly influencing your target audience to set you apart from your competitors.

How do your customers feel about your brand when they see your logo, hear your jingle, or view your services? When done well, positioning can give your brand instant recognition and build customer loyalty. That is a powerful competitive advantage.

Start building your competitive advantage with our Brand Strategy Guide

Four Steps to Position Your Brand

Before we get into positioning strategy, consider the following:

1. Who is your ideal client?
2. What primary problem do you solve for them?
3. What specific benefits do they receive from your solution?
4. What do you do that your competitors can’t or won’t?

Your answers to these will form the core of your positioning and guide your marketing efforts in a way that matches your brand identity and resonates with your clients.

Step 1: Defining Your Ideal Client

Too many businesses try to be something they aren’t and focus on their features. They lose memorable details because they aren’t appealing to their ideal client or niche. Create a detailed ideal persona of who you want to serve. It’s less about their demographics and more about their goals, pain points, and desires.

Move beyond the demographics: Don’t get bogged down with age and location. Focus on their aspirations, professional background, or challenges they face daily.

The desired outcome: Consider who your clients will become once they've reached the peak of their journey. Your positioning should highlight that transformation — not just the service you provide, but the future state where their goals have been achieved. By painting this vision, you move beyond selling a service to offering a road to success. This approach builds a powerful emotional connection between your brand and their aspirations.

Step 2: What’s the Problem that You Solve?

Every business exists to solve a problem through its goods or services. What is the single most pressing issue you address for your ideal client? You may be able to list countless features and offerings, yet the key is to identify which delivers the greatest impact and the solution that relieves their biggest pain point or removes the barrier holding them back the most.

Listen to your clientele: Get feedback, then get more of it. The best way to position is to learn where you already are. What made them choose you and what challenge did they seek your help to tackle?

Focus on those pain points: The problem you solve should speak directly to the pain point or at least a significant obstacle between the client and their goals. A custom website design company doesn’t just “write code”; it “delivers custom experiences while keeping it secure”.

Step 3: Communicating your Benefits

This step is where a lot of companies fall flat on their face. They list the features and specifications instead of tangible benefits. Think of the average person shopping for a Wi-Fi router. Listing “1.8 gigabits per second speed” and "dual-band technology” is confusing and lost on most people. Instead, try reframing benefits in terms of their outcomes.

• Feature: A Wi-Fi router has “dual-band technology”.
• Benefit: This router is so fast and reliable that your family of five can all stream from different rooms at the same time without any buffering.

Your benefits should directly relate to the desired outcome of your ideal client persona. Here is a list of possible benefits to drive interaction.

• Saving time or effort
• Making money or increasing profit
• Escaping pain or reducing stress
• Increasing social status or recognition

Step 4: Uncovering Your Unique Value

What do you offer that your competitors either can’t or are unwilling to accommodate? This is where you find what makes your services truly unique. This step requires an honest look at the competition. Brainstorm everything they don’t do, whether it’s a specific service, a level of customer support, a communication style, or a unique process.

Find your opportunities: Your unique value lies at an intersection of what you do exceptionally well, what your client needs, and what your competitors fail to deliver.

Refine your brand: This unique value is the new foundation for everything else. It should inform your brand marketing, communication style, customer service, and entire strategy moving forward. This is the magic element that truly sets you apart from and makes you irreplaceable to your customers.

Crafting A Simple Positioning Statement

Once you’ve answered these four questions, you can combine them into a clear, concise statement to position your brand. This powerful internal tool ensures everyone in your company is aligned with the brand's identity.

Formula:

• [Company Name] is a [product/service category] that helps [ideal client] solve their [pain points] so they can [achieve a desired outcome].

Example:

• PortoSpire is a website developer that builds brand stories, provides customer solutions, and security patching so clients can focus on growing their business without stress.

By completing this exercise to refine your company’s position, you’re not just creating a marketing message but building a solid foundation for sustainable growth and long-term success.