Start your Product Positioning & Messaging Guide
Exercise: create effective product positioning
We’ve shared a template below that will help you create an effective product positioning guide for your company (or improve your existing positioning). This will help you define the vision for your product, how to describe your product, who your customers and competitors are, and more.
How to use product positioning for maximum impact
Once you’ve defined the right product positioning that will resonate with your target customers, here are some important ways to use it for maximum impact:
Use your product positioning to inform what you say about your product and how you say it.
Share your positioning with product teams to help them understand what features to build.
Also, share your positioning with your sales and support teams to help them understand how best to speak with prospects and customers.
Use your positioning to paint a picture of common issues your prospects may have experienced with whichever competitor product they currently use or are considering. Once you get prospects nodding in agreement at the cost, risk and/or other challenges of dealing with the rest of the market, you’ll have a receptive audience for your positive messages.
Use your positioning to help you clarify your marketing strategy, especially when it comes to what tactics and channels to use to reach the best prospects. For example, if you’re targeting developers, you’re unlikely to choose print as your leading marketing channel.
Creating a strong product positioning and messaging guide is circular
Looking at the template, you might notice that some parts are easier to fill out than others. That’s totally normal! Earlier in the playbook you crafted your brand positioning, identified personas, and crafted your Jobs to Be Done. Researching competitors and market trends are pretty straightforward. You might even have users already who provided customer testimonials.
But crafting your pitch, benefits, and feature messaging will happen next in this sprint. I always recommend filling out the Product Positioning & Messaging Guide to the best of your ability before starting to craft your product messaging because your message will come a lot easier once you’ve identified the other aspects of the guide.
