7 Offer Positioning Mistakes That Kill Campaigns Before They Start
Key takeaways
If you position your offer in the right way, leads can be yours instantly. On the other hand, some offer positioning mistakes are pretty damaging; they could kill your campaigns before they even get off the ground.
It’s a tricky business. Not only must you gain the attention of busy and overwhelmed prospects, but you must also present your offering in a way that is appealing and quickly understandable.
When you’re unclear or offer no sense of urgency, you can truly harm your efforts, as innocent as these missteps may seem.
This article will explore 7 offer positioning mistakes, explain the effect they have, and provide actionable advice for getting this important part of your strategy right.
Let’s dive in:
7 offer positioning mistakes that kill campaigns before they start
1. Unclear promises
This is when you make promises that seem appealing at first glance, but don’t actually say anything meaningful. These are one of the biggest culprits that result in weak positioning.
Businesses may make this error when they decide to make broad and feel-good phrases like “unlocking potential” or “helping your business thrive.” While these statements give an air of positivity, they aren’t tangible.
When leads read things like this, they’re likely to feel unsure of what your business actually does. You may come across as flimsy or inattentive of details. Either way, your offer is failing to convey your true value.
Businesses may also make unclear promises when they squeeze too many ideas into one sentence. For instance, a web design agency may claim to help clients “stand out and connect with audiences.” While sophisticated, there’s no detail about what the company provides.
In order to make clear promises, businesses should name their services and describe how they get results. In the example above, it may require naming services such as competitor analysis or market research in order to develop designs that distinguish brands and connect with audiences more resonantly.
A good rule of thumb is thinking “are we saying something that can be visualised or measured?” That way, you’ll leave a more lasting impression and convey some practical expectations.
2. Offering too many benefits
Next up is a classic mistake that’s often committed by those with good intentions. While it’s understandable to want to convey as much value as possible, this approach can risk being overly salesy, too good to be true, and even untrustworthy.
One way this can come out is through benefits that are simply unrealistic. For example, “triple your efficiency overnight!” Things like this are just going to damage credibility and make shrewd audiences roll their eyes with annoyance, deciding to never look your way again.
It may be that a business tries to cater to too many audiences, listing as many benefits as possible to appeal to all of them. Unfortunately, when several advantages are given equal weight, your message becomes overcrowded and confusing. It’s not focused enough.
Customers are more likely to remember one single punchy reason to choose you, not long lists of benefits. For instance, a software company that claims to improve collaboration between teams is easier to remember than one claiming to save time, increase revenue, enhance teamwork, and improve efficiency.
In examples like these, audiences can’t tell which benefit matters most or how the offering connects with their specific needs. So, businesses must identify the core benefit of their offerings and prioritise that. This may seem risky to business-owners wanting to appeal to everyone, but it’s the counter-intuitive way of attracting true leads and being memorable.
3. Not differentiating your offering
Another common mistake when positioning your offer is being far too general. Customers aren’t likely to remember businesses that do this because they’re easily interchangeable with other similar offerings. It’s a one-way ticket to invisible town!
Frustratingly, this can happen when businesses use terms like “quality service” or “great value” – terms that are probably applicable and accurate. However, they’re simply too generic. While they’re true, businesses must go beyond these descriptors and carefully position themselves in ways that show their uniqueness.
This can be done in a few ways. It may require thinking about competitors, defining what your business does differently, calling out to the niche you serve, highlighting your unique philosophy, or honing in on your business’s personality.
4. Failing to create urgency
Positioning your offer successfully also calls for a good bit of punch. When businesses don’t create any urgency at all, it can be a costly mistake. For audiences, it may feel that an offer sounds good but feels optional. They’ll tend to put off taking any action.
Businesses may make this error when they assume the value of their offer speaks for itself, but even the best products need a reason for people to take action today instead of some day in the future.
This does not mean brands should cultivate fake scarcity or use gimmicky countdowns. Instead, they must make their offers feel relevant and necessary now or in the immediate future.
For instance, a social media agency may describe their offerings of increasing engagement “…before trends change again.” This ties their value to time-sensitivity and hooks into a pain point simultaneously. Alternatively, urgency can be highlighted through focusing on what audiences lose by not taking action.
