www – web – the great equalizer by content marketing

The web allows ‘small business Davids’ to compete with corporate Goliaths.

Your website is the most flexible and accountable content marketing weapon today. Usually the first thing that your prospects see and experience about your business, it is your most public face to the world, a showroom open every hour of every day.

  • The investment into your website is 100% measurable and hence accountable.
  • Your website is an interactive medium and a distribution channel that allows 1 : 1 personalization
In the case of a recession the use of the internet by consumers will only be accelerated as they will spend  more time at home. So remove the cobwebs from your website today!

Internet Advertising is still very underutilized.
A typical US consumer might spend 25% of their media consumption time on the Internet but a typical US advertiser spends only 7% of their communications budget on the web.

Web technology is more accessible than ever: Low Cost and Easy to Use, if you choose to DIY in-house and cheaper than ever to be outsourced to a third party web marketing agency. But be careful who you choose!

Design, Build, Promote, and Maintain to maximize results and make your website work as hard as you do to:
  • Provide visitors with a taste of your product or service
  • Tell visitors why they should buy from you and not your competitors
  • Collect information about your customers
  • Customize customer experience
  • Improve customer service and provide a vehicle for feedback
  • Generate sales leads
Brand Positioning in the Communication of 2 Websites

Brand Positioning in the Communication of 2 Websites


Take a look at the websites of 2 similar categories at different stages of maturity:

1. The General Home Services category and

2. A sub-segment of this category ‘Cleaning’

Their brand positioning are clearly shown through their design and content development.

The first is much more mature in terms of marketing communication. Its’ websites project a much more professional and corporate image.

The second is less professional and looks like it is a “small” business, which it is compared to the larger Head Office Marketing driven Franchise!

Brand Positioning Strategies

Brand Positioning Strategies

A Brand Positioning Statement, also known as a slogan or a strap line, is the creative interpretation of the Brand Promise or USP which we discussed earlier.

Brand (Positioning Statements) should be able to hold their position in the long run and ideally achieve the following 4 criteria:

  1. Differentiate the business (Communicate the USP)
  2. Provide a Creative (Campaignable and Sustainable) platform
  3. Benefits should be ideally expressed explicitly to the customer
  4. Provide support to the brand name

Even when designing a brand from scratch it is difficult to satisfy all 4 criteria, so meeting 3 for a new brand or even 2 during a re-brand is often a great result.

You need to communicate with:

  • Clarity
  • Consistency
  • Compression

to ‘cut through’ the clutter that is now prevalent in most service and product categories to consumers who are bombarded by more commercial messages than ever before!

So how do we do this?

Firstly we need to “own “own” a place in the consumer mind.
the easiest and most effective way of “owning a place in your customers’ and prospects’ minds is to focus on the things that matter. Most small and medium enterprises do not have the time or the money to be all things to all people, in fact neither do the very big companies, and when they try, they end up meaning nothing to anybody. 
The result is at best mediocrity.

Focus demands Sacrifice – To own something you need to give up something else. 

Focus on the particular type of buyer. Markets consist of buyers who differ in their:

  • Wants
  • Resources
  • Locations
  • Buying attitudes
  • Buying behaviours

Simplicity adds value, by adding a halo effect for other benefits:

  • Simple benefit (the most important promise) oriented word works best no matter how complex the product or market.
  • The word must be exclusive.
  • Avoid change, personalities don’t change, neither should your Brand.
  • Positioning takes years and people don’t really change.

Next we will illustrate the power of brand positioning and focus with some examples.

How 2 Players Effectively communicated their Brand Positioning


Here are 2 industries and examples how the different players have through focus have found their niche and then effectively communicated their brand positioning.

Examples of the segmentation and brand positioning in the car…


Examples of the segmentation and brand positioning in the car industry.

Positioning examples through segmentation in the car insurance…

Positioning examples through segmentation in the car insurance category.

Most of the builders don’t have a positioning statement…

Most of the builders don’t have a positioning statement and are missing out on a great opportunity to truly connect with their prospects as well as be able to develop creative and more effective communication.

There is always an opportunity to be the “first”…

There is always an opportunity to be the “first” through even more focus. At the same time one has to be careful to protect their brand name!

…and then you can focus some more!

…and then you can focus some more!