Define and develop a winning positioning strategy before creating your branding strategy. A positioning message is the foundation of any marketing activity. Whether a lead-generation marketing campaign, a loyalty program, or the development of new marketing materials, all marketing campaigns should follow a consistent messaging strategy.
Working without a positioning message direction to guide the development of marketing campaigns is like shooting blind: your company’s product or service will not be clear to your prospective clients, nor will it stand out from the competition.Â
An inaccurate positioning communication will result in your target market (or your Ideal Customer Profile, ICP) being less attracted to your offer, or not interested at all. This is why it is crucial to have a well-conceived marketing positioning and branding strategy.
What Is a Positioning Marketing Strategy?
Your strategy is how you want prospective customers to perceive your company and its solutions. A company can be proactive, reactive, or passive in its approach to the ongoing process of developing a positioning marketing message. In fact, you can positively influence market perception through sound strategic actions. Potential clients will remember your offering if your company’s offer is appealing and clearly differentiated from the competition.
Ask yourself, what unique value do you offer your clients? Preliminary market research is recommended to determine the best strategy.Â
8 Reasons to Invest in Positioning Strategies
Often, organizations do not understand the significant impact of the positioning message or why it is crucial for B2B companies. Below are the main strategic reasons companies invest in positioning, especially in competitive and complex markets:
1. Differentiation in Crowded Markets
Most B2B markets are saturated with similar-sounding offerings. A positioning strategy clearly articulates what makes your organization distinct and why that difference matters to a specific audience. Without strong positioning, companies compete on price, features, or familiarity—none of which are sustainable advantages. Positioning creates mental separation in the buyer’s mind.
2. Buyer Clarity & Faster Decisions
Confused buyers don’t buy. Clear positioning helps buyers quickly understand who you are, what problem you solve, and who you’re for. This reduces friction in the evaluation process and shortens sales cycles. In B2B, where multiple stakeholders are involved, clarity is critical.
3. Consistency Across Teams & Channels
Inconsistent messaging erodes trust. Positioning acts as a single source of truth for marketing, sales, PR, product, and leadership. It ensures that every touchpoint—website, pitch decks, PR, ads, and sales conversations—reinforces the same core narrative. This consistency strengthens credibility and recall.
4. Stronger Marketing & PR Effectiveness
Marketing tactics fail without a clear narrative. Positioning improves the performance of campaigns, content, PR, and demand generation by giving them a coherent story to amplify. Media, analysts, and influencers are more likely to engage when they understand your role in the market. Positioning makes execution more efficient and impactful.
5. Better Product & Roadmap Alignment
Positioning guides what you build and prioritize. A strong positioning strategy clarifies which capabilities matter most to your target customers and which do not. This helps product and leadership teams align roadmap decisions with market expectations. It reduces feature creep and strengthens long-term focus.
6. Increased Pricing Power & Value Perception
Value is perceived, not just delivered. Clear positioning shifts the conversation from cost to value by framing your offering around outcomes and differentiation. This supports premium pricing and reduces discount pressure. Buyers are more willing to pay for solutions they clearly understand and trust.
7. Stronger Competitive Defense
If you don’t define yourself, competitors will. Positioning helps proactively frame competitive comparisons on your terms. It reduces the impact of feature-by-feature comparisons and prevents competitors from hijacking your narrative. This is especially important in fast-moving B2B tech markets.
8. Long-Term Brand Equity & Market Leadership
Short-term campaigns don’t build lasting advantages. Positioning is a long-term investment that compounds over time. It helps establish category leadership, executive credibility, and brand memory. Strong positioning makes future launches, expansions, and pivots easier and more credible.
How Positioning Benefits Impact Revenue and Funnel Metrics
Positioning messaging, while strategic and upstream, translates into measurable commercial impact across the funnel. Let’s map the key benefits of strong marketing positioning to specific B2B revenue and funnel metrics:
|
Positioning Benefit |
Funnel Stage Impacted |
Revenue & Funnel Metrics Influenced |
How Positioning Drives the Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Clear differentiation |
Awareness → Consideration |
Win rate, competitive displacement rate |
Buyers more easily understand why you’re different, reducing feature-based comparisons |
|
Buyer clarity & relevance |
Awareness → Consideration |
Qualification conversion rate and demo request rate |
Clear messaging attracts better-fit leads and improves qualification |
|
Consistent narrative across channels |
Awareness → Decision |
Pipeline velocity, multi-touch attribution lift |
Repeated, consistent messages reinforce trust across buying committees |
|
Stronger perceived value |
Consideration → Decision |
Average deal size (ACV), lower discount rate |
Buyers focus on outcomes and value rather than price |
|
Improved trust & credibility |
All stages |
Close rate, sales cycle length |
Reduced perceived risk speeds up decision-making |
|
Sales enablement alignment |
Consideration → Decision |
Sales cycle length, stage-to-stage conversion |
Sales teams tell a clearer, more confident story |
|
Better lead quality |
Awareness |
Cost per qualified lead (CPQL), lead-to-opportunity rate |
Positioning filters out poor-fit prospects earlier |
|
Competitive framing control |
Consideration → Decision |
Competitive win rate, loss reasons |
Comparisons happen on your terms, not competitors’ |
|
Brand perception |
Awareness → Consideration |
Share of voice, inbound demand growth |
Buyers associate your brand with a specific problem or approach |
|
Product–market alignment |
Consideration → Decision |
Expansion revenue, churn rate |
Expectations set by positioning match delivered value |
|
Pricing power |
Decision |
Gross margin, average selling price |
Clear differentiation supports premium pricing |
|
Long-term brand equity |
All stages |
LTV, CAC efficiency, repeat purchase |
Strong positioning compounds trust and recall over time |
To be effective, a positioning strategy must be consistent across all campaigns. Thus, highlighting a consistent positioning message across different channels (social media campaigns, newsletters, blogs, media coverage, sales materials, web pages), customized to each channel.Â
The overall communication with prospective clients contributes to a company’s image.Â
Examples of Strong vs. Weak B2B Positioning (Tech Companies)
We have taken up the task of analyzing positioning examples for five tech sectors. We chose strong and weak positioning for each tech space and then highlighted the high-level strengths and weaknesses.