5. Under-researching your target audience
This mistake happens before a campaign even gets off its feet, unfortunately setting a rocky foundation for the rest of the strategy. It often results in businesses not knowing exactly who they’re speaking to, not understanding pain points deeply enough, or not quite getting what might turn audiences off.
It may result in messaging that reads as generic or misplaced, and sometimes even tone-deaf! For instance, car companies assuming customers want premium quality when they’re actually not interested in luxury. Or, emphasising speed when audiences want safety.
Insight into customer pain points and motivations allow businesses to position their offerings more accurately, building on evidence instead of assumptions.
Market research doesn’t have to be a huge expense either. It could take the form of customer interviews, social listening, or sifting through historic feedback.
6. Not following through
Another mistake occurs outside of your main offer positioning strategy. It involves the work you do outside of it. For instance, your email newsletter, adverts, tag line, and social media platforms.
Your offer positioning should breathe through everything you do. When your other business materials and communications don’t support it, it can be undermined. For example, if your advertised offer positioning promises “luxury” but your website looks cheap, your touchpoints will fail to reinforce the message and credibility you’ve worked hard to create.
Following through means every piece of marketing is aligned: design, copy, packaging, tone, customer service, social media posts, etc. Doing so ensures you’re not sending mixed signals or contradicting your positioning. Keeping messaging, visuals, and customer experiences consistent help you control how your business is perceived.
This way, you can build trust and memorability, impressing audiences who discover you in different ways.
7. Focusing on features instead of benefits
Our final mistake is extremely common. Brands may be tempted to list the facts and show off the many features of their offering, but this often lacks the emotional punch necessary to attract and convert leads.
When businesses do this, they’re describing what their product does instead of why it matters. While facts and logic are important, purchasing decisions tend to be emotionally driven. So, effective positioning is when features are connected to real-world outcomes.
For instance, products that save time, reduce stress, increase revenue, or improve life in a concrete way. Further, if brands can relate their positioning to identity or aspirations, they’ll resonate even more deeply.
While you should still discuss relevant technical details, functions, and specifications, you mustn’t forget to explain why those features matter to your target customers. Making that leap is what makes some offerings extra compelling and motivates audiences to take action right away.
Best practices for positioning your offer
So, you’re now familiar with the most common mistakes that can kill your efforts to position your offering. But what can you do to prevent those errors and produce a highly effective campaign? Consider the following advice:
- Keep things simple: As our list above has indicated, doing too much can often harm your campaigns more than doing too little. Build your efforts around a powerful single idea and keep your messaging straightforward.
- Lean on specifics to build credibility: When you’ve got concrete details, no one can really argue with your promises. Businesses are more believable when they use numbers, timeframes, and clearly defined outcomes.
- Your offer positioning can evolve: As markets, technologies, and audiences change, don’t be afraid to revisit your offer positioning down the line and make adjustments. This way, you can keep it relevant.
- Use the right language: Once you’ve got what you want to say (i.e., what your customers value and what frustrates them), you must say it in an appropriate way. Use language that will reach your customers best, whether it’s humorous, extremely straightforward, or on the drier side. Positioning will gain attention when it’s written for someone, not at them.
- Don’t forget the emotions: As we’ve established, it’s crucial you always bring things back to the emotional meaning. Whether it’s for confidence, relief, pride, or joy, both B2C and B2B audiences make emotional decisions.
- Preserve your brand’s personality: Don’t leave your brand’s personality behind when crafting your offer positioning. Your positioning will actually be supported by personality, whether it’s conveyed through tone, visual style, or phrasing.
All marketing advice should be taken with a pinch of salt; there are exceptions to every rule. You may have a unique audience or offering that simply works despite campaigns that are slightly “too” gauche, urgent, positive, or feature focused. With that in mind, follow your instincts when it comes to your offer positioning.
Final thoughts
With these ideas in mind, it’s time to go to the drawing board and start crafting your offer positioning. If you’d like some help with your strategy, reach out to us here at purpleplanet.
We’ve been helping businesses with their digital needs for 20 years, providing customised solutions every time. Whether you need a simple informational website, or a fully fledged e-commerce superstore, every client is important to us! Arrange a no-cost call with us to start brainstorming your digital solutions.
