Whether you have an amazing product or a much-needed service, your business will not thrive unless and until you tell people about it. Marketing your business sometimes falls to the “I’ll do it when I get to it” or “I’ll hire someone when I have the extra cash” pile, but for many businesses and startups, it’s the one investment that must be made before you’re able to see anything else happen.

What’s In It for My Business?
Marketing communications in it’s simplest form revolves around the messages you deploy to communicate with your target audience – the people who most desire your product or service. Marketing communications has two primary objectives:

To create and sustain demandTo shorten the sales cycle

Positioning your product or service correctly in the market is the foundation for every type of outreach your company employs, including activities like advertising, direct marketing, branding, packaging, your online presence, sales presentations, and trade show appearances – basically anything that puts you in front of your customer.

Positioning Your Product or Service
Positioning and building your brand requires an understanding of five key elements of your product or service so that you can then communicate about it consistently across all mediums. This is also known as your value proposition – it’s what sets you apart from others in your space. The five elements are:

  1. What it is: The product/service definition
  2. Who it’s for: The target market
  3. What it does: The benefits of your offering
  4. What it means: The effect your product/service has on your buyer
  5. What’s in it for me: What motivates the consumer to buy

An effective marketing communications plan first serves to create the answers to these questions to enable a clear messaging path across everything you do. It’s your positioning statement, your unique value proposition, the way you set your business apart from others.

Building Your Positioning Statement
One simple way to think about it is how you answer the question, “What does your business do?” When you’re asked this question, what do you currently say? The five positioning statements above can guide you in your answer.

For example, 5280 Accelerator’s positioning statement has morphed over the 17 years we’ve been in business. In the beginning, we were strictly a consulting firm, but we’ve grown and expanded to provide value to businesses in a way that enables us to become our client’s “virtual marketing department”, handling all aspects of the marketing communications cycle. So, in answer to the question, what does 5280 Accelerator do, I use the five positioning statement elements:

5280 Accelerator is a boutique marketing firm. We work with small-to mid-size businesses to shorten their sales cycle through consistent and targeted marketing communications. When you work with us, it’s like pressing the marketing “easy button”. We work as your virtual marketing department so you can focus on growing your business.

Here’s how it’s broken out:

  1. What it is: 5280 is a boutique marketing firm.
  2. Who it’s for: We work with small-to mid-size businesses…
  3. What it does: …to shorten the sales cycle through consistent and targeting marketing communications.What it means: When you work with us, it’s like pressing the marketing “easy button”.
  4. What’s in it for me: We work as your virtual marketing department so you can focus on growing your business.

As you’re building your own positioning statement, consider looking at your current customer base to help shape it. If you are just building your customer base or wish to modify the type of customer you’re serving, think about it from the viewpoint of what you desire for your business.

If you need some help, give us a call. We do it all for you, or if you prefer to DIY, we offer strategic marketing intensive sessions to get you on the right track, or longer-term marketing coaching to keep you moving on a consistent path.