That’s unfair, isn’t it?
You are a master of your trade, regularly publish blog articles, podcast episodes or videos, do your best when it comes to keywords, headlines and SEO … and get: zero reaction.
It couldn’t be more frustrating.
You gave content marketing a real chance. You have familiarised yourself with the topic and started. Content hubs are springing up like mushrooms – you wanted to keep up.
But that is precisely where the mistake lies buried.
Doing without a plan is unsuccessful.
Hopping on a moving train may take you a little further, but not necessarily where you want to go. So before you start creating content, you should make a few strategic thoughts.
Have you ever looked at what topics your competitors publish? Do you write about all relevant topics that occur to you, or do you select? Do you know the core problems of your customers?
“The number one reason no one is interested in your content is your lack of attitude.”
You swim with the crowd and haven’t wasted a thought on what makes you unique. What point of view do you stand out from.
What you are missing is precise positioning.
A goldfish’s attention span of 9 seconds is now way ahead of us. According to the latest study results, we are hit by more than 1,000 (or even 6,000) advertising influences every day. As a result, we only use 2.6 seconds to rate a website and decide for or against it.
You know it from yourself. When you’re looking for an answer on Google, you skim the search results on the first page. You click on the article that promises something different from everyone else. You either expect him to be more specific to your problem, to provide more information, or to take a different approach that you have not yet considered.
You are looking for relevant results on the subject of inbound marketing. You scan the search results, click your way through supposedly helpful articles and finally land on davidreyero.es.
‘‘Just somehow everything is different.’’
And that’s exactly what it’s all about. To scrutinise the results of others. To think about what makes your own company unique. And to adapt precisely to the problems of the target group.
Before I show you how to find unique positioning for your content, let’s look at what that is.
What is positioning anyway?
A positioning describes in one sentence your strength or the strength of your product or service based on your target group and differentiated from your competitors.
‘‘In short: what you do, for whom and with what difference.’’
In other words, with positioning, you take a position. You set yourself apart from standard practices in your industry. You emphasise your individuality and connect it with the greatest needs of your target group, and that takes courage.
It’s tempting to do what everyone else is doing, just a little bit differently. But you don’t attract attention. This makes your content one of many. And is not consumed by anyone.
Positioning means carefully inspecting your surroundings, knowing your own identity down to the last detail and bringing out the relevant features.
What are the advantages of a clear positioning?
1. Your content is noticed
When you have found a place that is yours alone and where you can show what you can do, you have conquered a niche for yourself with your positioning. This is where your content gets the attention that nobody is paying it at the moment.
2. Your content will be found more easily
As soon as you combine your most significant strength with the most urgent need of your target group, you present yourself as a tailor-made solution. With a targeted positioning, you will appear much more often in the search results of your potential customers.
3. Your content will be remembered
One side that stands out from all others in a beneficial way stays in the memory. If your content is out of line in style and tone, it will get stuck in your target group’s mind. With the help of the positioning, you will find the right differentiator.
4. Your content strengthens your brand
With a precise positioning, your content automatically pays for your brand. You use your content and your language to express your brand’s identity. Together with the right appearance, your external appearance looks like a single piece for your target group – and creates trust.
5. Your content leads to the goal
With the help of your preliminary strategic considerations, you deal with your desired customer and emphasise strengths that are relevant to you. This means that you automatically define a clear goal with your positioning and align your content accordingly. Unplanned results are a thing of the past.
How do you find a perfect positioning?
For consumer-worthy content, you are looking for the interface between you, your customer and your competitors. In other words: Which of your greatest strengths solve the most critical problem of your target group and are the furthest removed from the competence of your competitors? From this, you create your content.
As simple as it sounds, the answer to the positioning question is tricky. That is why we break it down into three parts:
1. What do you do best?
Start with you and your personality. Write down everything you can think of. Perhaps you would like to create a mind map to help structure or note individual bullet points on post-its. Here are a few questions to help:
- Which of your activities are incredibly easy for you to do?
- In which area do you keep getting asked for advice?
- What skills do you use to achieve the best results with your customers?
- In which direction would you like to develop?
- What topic are you passionate about talking about?
2. What do your prospects and customers need?
This part of the question assumes that you already know the customer of your choice. You have thought about who suits your business best, who achieves the best results with the help of your work and who is happy to pay you for your performance.
