Authority Positioning? : 3 Ways To Truly Differentiate Yourself From Other Agencies
Oliver Duffy-Lee
Founder of Authority Agency | Thought Leadership Studio for £1m+ Agencies | Message me about driving inbound leads
Authority Positioning? : Creating a Market Of One
If you're taking a break away and you fancy renting a place rather than booking a hotel, where do you look?
My guess is 99% of you are thinking:
Airbnb.
That's because Airbnb have created a Market of One.
This doesn't mean that Airbnb is our only choice, there are other options. However, the way we view a Market of One as a consumer is we have 2 choices:
Or
2. The other options
Airbnb is so well differentiated, mainly through incredible user experience, unrivalled quantity of options anywhere in the world and first class customer service, that it's always our first choice.
And when we can't find what we want on Airbnb, we don't have a second "go-to", we then start scouring the rest of the market place - who we treat as one entity.
Airbnb really has found itself in a Market of One, which is why it has grown year on year (with the exception of 2020 for obvious reasons) to a mammoth revenue of $5.9billion in 2021.
So how do we do what Airbnb has done, and carve out a Market of One of our own?
And most importantly, how do we make sure we've got a great answer when the prospect asks...
"So, what makes your agency different?"
The problem with this question is it's actually a trick question.
If someone is asking you this question, by definition it means that they can't actually see what makes you different.
If that's the case, then the only way you can convince them is through a well constructed verbal answer. At this point, we usually hear people saying things like:
We are ruthlessly focussed on client results
We're a truly creative and passionate team
We work as an extension of our client's team
We're a partner, not an agency. We work with our clients for long term periods
We're not like other agencies, we care deeply about your results, because we know... When you win, we win
All of the above are valid and hopefully true, however, there are 2 huge problems with these statements as differentiators.
Firstly, they aren't differentiators - these are expected.
Can you imagine a situation where, as an agency, you mentioned that you actually 'aren't that focussed on client results' or you're 'not that creative or passionate'?
Of course you can't, because these are expectations, not differentiators.
Problem two is that you can't prove any of these to be true until after the client has started working with you.
This means that you can't prove you're different until after they've made the decision to start paying you - this, clearly, is too late.
The trick with true differentiation, is the ability to prove you are different before the client has decided to work with you.
In an ideal world, to prove you are different before the client has even started talking to you!
When you get to this position, you have found yourself in a Market of One, and you will find clients approach you without speaking to anyone else.
And as always, the question is... How?
So let's dive in.
#1 - Unpack Your IP
I'm sure that you are an expert in your field.
If you weren't, you wouldn't be running an agency and delivering wins for clients.
I'm sure you have a clear view on how to get results in your field. I'm sure you have systems that are designed to create these results. I'm sure that you could run us all through a killer strategy in 30 minutes if we gave you an audience and a white board.
I'm sure you're an expert.
Yet, I'm also fairly sure that not enough people know you are.
Agency Owners are incredible at creating IP.
Yet they are terrible at unpacking it, communicating it and promoting it.
When I talk about IP, here's what I mean:
Every week, you hear me talk about:
Authority Marketing Model?
No Brainer Offer?
Authority Agency Sales Process?
Authority Content?
Authority Positioning?
We work really hard on communicating our IP, and our key strategies, so that clients know two things:
So here's what you can do... Get your key strategies down on paper. Unpack that IP, and get it our of your head.
Then, illustrate it in a way that is simple and easy to understand.
领英推荐
This isn't about looking smart to your audience - although that may be a side-effect.
This is about proving to your prospects that you have a way to get them the results they're after. If you do this consistently, you will start to differentiate yourself.
Every other agency out there is talking about their approach in a mundane and basic way - you step up with your rich IP, and you will stand out.
P.s. Bonus Tip. ? is actually a sign of an Unregistered Trademark. This means you can place this on anything that you know is yours but you haven't registered it yet :)
#2 - Genuine Expertise
There is a big gap in genuine expertise in the agency industry.
