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The value of a brand can be found in many of its components such as its messaging, tone of voice, and how it helps its audience. When it comes to developing brand identity in today’s online space, there is a lot for digital marketers to consider. The most notable online brands are unique, value-driven masters of their craft—and the secret to their success often lies within their positioning.
Brand positioning can be defined as the metaphorical place your company aims to own in the mind of your target customer. In this post, we will be sharing a guide to brand positioning for digital marketers.
First, focus on building a consistent tone for your brand
There is a core message behind every brand name. In digital marketing, your competitive messaging is a key part of what makes your company unique. Developing a consistent brand tone and message starts with understanding what your brand name is trying to say to your audience.
For example, if your brand name is an adjective—such as Harmony or Energize—it more than likely translates to your brand language. Perhaps your business goal is to stimulate an interest in your industry (energize) or make certain tasks more pleasant and less stressful for your customers (harmony). Now, translate this to the services you provide and determine what your brand will accomplish for your customers.
A common misstep that companies don’t realize is the way they word the descriptions on their websites. Often, they’ll spend more time telling their audience what they do and not enough time showing how and why they do it. For instance, if your digital marketing company focuses on solutions for website optimization, let your audience know how this will benefit them and why this is something your company is passionate about.
Capitalize on what makes your brand stand out among competitors
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer that's researching multiple digital marketing companies and brands over the course of a week. Would you be interested in the services your providing? Sure, this may feel like a generic question, but how often do you really dig deep into what makes your brand stand out among your competitors?
To start, look at what other digital marketing companies are doing to promote their brand. How is their social media presence? Do they offer free demos for their services? The goal here isn’t to copy your competitors but rather capitalize on areas that they may be faltering in. If there’s something your competitors’ customers aren’t getting enough of, give your brand an opportunity to one-up the competition.
Here are a few examples of how you can promote your brand to stand out among your competitors:
- Develop a strong social presence to engage with your audience. Even if your company itself is small and hasn’t quite made a significant industry impact, your brand can still garner attention from social channels. This is especially beneficial to nurture existing customer relationships, which your competitors may be neglecting.
- Find a stand-out aspect of your services offering, and implement it into your brand message. In other words, capitalize on a single feature that your competitors don’t have and wouldn’t be able to offer. This may even be a unique philosophy your brand holds when compared to a more straightforward, sales-focused approach.
Narrow down your audience, and hone in on their pain points
When you begin writing your positioning statement, it will ultimately help you determine how well you understand not only your brand but your customers as well. If your digital marketing company hasn’t been using buyer personas, this is an excellent opportunity to do so. To start, you will need to properly define your target audience.
When determining your brand’s target audience, you’ll want to use relevant demographics (such as age range, industry, company size, and years of experience) to get a better understanding of whom you are selling to. If you overgeneralize, you’ll be spreading your brand reach too thin. As a result—instead of reaching a wider audience—no one will be able to figure out the core strengths of your brand. In other words, sometimes it’s best to not be a jack-of-all-trades.
As an exercise, put together a list of services and solutions your digital marketing company's brand provides to its customers. This may include content development, search engine optimization, creative strategies, and developing email marketing campaigns. Then, determine which personas have pain points related to those key areas. For instance, this could be a marketer that's struggling to qualify leads for their sales team, or a content marketing writer that's struggling to put a new campaign together. Focusing on your audience's needs, and offering the most relevant solutions to meet those needs, is an important part of brand positioning for digital marketing.
With these tips in mind, your digital marketing company is now on the right track to develop its brand positioning. For more insights from thinkdm2, you can follow us on LinkedIn or subscribe to our blog. Thinkdm2 is a New Jersey digital marketing and branding agency that specializes in brand development for businesses in the SaaS, IoT, and Design Services industry. If your company is looking for additional strategies for brand positioning, you can contact us for more information.
