How to Position Yourself and Stand Out – Part 1

Another bloody water..via

Part 1: It starts with good strategy – and yes, this matters!

Have you ever wondered how you can make yourself, your services or your products stand out in a cluttered world? Positioning yourself in a way that distinguishes yourself (and what you do) is a necessity. People are spoilt for choice when it comes to graphic/web design, creative strategy, self-help, jewelery, clothes – whatever you’re doing you’re likely to be competing against someone else (if not more than just one someone else).

So how do you position yourself in a way that is distinct, and that stands out amongst the clutter? It begins with good strategy – good marketing strategy.

Yes, I said it begins with marketing strategy! Marketing shouldn’t be the cherry on top, you need to build marketing in from the start, and I’m going to give you an overview of how to accomplish that.

Marketing isn’t just about branding, pricing and promoting. It’s about building yourself/services/products with good strategy from the start.

Good marketing strategy establishes a way for you to position yourself that will enable you to  stand out from the crowd.

What is ‘good strategy’?

Good strategy supposedly is the ‘art of creating value‘.

Value for you, value for your readers, clients and customers.

There are 3 main components to this ‘art.’

The 3 Components

1. Focus on your market (industry/area), and learn everything that you can about it. This means identifying two major factors:

• Who are the other competitors/players in my market, and what are they good at/bad at?
• What do my potential readers/clients/customers want – that they aren’t getting at present?

2. Identifying what you can do well, and better than anybody else (and importantly, enjoy doing)

3. Matching 1+2! This means that you take what you do well and love, and match it with customers unmet wants, and gaps in the market, where competitors haven’t yet entered. This creates value. For you, because you’re doing what you love and for everyone else because you’re giving them what they want in a way that hasn’t been done before.

Why Bother?

The end result is that you are doing something that your good at, and something that you love – and something that your ‘market’ wants.

If this doesn’t make sense in itself, then consider this scenario: When I started blogging I thought it should be writing about catwalk shows…because a lot of fashion blogs do this, right? If I’d perused this strategy I’d be wrong on all accounts. Generically writing about catwalk shows is saturated with writers and readers already have their favorite sources. I’m also not very good at writing about catwalk shows, nor do I particularly enjoy it.

If you can put a big ‘tick’ against each of the 3 components, then your on your way to establishing your own position in the market where you distinguish yourself and stand out from the sea of clutter.

I hope you find this useful – if not for blogging, for any other endeavorers you may peruse.

Here’s a question: Have you ever thought about what you’re doing from this perspective? How does your blog or business measure up?