What are the common mistakes when positioning a startup?

Avoid these common pitfalls in positioning your business ??: ?? Lack of Clarity: Keep your message clear and concise. Complexity confuses customers! ?? Ignoring Customer Feedback: Customers are your best advisors. Value their insights! ?? Overpromising: Set achievable goals to maintain trust and credibility. ?? Neglecting Competition: Understanding rivals is key. Carve out your unique space! ?? Inconsistent Branding: Your brand's consistency is vital for recognition and recall. ?? Failing to Adapt: Markets evolve, so should your positioning. Stay flexible and relevant. ?? Overlooking Global Trends: In a connected world, global trends can impact local markets. Stay informed!

Not having a clear Business plan Not researching enough for the targeted market and Audience Not having in-depth knowledge about competitors and their offers Not having a clear marketing strategy Neglecting your cash flow Not protecting your intellectual property Doing it all yourself Ignoring customer feedback and not adapting to market changes

Don't confuse the long-term TAM you use for investor pitches with the near-term market segment you will need to dominate in order to show early traction. The former needs to be large enough to compensate for the long odds of success, but the latter needs to be narrow, with hyper-targeted positioning to get you the die-hard early users you need to drive adoption.

Defining your customer segment is central to startup or product positioning and overall success because it helps you understand who your ideal customers are, what are their hopes, pains, gains and fears, how do they make decisions, and what inspires them to take action.This understanding is crucial for making every touchpoint of customer interaction relevant for them. A common mistake startups make is focusing only on external indicators like age, location, or demography of potential customers. These are useful, but cannot enable you to anticipate customer needs, the core purpose of segmentation, so you get your positioning right. You can only do this by identifying inner traits, truly unique to your customer segment.

One thing I have often encountered in start ups is the bias of extending own needs to clusters of customers and then defining the customer segment as a proxim vs that need. This wrong methodology - something like - how many of my friends have the same problem leads to solutions to problems customers in general may not have at all. Customer segments should be defined agnostic to the problem first and then rebuilt based on research and key attributes.

The easy way to test your uniqueness: ask Chat-GPT to summarize each of your competitor's website home pages. Then ask it to summarize your own. Cut out the company names from the summaries and ask an objective friend if they can tell the difference, and which one(s) seem the most unique and compelling.

Um dos pilares da estratégia é saber o campo de jogo que está jogando, estes campos de jogo podem ser vistos pela perspectiva de solu??o, como campo de jogo dos ERPs, CRMs, ou pelo ponto de vista de solu??o ao cliente, comodidade em pedir comida, o que pode levar a um amplo olhar sobre o mercado. Independente da ótica a qual vai escolher pra olhar o mercado, conhe?a os concorrentes diretos e indiretos para que possa com essa informa??o em m?os tomar as melhores decis?es.

The more resources something takes to do, the more critical you should be about the assumptions that support it. If you're an early stage startup, you need to do as many quick, inexpensive experiments that don't require developer resources as possible.

La théorie c'est bien, mais la pratique c'est mieux. Moi aussi je suis fan des études de marché bien ficelé. Mais pour des tas de raisons, on peut se tromper. Déja le délai: Entre vos analyses théoriques et le go to market, le marché peut évoluer (nouveau concurrent, nouvelle technologie, inflation ou déflation) Ensuite, l'analyse psychologique du client idéal est toujours à prendre avec des pincettes. Il n'y a pas de recette miracle pour réussir son projet. C'est pour ?a qu'il faut essayer plusieurs approches scénario. L'A/B test s'impose donc comme une nécessité.

Absolutely, relying solely on assumptions can lead to a misalignment with your target customers. It's crucial to validate your ideas through direct engagement. Conducting customer interviews, surveys, experiments, and actively seeking feedback ensures that your positioning is grounded in the actual needs and preferences of your audience. This iterative process not only refines your approach but also establishes a more accurate and customer-centric foundation for your product or service. Real data and insights gleaned from customer interactions provide a solid basis for making informed decisions and avoiding the pitfalls of assumption-driven strategies.