A lot of agencies are true experts in their field, but surface level experts in their clients' industries.
One of the reasons for that is that most agencies are busy serving lots of different industries.
I'm not going to dive into picking a more specific target market here, just know that I think that's pretty smart.
However, when it comes to expertise, industry-niched agencies are always going to have more knowledge than generalist agencies.
Spending years working in one industry, working with clients from the same sector, understanding the problems they face and the way the industry is evolving - this is how you form genuine expertise.
Don't get me wrong, generalist agencies can gain good knowledge too, with some fast research, but you miss the nuance.
I spent 7 years working with international automotive companies, and by the end of that time, I knew my clients' problems better than they did. Not just because I was an expert in their industry, but I knew how to consistently get the results they wanted - either more sales or more engagement from staff.
The same applies to agencies. I've been working in the agency world for 11 years now, and I know the key issues facing most agency owners better than they do, and how to solve them fast - these by the way, tend to be not enough new business, no time to work On their business and trouble with recruitment.
If you want to be different, be an expert - it's really that simple.
Expertise in your client's industry will boost your conversion rate substantially.
More importantly, it will improve the results you get for clients too.
#3 - Innovative Pricing
The final way to differentiate yourself from your competition is through your pricing.
New business is about managing risk.
From the client's perspective, the risk is that they're putting a lot of money on the line with an agency they've never worked with before.
So how do you manage this?
Well, a number of agencies out there are doing this through innovative pricing models - mostly based on performance.
For example, some lead generation agencies now offer 'Pay Per Lead'.
This means no large agency fees, but when we start bringing you leads, you pay us per lead. The only problem with this model is it can focus agency attention to lead quantity, not quality - but that's a discussion for another day.
Other agencies are running a Revenue Based Pricing Model - this is especially effective with e-commerce.
The way this works is the client and agency agree a starter budget, but both parties commit to increase that marketing budget once the revenue generated reaches a certain mark.
This means that the marketing budget can scale gradually, but only once certain revenue goals are hit. This creates a risk-free, win / win for both parties.
Generally speaking, differentiation through pricing is a risky strategy... As Dan Kennedy says:
"There's no strategic advantage in being the second cheapest in the market"
Yet these strategies above are good differentiators, and can actually end up with the agency being paid much more than they would have been originally.
If you're in the lead gen or e-commerce space, definitely worth considering.
Bringing It All Together
The need for true differentiation is increasing.
More agencies in your space means more pitches, more price comparison and more risk of losing out to worse and cheaper agencies.
The trick here is being obviously different without even needing to mention it.
I'm keen to hear from you though - how do you differentiate your agency?
Let me know in the comments.
Becoming An Authority Agency
For those of you that don't know me, I'm Oliver Duffy-Lee and I run a company called Authority Agency.
Our mission is simple, we want to help as many scale-up agencies to reach and win high quality international clients as we possibly can, whilst also helping the founders to get more time back in their life at the same time.
If that sounds like you, there are 2 ways we can help you immediately.
Free Training
Firstly we run a free Facebook Group and every week we put new training in there for all of our members.
You can join?here :?https://www.facebook.com/groups/authorityagencyformula
Agency Growth Audit
If you want to move faster, you can book an Agency Growth Audit with one of our Scale Specialists. It's a super-quick, free call where we'll help outline what's slowing your growth and show you what's possible in the next 90 days.
If that's you, can you book?here :?https://www.authorityagency.co.uk/book-a-call
I'm very happy to be here on your journey to building the agency of your dreams.
If you ever need any advice, send me a DM.
To your success,
OD-L
Award Winning Videographer and Founder at MBI Visuals Ltd
2 年Great read! To make my company different, I chose to become a specialist in one sector, that is the educational industry, ie filming for funded education organisations ect...My Agency is now a registered supplier to the council.
The Best B2B Websites in the Galaxy… Probably // Director @ Spaced
2 年Expectations vs. differentiators was an eye-opener for me!