Position your online shop or die!
Positioning your online shop is about giving customers a reason to choose you specifically. If you simply sell the same things in the same way as lots of other shops, why should customers be interested in yours? You have to find your niche and do something that sets you apart.
The video is from April 2009 and introduces the chapter on positioning. Among other things, I use my experiences at SPAMfighter as an example.
Positioning your online shop in a market full of competitors
If you start an online shop, you probably already have plenty of competitors. If you sell plumbing supplies, for example, imagine opening on a street with 100 other plumbing shops.
The street looks different online, but the situation is the same. When customers search on Google, all the shops appear.
If you simply say you sell plumbing supplies and do it very well, my question is: Who the fuck cares?
That in itself does not give customers a reason to choose you. You need to find your own distinct place in the market.
There are several ways to stand out
Perhaps you stock products nobody else has. Then those are what customers come to you for.
Perhaps you deliver fastest. I exaggerate in the video and almost imagine the van driving off as soon as the customer clicks buy. People are working as if the military needs its equipment shipped out in a hurry.
You can also choose the opposite: The customer gets the item within 14 days, but it is so dirt cheap that he is happy to wait.
Or you can provide the best service. Again, I take the example to extremes and say that if the customer has the slightest problem, we send someone out to help get things sorted.
I know the examples are exaggerated. The point is to choose something the customer can understand and that matters to him. You should not just be another shop.
We went against the market with SPAMfighter
In the video, I talk about starting SPAMfighter in 2004 and a market with around 300 competitors worldwide selling spam filters.
How the hell do you decide to enter that? At first glance, it could look completely ridiculous. But we did it, and then we had to find a way to stand out.
We looked at what characterised our competitors. As I saw the market, open source and an anti-Microsoft attitude were prominent.
We went the other way and became Microsoft Gold Certified. That gave us a completely different position.
From a passive filter to a community
I also thought our competitors took a passive approach. The message was along the lines of: Install our spam filter and you won’t get any more spam.
We said something different. Install our filter and you become part of the SPAMfighter Community. When you get a spam email, you can press block and help remove it for other users.
So we made the user part of the fight. It was not just a filter running in the background. It was a community where people could help each other and stick a spike up the spammers’ arses.
We examined what our competitors generally did and tried to do the exact opposite. That was our way of positioning ourselves.
Explore what happens if you run the other way
I recommend the book Marketing Warfare in the video and also mention its connection to von Clausewitz’s thinking about war. Read it and the chapter on positioning, and spend some time thinking about them.
Then look at your competitors and ask: What if I do the opposite?
That exercise can make your eyes light up. You start seeing an opportunity to occupy a place where everyone else is not already standing.
I use the image of it being more fun to have 20 per cent of the market to yourself than to fight 200 others for the remaining 80 per cent. It illustrates the advantage of a clear position, rather than being a calculation of your market share.
For the group you target precisely, you can become the only supplier they will even consider. You have created the solution they have been longing for.
That is why positioning is so important. Go out and find your place in the market. Also read E-pusher about my experiences of selling online.