How to Differentiate Your Digital Presence

Like the child in "The Sixth Sense" who sees dead people, I see suboptimal digital experiences everywhere. I can't visit a website without spotting areas for improvement. Every site has room for optimization. The biggest mistake? Looking to competitors for inspiration. Imagine you're Under Armour. It's tempting to mimic Nike's website strategy. They're the industry giant, after all. But this approach is flawed. By copying competitors, you risk losing your unique value proposition. The very reason customers choose you over others. This leads to a "sea of sameness" in digital experiences. You might inadvertently replicate a feature that's still in A/B testing, not knowing if it even works. Don't misunderstand - awareness of industry trends is important. But optimization should be driven by your specific customers' needs and challenges. That's where you'll find the most impactful improvements. Focus on addressing the pain points unique to your audience. Remember, what works for your competitors may not work for you. Your digital experience should reflect your brand's distinct identity and value. Innovate based on your users' feedback, not blindly following industry leaders.

Differentiation – we all know we need it…yet most struggle to achieve it. To help sharpen your brand’s positioning and carve out a unique piece of the market, I put together this sheet with 6 models focused on differentiation. I’ve written longer posts about all of these but together they create a handy checklist on ways to create more separation from the competition. Here’s a quick TL;DR on each one: 1️⃣ Avoid positioning blur It’s easy (and very common) to skew too far into higher level benefits shared with competitors. Keep your focus specific to avoid rippling out and blurring together. 2️⃣ Build around the pillars If you ever lose sight of your unique value, come back to the fundamentals – who you serve (customers), where you separate (competition), and what you deliver (offering). 3️⃣ Find latent differentiation Leading with table stakes value might be pushing some of your brand’s highlight points out of sight – reprioritize and bubble them back up. 4️⃣ Know where you win Positioning isn’t about better or worse – it’s about difference and fit. Understand where your competitors win to draw contrast from them and show where you win. 5️⃣ Focus on separation Give your ICP a succinct way to understand and remember you. Focus on the 2-3 points where you provide the highest level of value with the most separation from competitors. 6️⃣ Match your maturity Market leaders have the luxury of brand equity which allows them to focus on broad, expected value. For startups it’s the opposite – emphasize differentiation above all else. Creating meaningful differentiation takes work...but in these wildly crowded markets it’s critical to survival. Spend some time checking your brand against these 6 models and you’ll hopefully spot some opportunities to sharpen that positioning knife and slice off a bigger piece of the market for your brand. 🔪🔥 #positioning #differentiation #competition

The deeper I get in the B2B messaging trenches, the more beliefs I leave behind. 50+ clients in, here’s what I’ve changed my mind about: 1. The real unlock for messaging memorability isn’t clarity, it’s contrast. Clarity makes you understood. Contrast makes you remembered. 2. Contrast without clarity is noise. And clarity without contrast is invisible. 3. Most homepages don’t confuse buyers. They bore them. And boring doesn't lose because it's unclear. It loses because it’s forgettable. 4. Bad copy is a direct consequence of weak messaging. If your messaging is muddy, your copy can’t do its job—no matter how clear the words are. 5. Most messaging problems are about choices that never got made. Everyone gave input. No one made a call. Messaging is decision-making. 6. The big opportunity in B2B is boldness. 90% of companies play in the safe middle. And safe gets scrolled by. To stand out, you need to stand for something. 7. Explaining what you do isn't enough. You have to make the right people feel like you’re their only option. Your ideal buyers need a lifeline. 8. Great homepages consistently scream: "This is for people like YOU, dealing with exactly THIS."  9. Real differentiation takes guts. It’s not just what you do, it’s what you dare to say that your competitors won’t. 10. Great homepages don’t flatter, they filter. To nail your messaging and turn it into a homepage that clicks, you must do 3 things: First, break down, clarify and prioritize your essential messaging attributes—what you are, who you’re for, what you help them with, how, why they should trust you, and what makes you different. Then, turn them into a buyer-centric story. You do that by mapping each attribute to what your buyer actually cares about: their goals, frustrations, trigger events, and decision criteria— connecting the dots in a clear, structured narrative that builds relevance, desire, and trust as they scroll. Finally, mold these attributes and story into a cohesive homepage that unfolds them in a logical order. (And if you need help to massively upgrade your homepage, book a call with me and we'll map out how to fix it.)

Most startups make this mistake with their messaging… Describing your differentiation should rarely be about how your product is different from competitors' products. Instead, differentiation should be about how the new way of doing things is different from the old way of doing things. Your product is just a tool to help your customers succeed with the new way of doing things. Some examples: Drift differentiated website chat (the new way) from website forms (the old way). Asana differentiated “teamwork without email” (the new way) from “teamwork with email” (the old way). Salesforce’s “No software” campaign differentiated cloud computing (the new way) from on-prem software (the old way). When you differentiate against competitors you set yourself up for a feature battle. (Which no one wins.) When you differentiate against the old way of doing things you set yourself up to be the only logical solution. Choose to be the only logical solution. #positioning #differentiation #startupmarketing #b2bmarketing

How to differentiate your product via positioning legend Anthony Pierri 🎸 from FletchPMM ⤵️ 1. Pick a competitive alternative - Immature segments: manual process, stitched together tools, hiring & internal initiatives, etc - Mature segments: other vendors in your product category 2. Highlight the problem with this alternative - The goal is to pick an enemy that’s relevant and relatable & that paints your product in the best light - Examples: Slack 👉 email, Loom 👉 meetings, Linear 👉 Jira 3. Say how you do it differently (your product’s features and capabilities) - Option A: Differentiation by degree (aka we’re similar but faster, easier to use, etc) - Option B: Binary differentiation (aka they do X, we do Y) 4. Explain why your way is better (the benefits achieved through these features and capabilities) - The four ways to create real differentiation: price (Fathom vs Gong), product (Figma vs Adobe), delivery model (Zoom vs WebEx), segmentation (YouCanBookMe vs Calendly) Don’t have meaningful differentiation? Move to an immature market where their needs aren’t addressed by other vendors — Get the full positioning masterclass in today’s Growth Unhinged: https://lnkd.in/eU4pzuPv PS: Part 1 of this 6,500 deep dive is here: https://lnkd.in/g8ECtcqS Hope you find it useful 🙏 #marketing #pmm #startup

The "Next Big Thing" is a paradox. Entrepreneurs love to chase the latest trends, hoping to ride the wave on the next big thing. It was making money with ads, then without ads. You need a funnel. Now you don’t need a funnel. I laughed at the course fad, the lead magnet craze, and especially the “blah blah without posting content” trend. You know what still hasn't gone out of style? A solid brand positioning strategy that differentiates a winning offer. 90% of businesses will utilize the same tools such as social media, website, email, ads, outreach, on and on. You don’t have much of an advantage there. But… if you have crafted an unique offer that truly attracts and compels, every tool now packs more of a punch. Write an iron-clad statement that uniquely promotes how your product or service creates a solution. It should be emotional. It should be clear. It should be differentiated. Bonus points for incorporating elements from your positioning statement, brand promise, unique selling proposition, or vision statement. Branding rewards those who stick to the basics and execute flawlessly. Focus on the “One Big Thing” and refine what you do well.