As soon as you have a clear picture of your persona in front of your eyes, you start to ask her (yes, I mean in real! Pick up the phone, meet up at a coffee shop or email her):
- What are your biggest challenges when it comes to xy?
- Why are these things such a significant obstacle to you?
- In what ways have you already tried to solve the issue
- What stumbling blocks did you encounter?
- What is frustrating you? At what point are you stuck?
- What result would you like to achieve
3. What are your competitors doing really well?
Even if I generally advise against engaging in the competition – in this case, it is essential to take a look at your surroundings.
Try to get a rough idea of the competitive situation. Write down a few bullet points for each competitor about their strengths. And its weak points. These may give you essential tips for your positioning. Here are a few questions to help:
- What message does your competitor use directly on the homepage of their website?
- Which subject areas does he specialize in?
- What is his most important field of competence of him?
- What is he particularly good at?
- Where do you see gaps?
- For which content on his social media channels does he get a lot of reactions?
- Which industry does he originally come from?
- Where did he do his apprenticeship, study, work, and further education?
4. Summarize
Now is the time to sort the results. Map all three subject areas as clearly as possible to be able to filter out interfaces. What are the opportunities for unique content?
Try to find various combinations and see which ones work best. Here again is the positioning question for orientation:
‘‘Which of your greatest strengths solve the most important problem of your target group and are furthest removed from the competence of your competitors?’’
Formulate the answer in one or two crisp sentences.
An example of a pointed positioning
Let’s imagine a personal trainer. Its positioning could be:
“I offer an effective one-hour training program for executives who want to work out and keep fit after a long day of business. Other personal trainers score with targeted muscle building in the abdomen, back and upper arms – I, on the other hand, focus on balancing mental stress and do everything I can to ensure that my client goes home relaxed after an hour. “
Let’s take a closer look at that. What is the great strength of the personal trainer?
In the clever combination of sport and mental balance. He does not deliver a classic fitness program, but uses his knowledge of stress prevention for a holistic training concept.
What does his customer absolutely need?
They offer a very well thought-out program to build various muscle groups. In this way, they prevent damage to health and visually bring the body into shape. And here is the weak point. Focusing on an outcome can create additional stress.
What are the personal trainer’s competitors doing really well?
A short and crisp fitness program that frees your head from the stressful working day and keeps you fit. After exercising, he wants to feel good and stop worrying about everyday problems.
What are the personal trainer’s competitors doing really well?
They offer a very well thought-out program to build various muscle groups. In this way, they prevent damage to health and visually bring the body into shape. And here is the weak point. Focusing on an outcome can create additional stress.
What does that mean for the content of the personal trainer?
He has a clear differentiator. He is not trying to rank himself among the recommendations of magazines, coworkers, and gyms for the most effective abs exercise. Instead, it deals with mental balance, stress reduction, burn-out, alternative forms of training, effectiveness and so on and so forth.
You see: its content is based on a well thought-out positioning. And will get the attention of executives who feel beaten and are looking for a balance to everyday work. Goal achieved.
The 3 most common positioning errors
In order for your content to get the attention you want, there are three things you should absolutely avoid.
1. Your content doesn’t care
You have found out which of your strengths none of your competitors can match. Excellent! But what good is that for you if nobody needs what you have to offer? Make sure that you compare your subject area with the needs of your target group.
2. You are not an expert
Unfortunately a very common mistake. You have looked for a niche and are addressing an important problem for your customers with your content. No competitor offers this as you do. But: the topic is not for you. It’s miles away from your passion. Fatal for you because you torment yourself with content that you don’t enjoy at all. Fatal for your content because the spark doesn’t really jump over. How then?
3. You do the same thing as everyone else
You create content on a topic that really suits you. You can come up with umpteen ideas and philosophize about them for hours. Crazy that it also hits the nerve of your target group. You have a problem – you have the solution. The crux of the matter: There are competitors around you who are all doing the same thing. You pick off each other’s customers and if you are honest: the market is completely flooded.
Conclusions
Only when your strengths meet your customers’ problems and clearly differentiate yourself from the competition will you record desirable visitor numbers. A clear positioning is the prerequisite for attractive content.
So it is worthwhile if you take time for strategic thoughts from time to time and check again and again:
- What you unique makes
- What your customers need
- What your competitors are doing
Share other examples or other trends in the comments to spark new ideas on others and like/share if you enjoyed this article.