The podcast host immediately pounces on my off-the-cuff assertion that you need to be ruthless when you do positioning. “That sounds very bloody,” says Kerry O’Shea Gorgone, host of the MarketingProfs podcast series “Marketing Smarts.”
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A simple approach puts you on the fast track to positioning success
Note to the reader: This was written to complement an AIPMM webcast series: Positioning simplified. The fast track to positioning success
A positioning process that builds consensus
One of the most important goals of the positioning process I teach is to foster buy-in and consensus to the message strategy you create. You can achieve buy-in and consensus by involving as many stakeholders as is practical throughout the process and getting management approval at the end.
Classic example of how to do nurture marketing right
The “Back to School” issue of “Pragmatic Marketer” is a classic example of nurture marketing at its best. The quarterly magazine put out by Pragmatic Marketing is jam packed with articles that B2B product managers, product marketers and marketers will not just want to read, but identify takeaways they can put into action immediately.
Mostly ineffective positioning on display from midmarket accounting/ERP vendors
Even the most obvious position is effective when it is executed consistently and repetitively in all marketing communications. It should be the theme for everything you do in marketing. Yet a compelling position stated once or twice on your website doesn’t move the needle in your effort to claim a position.
Why differentiate, and how to do it
If you need to be convinced that differentiation is critical to effective marketing, or you’re convinced but don’t know how to do it, read on.
Three financial reporting vendors fail to prove their transformational claim in latest positioning evaluation
The claim you make in your positioning statement needs to be substantiated otherwise it is a meaningless claim. Of course a claim that has no basis in fact is impossible to prove, as evidenced by three vendors who sell financial reporting and consolidations software, a market Gartner now calls “Cloud Financial Corporate Performance Management Solutions.”
A formal positioning process saves time so you can do more
If your marketing department is like most, there’s not enough time in the day to do everything on the “todo” list. One reason for this inefficiency is that a lot of time is devoted to figuring out what to say every time you initiate a marketing campaign or activity.
Do buyers care that Oracle has more enterprise cloud applications than anyone?
At first blush Oracle appears to be doing a fine job of executing the position that it has “more enterprise cloud applications than anyone.” It is the theme for a currently-running TV ad campaign, and when Oracle president Mark Hurd was asked by CNBC Thursday what sets Oracle apart of the competition, Hurd responded that we have “more enterprise cloud applications than anyone.”
Get rid of the “silo effect” to save time and money
Imagine a new marketing campaign in which you focused your efforts on ensuring creative execution of your message strategy rather than spending time figuring out what to say, and then even more time explaining what you want the writer to write.
How to eliminate the “silo effect” and start claiming a position you can own
The “silo effect” is when each marketing collateral piece seems to be envisioned and created in isolation. There is no continuity and consistency in the message to the market. Every marketing piece is a one-off which is no way to do positioning.
Not much differentiation in the BI market
Many Business Intelligence (BI) software marketers would be well served to read “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.” Most are doing exactly what Ries and Trout identified as a problem way back in 1981 when the book was first published:
How long should you stick with your positioning? When should you change it?
Once you have found the ideal positioning for your company or offering, you should stick with it for an extended period – at least 18 months and the longer the better – several years; perhaps forever. That’s because consistency and repetition are the keys to claiming a position in your market and giving it staying power.
Health check tells you how effective your positioning really is
Based on the results from the survey I’m conducting, B2B software and technology marketers desperately need a realistic way to self-assess their positioning effectiveness. That’s because 69% of respondents (137) think they are doing a good job of positioning, but the evidence suggests many are kidding themselves.
Why isn’t positioning and messaging taught in college?
Seventy percent of the respondents to the survey I am conducting say positioning is the most important aspect of marketing, yet only seven out of 132 respondents learned how to do positioning in college. It makes me wonder whether college marketing departments are in touch with the real world.
All marketing should be based on your message strategy
You need a strong foundation to effectively market your B2B software or technology product. That foundation is your message strategy. Everything you do in marketing should be built upon it.
Can the transformational talk please stop!
I don’t think B2B technology marketers have any idea what a true transformation is. Transformation means to change from one form to another. Caitlyn Jenner is a good example of a transformation. With Caitlyn in mind, how many businesses turn into something totally different? One in one hundred, maybe. And how many B2B software companies are truly changing the way their customers do business? None.
Connect with buyers by telling them a good story
I make a living helping B2B software companies position effectively, but I recently sent an e-mail to a prospect telling him to hire a good writer rather than me. While the prospect’s position wasn’t very compelling, the writing was terrible. The prospect needed a quick fix, not a several month positioning project. I felt a good writer would give the prospect time to do positioning right.
In the blink of an eye, BI vendors change their position
In less than a year, eight vendors in the Business Intelligence (BI) market have changed their position, and only Qlik and Panorama took steps in the right direction. Everyone else including SAP, IBM, MicroStrategy, Microsoft and SAS back peddled in their effort to claim a position in the BI market.
Don’t just make a marketing claim. Prove it!
I often tell my B2B clients that they need to prove any claim they make. That’s partially because I’m a journalist by trade, and believe it or not, journalists don’t last long if they write stories that lack the facts.