11 Positioning and Branding Tools

She encourages you to make this year, your best year ever. She can help you clearly define your vision and develop a strategic action plan to make that vision a reality. She will empower you to cut through the clutter that is blocking your success. Encourage you to take bold, focused action to progress towards your vision. Inspire you by helping you see the magic inside of you. Hold you accountable to stop settling for results that don’t thrill you. Embrace your creativity and have fun. Train you on tools, strategies and systems that will enable you to double your income and have FUN.

One of the challenges many online entrepreneurs and advice professionals are facing is how to differentiate themselves from all the others in the market place. They don’t know how to show the world and especially their potential customers what makes them unique. This was one of the main challenges I faced when I started my first consultancy practice. I tried to use the same marketing message for every niche that I operated in, and needless to say – it didn’t work.
So I studied several other successful professionals in the industry and how they do it and I realized that they used different marketing messages for different niches.

We all have MANY different stories, life experiences and knowledge that will appeal to different people in different ways – right? So depending on the niche that you are addressing, you have to write your marketing message accordingly. And the more of these elements you include, the more WOW your marketing will be to your potential customers in that niche.
Tools to keep in mind when developing your message:

1. Title: Especially in Western societies, your title is still important. So if you are a doctor, VP, Professor, CEO, author, creator, chair person etc, then explicitly use that in your marketing message to position yourself.
   
   
2. Perspective: Your perspective is important because it can help your potential customers to gain clarity about their situation. We all know that clarity about your business, life or health is essential to confidently move forward in the direction of your goals. Your perspective in helping your audience gain clarity is what makes them follow and do business with you.
   
   
3. Results: Including examples of your own or your customer’s successes as a result of your product and service is powerful because it shows people that your products/services have been tried and tested before. Generally people don’t like to take risks, so reading or hearing about the results that have already been achieved with your product or services, helps to minimize the perceived risk. Keep in mind though that you can and should never guarantee specific results. There is a difference between sharing your own and client results and guaranteeing that your product/service will help anyone achieve specific results. Keep your marketing message ethical.
   
   
4. Testimonials: This helps to build your potential customers self-confidence that they will also be able to achieve results with your product or service. One of the main reasons why people won’t buy your products or services is because they don’t believe that they can do it. So if they read about how other ordinary people just like them have achieved results, they think “well if that person can do it, so can I”
   
   
5. Lessons learned: Sharing with your prospects how you struggled and figured stuff out helps them to relate to you and it helps you to build report with them. If you just boast about how fantastic you are, chances are that people won’t be able to relate to you. But if you share your story of struggle and it is in an area that people value, it helps them to relate to you.
   
   
6. Popularity: If you are the author of a bestselling book, or most watched video on YouTube or you have some other form of popularity, then use that explicitly in your marketing message. People pay attention to popularity. It is a powerful tool to use.
   
   
7. Customers: Mentioning who your customers are is another powerful tool to include in your marketing message; especially if it’s well known people or brands. Obviously you have to keep confidentiality in mind and check with your customers first whether they’re okay with you mentioning them. Then if they’re okay with it – you could put their logos on your website. Or if they are celebrities or other well known people, you could put pictures of yourself with them on your website or other marketing materials.
   
   
8. Media: If you are doing radio shows or TV shows or articles in magazines, then you can use that to position yourself and develop your marketing message. A friend of mine met a (at that time unknown) radio personality a few of years ago. The radio show was new and unknown and my friend wasn’t well known either. So this radio personality invited him to do a live broadcast one morning. And people loved it, so he was invited back again and again. And now, the radio show is one of the most popular in his country and he is one of the most popular guests on the show. And it is amazing what it has done for his business in terms of positioning himself. Not only is he regularly invited by different shows to be a guest speaker, but he is also invited country wide to do speeches at live events.This proves the point that you don’t need to be famous, to start embracing media as a potential positioning tool. There are many countries that have community TV and radio channels and they are always looking for people who have good, inspiring and uplifting content that they want to share with their viewers or listeners. So all you have to do is to figure out whether there is such a channel in your country, find out what type of information they are looking for and give it to them.
   
   
9. Partnerships: This is not only one of the best ways of building your business but it is also very effective in positioning yourself, because this is where you have other people promoting your products to their customers and vice versa. So your footprint becomes much bigger. Obviously you have to be strategic about the people or organizations you partner with and you have to ensure that they offer complementary products and services that serve your customers. But once you have established effective partnerships, it is a very powerful tool to include in your marketing message. Personally I prefer selected networking and life events to meet and find potential partners or affiliates, but you can also go to Clickbank, DealGuardian, Jvzoo or Zaxaa etc. which are online market places.
   
   
10. Philosophy: Sharing your philosophy about how you see the world, business, life humanity etc is another strong way of positioning yourself. It tells your audience what you find important and how you approach it. My philosophy for instance is that I believe that we all have a unique gift that can serve others and it is selfish not to share it. And that if you want to be successful in business; you need to adopt a no-excuses-no-nonsense focused approach. You’ve got to be bold and charge ahead towards your vision, but always with integrity and respect for others. Not everyone will always share your sentiments. But explicitly communicating it helps you to attract the right crowd. It’s just so much more energizing to work with people who are on the same page than you are than with people with completely different ideas and values.
    
    
11. Products: Finally, if you have products, it is amazing what it does for your positioning. For example, if you’ve written a book or developed another great product, people assume that you are a specialist in that area. So mention it explicitly when writing your marketing message.

It goes without saying that the more of these tools you are able to use in your marketing, the more compelling and powerful your message will be and the more effective you will be in attracting your ideal customers.

And just like me, I’m sure that many of you won’t have ALL of these elements, but keep them in mind as you develop your business and yourself, so that you can include them in your marketing when you have them.
I hope you found this post valuable.

I would love to hear your questions, comments and perspectives. So please comment on this post here or on my Facebook page.
To your success!!

Marja Botha van Doorn

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