1. Cloud Infrastructure
Strong positioning – Amazon AWS (early years):  “On-demand cloud infrastructure that lets companies scale instantly without owning hardware.”
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- Clear problem (infrastructure cost & scalability)
- Clear audience (builders, startups, enterprises)
- Clear category leadership
Result: Buyers instantly understood why AWS mattered.
Weak positioning – “Enterprise Cloud Solutions Provider” (generic vendors)
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- No differentiation
- Sounds interchangeable with dozens of competitors
- Focused on what they are, not why they matter
2. CRM & Revenue Platforms
Strong positioning – Salesforce “The #1 CRM platform for managing customer relationships in the cloud.”
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- Simple category ownership
- Outcome-focused (relationships, not software)
- Reinforced consistently across marketing, sales, and PR
Weak positioning – “All-in-one customer management solution”
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- Overly broad
- No clear use case or ideal customer
- Creates confusion rather than confidence
3. Collaboration & Productivity
Strong positioning – Slack (pre-acquisition) “Where work happens.”
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- Clear emotional and functional value
- Reframed the category away from “chat tools”
- Instantly memorable
Weak positioning – “Team communication platform with powerful features”
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- Feature-led
- Easily copied by competitors
- Hard to remember or repeat
4. Cybersecurity
Strong positioning – CrowdStrike “Stopping breaches with cloud-native endpoint protection.”
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- Clear enemy (breaches)
- Clear technical differentiator (cloud-native)
- Clear outcome (prevention, not alerts)
Weak positioning – “Next-generation cybersecurity solutions”
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- Buzzword-heavy
- No buyer insight
- Says nothing concrete about value
5. Data & Analytics
Strong positioning – Snowflake “The data cloud that enables organizations to mobilize data at scale.”
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- Clear category creation (“data cloud”)
- Focus on access and scale, not tooling
- Aspirational but understandable
Weak positioning – “Advanced data analytics platform”
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- Sounds like every analytics vendor
- No mental shortcut for buyers
- Difficult to anchor in a specific use case
What Are the Deliverables that Direct Objective Offers as Part of Their Positioning Strategy?
Direct Objective’s positioning strategy mandates are processes that aim for a complete adjustment. The key theme is that deliverables move from insight → strategy → activation guidance, not just messaging. Here are the suggested deliverables (though they might change between different mandates, depending on their original positioning messaging):
1. Discovery & Insight Deliverables
Build an objective, evidence-based foundation for positioning.
Typical deliverables:
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Stakeholder interview summary
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Customer & buyer insight synthesis
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Market & category assessment
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Competitive positioning audit
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Current-state messaging audit
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2. Positioning Strategy Deliverables
Define where and how the company should compete in the buyer’s mind.
Typical deliverables:
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Positioning statementÂ
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Category or point-of-view definitionÂ
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Primary and secondary differentiators
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Ideal customer profile (ICP) clarity and exclusions
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Competitive framing & contrast
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3. Messaging Framework Deliverables
Translate positioning into usable language.
Typical deliverables:
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Value pillars and supporting messages
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Proof points, examples, and evidence
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Objection handling and competitive responses
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4. Go-to-Market & Activation Guidance
Make positioning actionable, not theoretical.
Typical deliverables:
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Website and homepage messaging recommendations
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Sales pitch narrative & storyline
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PR and thought leadership angles
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Campaign and content theme recommendations
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Media and influencer narrative alignment
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5. Internal Enablement & Adoption
Drive organizational uptake.
Typical deliverables:
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Executive training and alignment workshop
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Internal positioning playbook or guide
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Sales and marketing enablement session
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FAQ and internal objection handling
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Key Takeaways
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- Positioning shapes how your company is perceived in the market and sets you apart from competitors, making it easier for customers to choose your brand.
- Effective positioning starts with understanding your audience, their needs, pain points, and preferences, while also analyzing competitors to find your unique advantage.
- Consistency across all channels is essential, ensuring that your messaging, branding, and marketing efforts reinforce your positioning and build trust with your customers.
- Positioning does not replace demand generation or sales execution—it amplifies them. Organizations with strong positioning see better conversion, faster deals, higher value, and more defensible revenue.
- The positioning strategy deliverables move from insight → strategy → activation guidance, not just messaging.
- Positioning benefits directly impact revenue and sales-funnel metrics. Review our table above.
- Positioning shapes how your company is perceived in the market and sets you apart from competitors, making it easier for customers to choose your brand.
Let Direct Objective develop a winning positioning strategy for you. An enhanced branding strategy and message will attract the right potential clients for your organization!
Let Direct Objective develop a winning positioning strategy for an enhanced branding strategy and message to attract the right potential clients for your company!
