Having a great product or service simply doesn’t cut the mustard. In today’s crowded market place, you need to be known for something specific. 

Many companies, especially in the tech sector, struggle with defining their market positioning and standing out from their competition in a way that really makes an impact. Without this clear positioning, even the best tech products risk getting lost amongst the noise.

In my book, Scaling for Success: How to Build a Brand That Breaks Barriers, I explore why market positioning is crucial for sustainable growth and how technology companies can differentiate themselves. Whether you’re an early-stage startup or an established brand looking to scale, this section offers practical steps to carve out your unique space in the market and attract the right audience. Keep reading to learn more.

Why Defining Your Market Positioning is Important 

I spend a lot of my time networking and building relationships, so I meet many, many brands. One of the first questions I always ask is,

“What do you do?” As a result, I have heard a lot of positioning statements. How people explain what they do tells me a lot about how well a brand understands its positioning.

The conversation often goes like this:

“What do you do?”

“We’re a full-service digital marketing agency working across all industries.”

Or

“We’re a technology provider that offers comprehensive, industry-agnostic solutions.”

These answers are problematic for many reasons. First of all, unless you have a massive team, big marketing budgets, and established reach, it’s highly unlikely that you cover all services or solutions equally well. It’s also unlikely that you’ve worked across all industries and if you do, that you understand all industries.

It’s also problematic because it doesn’t help me understand how to help you. It’s estimated that the average adult makes around 35,000 decisions every day. To make so many decisions, we need to compartmentalise, which helps us store information, understand how to react, and make these decisions without becoming overwhelmed.

This basic element of human psychology explains the need for clear positioning.

If your brand doesn’t clearly fit into a category, it will be much harder for people to process and remember you later on.

Putting yourself in your potential client’s shoes, and imaging how they might approach you, can be key.

When approached by your firm, clients will be asking themselves: Whom do I introduce you to? What opportunities would be right for you? Where do you really excel, and where can I rely on you to deliver expertise?

So, while being a generalist may seem like it would create more opportunities, this isn’t entirely true. It ultimately creates confusing messaging which can make it almost impossible for anyone, even those with the best intentions, to actually help you.

Standing Out From the Competition

Having a strong position is even more important in oversaturated industries, especially if you offer similar products or services. For example, open banking companies often have this problem as open banking solutions are largely the same, and standing out requires developing a strong proposition.

Begin by looking at the competitive landscape. What do you do that your competitors don’t? How do they describe their product or solutions and how can you position your company as different? Is there a certain industry or vertical that you can champion to narrow down the competition?

Identifying a unique advantage that’s easy to communicate in one or two sentences will make a massive difference when operating within an overly saturated market.

How to Develop Your Positioning

So, now that you understand the value of having clear positioning, how exactly do you develop your positioning? Where do you begin?

Keep. It. Simple.

When defining your positioning, it’s always best to start with one question:

If you could be known for one thing, what would it be?

Or, in other words, where can you sink your flag and really claim it as yours? What do you do better than anyone else, and why should your customers choose you?

When I decided to narrow our focus to the technology industry, I did this by looking at what we did very well and where my personal expertise lay. During my master’s programme in modern literature at UCL, I loved diving into more technical concepts and once wrote an essay on complex theories of time in Alice in Wonderland and the riddles Lewis Carrol hid in the text.

So, when working as a freelance copywriter, I naturally embraced some of the more complex subjects and built the early days of my career at the desk of Scottish Widows.

Having come from a more technical background, I understood the need for good copy in these industries and also knew it was something others really struggled to deliver. It was the one thing we could be known for, and it continues to shape my company today. ( this is all so cringe can we cut it?)

I’ve seen firsthand the benefits of focusing on one key strength and, as such, am a big believer in doing one thing really well. It allows you to simplify your messaging and to make it clear what you do and for whom. Of course, as you grow, you can expand your core focus and extend your capabilities. But remember, the more you want to be known for, the more you’ll need to invest to build brand awareness and market credibility around this capability.

Conduct Market Research

While you could choose a niche or market segment that’s already popular or oversaturated, it’ll be much harder. Now, if you have an unlimited marketing budget and resources, you might be able to compete with those already dominating the space.

But, if, like most brands, you don’t have deep pockets or unlimited resources, you’ll want to find a market segment that isn’t already saturated. Given the current markets in the US and UK, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll offer a truly unique solution and not have any competitors.

Once you have identified target markets, conduct research into who else already works in these industries. Whom will you be competing against? Do they already have strong brands? What can you offer that they don’t? How will you stand out?

When I defined CopyHouse’s focus on the technology industry, I  started by conducting market research on who was already in the field. At the time, there weren’t many agencies that were delivering content for the technology industry, which gave us a good opportunity to stand out.

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We were also hearing from clients and prospects who were struggling to find providers who could create content on complex topics like blockchain, NFTs, metaverse, etc. You can’t just wake up and write about blockchain so having clear expertise and an existing understanding of these industries allowed us to quickly get up to speed with new clients and also deliver the quality of content they were looking for.

Not only do you need to identify the one thing you do better than anyone else, but also how can you stand out against those already dominating in that space.

Identify Your Target Audience

Now that you’ve identified that you don’t sell to everyone, the next step is to identify whom you do sell to. One way to do this is to look at who you currently work with or, in other words, where you already have case studies.

It’s sensible to start with industries and audiences where you already have case studies, as building credibility in an entirely new industry is a lot harder and will definitely take longer. However that’s not to say that it’s impossible  if you’re building from scratch or really feel it’s essential to pursue a new space

Start by mapping out the industries of your current clients. Where do you have the most clients? Do these industries have a role to play in your company’s future? Can you leverage your past experiences and customer testimonials to attract more clients in these industries?

With CopyHouse, I saw that we already did a lot of work within the technology industry. Due to the pandemic, our clients in other industries, like travel and recruitment, had been wiped out, which, perhaps fortunately, allowed me to clearly see where we had strong case studies and examples we could leverage to attract more clients within the tech space.

Your Positioning Can Change Over Time, And As You Do

Many companies are intimidated or overwhelmed by creating a clear positioning statement because they think that once defined, it’ll be set in stone. What if they want or need to pivot later down the line? Wouldn’t this limit their ability to do so? 

However, this isn’t entirely true. While it can certainly be difficult to switch tracks, the level of difficulty will depend on the extent of the changes. Typically speaking,  your positioning can, will, and should evolve as your company does.  

I often meet companies that haven’t looked at their messaging for years or decades. They may have set their positioning and all the surrounding messaging at the beginning of the company’s establishment and then parked it in a drawer to gather dust. As a result, it no longer fits them and isn’t fit for purpose. 

Instead, I recommend continually reviewing your positioning and messaging to ensure that they still reflect your company and your goals.