A consistência de marca é um fator determinante para a marca; Nos touch points da sua marca, apare?a em conformidade com os pilares da sua marca, seja a cor, a fonte, tom de voz, entre outros pilares. Apenas através da consistencia que se constroi marca.

Resonance and memorability are mission critical for any startup. To achieve this, consistency is key – assuming you’re being consistent about the right thing. Many startups feel the need to cast a wide net on who or what industries will benefit from their solution. Broad positioning leads to inconsistency, diluted efforts and poor engagement. Instead, be razor sharp on the problem you're addressing, who you serve and how you're uniquely positioned to solve the space. Furthermore, collect feedback & track channel performance on these concentrated efforts to make measured decisions on how to iterate your positioning. Now go check out section 5 on being flexible =]

Consistency leads to credibility. Having consistent positioning across different marketing channels and customer-facing materials shows you know the market, know their needs, know your competitors, and know how you are different and better. #startups should take time to get their positioning right. Test it with a few prospects and customers. How do they react? What can be changed to narrow the message so you hit their needs? Then you can put that stake in the ground on your positioning and not have to change it. Now, every asset for sales and marketing is aligned and consistent to build credibility, loyalty, and trust. BTW, this also helps with your authority score on Google search.

Inconsistency is hardly ever intentional but it happens because positioning and the messaging it drives aren't documents, or there isn't agreement for them. Take the time to obtain buy-in, ensure everyone gets it and has the positioning and messaging they can use without wild interpretation.

Indeed, the ability to pivot is crucial in today’s dynamic market environment. Recognizing when a pivot is necessary and executing it effectively can be the difference between staying ahead or falling behind. It’s not just about being flexible but also about having the insight to know when to change direction. This involves understanding market trends, being attuned to customer feedback, and having the courage to make tough decisions. A successful pivot requires a delicate balance of staying true to your core values while adapting your strategy to meet the evolving needs of the market and your customers. It’s an art that, when mastered, can lead to significant growth and sustainability.

If you work at a #startup, flexibility is very important. If your initial positioning does not hit right with your prospects and customers, change it. Revise it to what you learn from the market. If the market has changed, then definitely relook at your positioning. Does it fill the new needs in the market? You may need to tweak it or change it completely. For most of the startups I have worked with, the initial positioning needs to be changed, some in small ways but some in bigger ways. Remember, you are a startup and not an enterprise brand, so you have some leeway in the market to change your positioning without that much notice yet.

The best way to know how well you are positioning your startup is to reach out to prospects at least a few days after you pitch them, and ask how they would describe you to their peers. Your position in the market is less what you say about yourself than about what other say (or remember) about you.

Votre offre doit être hyper clair. A qui elle s'adresse? Quel(s) problème(s) elle vient résoudre? Sur quelles zones de chalandise vous vous implanté? Quelle est votre culture. Toutes ces choses vont contribuer à la fois à un bon alignement des équipes en interne, mais aussi à une meilleure compréhension de vos services par vos prospects/clients.

Clearly identify the need that you are addressing. If there's no need, then segmentation, positioning and all else are irrelevant. Don't assume that the need is clear to your audience - whether they be investors, potential customers, prospective employees or analysts.

Own the comparison narrative. Too often, field teams talk only about the company, whereas the customer is constantly thinking how is this company different than what they're doing now or the 10 other options they are considering. Don't leave it out to the customer to figure out the comparison with status quo, alternatives and direct competitors. Own your comparison narrative and be very clear about why you, why it's different and why it's worthwhile.

One key learning: clarity is king. Ensure your startup communicates a crystal-clear value proposition that resonates with your target audience. It's not just about what you offer, but how you solve their pain points. Precision in positioning is the compass guiding your journey to success. #Startups #Positioning #strongertogether

Identify and revalidate your PMF. Product market fit is essential for any startup before switching gears. It's very difficult to judge the product market fit because you're keen to see that your product really fits the market needs and that excitement ends up showing you false signals. It's good to keep track of basic parameters like DAUs, WAUs, MAUs, Purchase Funnel, Reorder Percentage, etc.

Not conducting SWOT analysis is also a mistake, need to acknowledge our weaknesses and threats to deal with them wisely and in our strengths and opportunities