hi I'm Henry and in this video I'll show you how to build positioning and messaging using a real startup example and make sure to watch till the very end because I'll share a simple website framework that you can use to write your website copy first things first what is positioning and messaging positioning is how you stand out in the market in other words how are you different from your competitors to build your positioning you need to do competitive research messaging is how you talk about your product to your customers in other words what pain points
are you solving with your product to uncover this you need to do customer research to really understand who your customers are their current processes and pain points now that we know what positioning and messaging is the startup example that I'll be using is springboard springboard is an edtech startup that I used to work at they offer online courses to help people transition their careers into Tech these career paths include ux design data science and machine learning you can think of springboard as an alternative to Udacity Coursera and udemy now I'll share screen and show you
how I would build positioning and messaging for springboard okay I have Google Sheets open the first thing I'm going to do is create an overview tab I'm going to list out my customer problem and the product solution that I'm offering then I'll create a positioning tab this is where I'm gonna list three competitors against my product offering and find out what makes my product stand out then I'll add another tab for messaging messaging is how I talk about the product to our customers and finally I'll create a tab for website copy with product marketing it's
important to start with a customer first and then your product not the other way around let's start with Target customer problem and then on the customer side we want to understand what their current process is so it could be one two three then once we understand the current process we also want to understand what their pain points are during each stage of the process once we understand this we can think about what product space we're going to be in what is the solution that our product will be offering the value propositions that speak to these
pain points and the features that enable us to deliver those value propositions we'll also have a section for benefits of having these value proposition let me just reformat this real quick so it looks better each of these benefits should speak to each of these value proposition and then the core benefits should speak to the course solution again we're using the example of springboard springboard as an ad tech company that helps people learn online and get jobs and Technology the Target customers will be career switchers so people who are trying to jump into a different career
the problem that they have is that breaking into Tech is hard and expensive so hard meaning that there's no clear path to getting a job in Tech an expensive meaning that it's very expensive to go back to school or take courses so the ROI I might not necessarily be there so how do these people currently try to break into Tech the process is quite simple they first take an online course then they might learn Concepts and skills and then they get a certificate however there are pain points for each of these process right the first
pain point is that you might take an online course but you rarely finish and I think this resonates with a lot of people including myself I would take an online course in January right New Year near me and then I end up doing the course for a couple of days and then I don't finish or maybe the course is really long and I just don't have the time or motivation to do it so that's one pain Point another pain point is you learn Concepts and skills so I might actually finish the course but the problem
is that I don't get to apply those skills an example of this would be like me learning theory and then not being able to apply it because that's not the work that I do and finally you you get a certificate but you can't get a job people take online courses because they want to upskill or make a career switch for those people who are trying to make a career switch a certificate is a stepping stone but it's not a guarantor of getting a job so those are the pain points the product space that springboard operation
is online learning think of springboard as a competitor to Udacity udemy and Coursera and solution will skip for now once we understand the value propositions then we can put together a solution let's dive into each of the pain points you take an online course but you rarely finish what is the value proposition that springboard can offer here the value proposition for the first pain point is accountability you take a course alone but it's hard to finish alone so we're going to give you a mentor to help you stay on track we can say stay on
track with one-on-one mentoring from an industry expert and the features for this would be weekly one-on-one calls and office hours as a student in this boot camp you're going to get weekly one-on-one calls get feedback on your projects and you also have office hours that you can attend to get medicinal help next let's talk about the value proposition for the second pain point you learn Concepts and skills but you don't get to apply them here we're gonna introduce a project-based curriculum where you can solve real world problems using the skills that you learned in the
course and the way we're going to do that is to introduce Capstone projects these are projects where you identify a real problem that the industry or the tech world is facing and then you create a project to solve that so we can say solve real world problems with Capstone projects and then the features here will be Project based curriculum this way you're not just learning theory you're learning actual skills that you can apply and we'll also have Capstone projects and we'll have them do two big ones finally you get a certificate but you can't get
a job the value proposition that we can offer here is that you can get personalized coaching until you get a job most online courses they just give you a certificate and you're done but with springboard will give you personalized coaching and you will continue to get the service until you get a job features will be weekly coaching calls we'll also have a job guarantee policy which means that you'll always get the service until you get a job or if you don't get a job within six months after graduating will give you your money back with
these value propositions in place we can go ahead and fill out our solution our solution will be learn job ready skills this is speaking to the second part with the mentor this is speaking to the first pain point and then a job guarantee so this is speaking to the third part with springboard you can learn job ready skills with a mentor and job guarantee what does this mean in terms of outcomes or benefits the outcome is that you can become a tech professional in six months this could be a data scientist a ux designer a
software engineer benefit one two three these should correspond to the value propositions what is the outcome of staying on track or accountability there's a stat out there that says that you're able to learn more effectively with a mentor and I think the number was five times more effectively so you can say learn five times more effectively with a mentor the second benefit how does this correspond to solving real world problems with Capstone projects once you have Capstone projects you can build a portfolio that you can show to employers so the benefit here will be to
impress employers with a unique portfolio of work and then finally what's the benefit of getting personalized coaching until you get a job is get a job or your money back this is basically saying that learning with springboard is risk-free you can either get a job by the end of it or your money back if we don't deliver on the job guarantee now we have a nice framework we know who our customers are that current process and pain points the product space that we're in the solution that we're offering our value propositions and our features and
finally the benefits that will be delivering as a result of our product solution and value propositions quick recap here product marketing always starts with the user and ends with the product in this case you need to First understand who your customers are and what their pain points are so you can easily map your value propositions and features back to those pain points great now let's talk about positioning positioning is what is the one thing that separates you from your competition I always recommend having at most three competitors because that gives you a good understanding of
who your main competitors are let's put in springboard Udacity Coursera and udemy the things that I want to compare myself against will be one positioning will fill this part and last because we want to understand everything else first the things that we want to understand will be the product space Target customer problem solution features benefit I'm just gonna reformat this real quick now that I have this set up I'm Gonna Fill in the information for each these okay so this is what I have so for springboard Udacity Coursera udemy the product space is going to
be online learning the Target customers will be a little different for springboard we only focus on people who are trying to switch into a new career in Tech whereas Udacity they focus on career switchers and upskillers so people who are just trying to level up in their skills and not necessarily change their career same thing with Coursera and then udemy is really focused on up Skilling they don't really have any courses that are focused on helping you change careers the problem that we're trying to solve for with springboard is helping people who want to break
into Tech but find the process either very hard or expensive Udacity is going to be people who want to learn the latest tech skills but don't work out the best tech companies so they want to learn from the best then Coursera is going to be people who want to upskill or break into a new field but kind of afford to go to graduate schools for udemy is going to be for people who want to upskill but find the courses limiting or expensive then for a solution on springboard side you can learn job ready skills with
a mentor and a job guarantee and we're able to deliver that with the one-on-one weekly mentorship office hours Project based curriculum Capstone projects career coaching job guarantee so they can become a data science choice or a ux designer within six months on the Udacity side they can learn the latest tech skills from the top companies they do this by creating high quality content and partnership with reputable companies for example they bring in someone from Microsoft to teach a course on data analysis they also offer real world projects and project reviews so they can level up
within a number of weeks or months for Coursera they anchor their solution and certificates and they do this with high quality content and partnership with schools like University of Chicago and Harvard they also do it with reputable companies the outcome is that they can get that Badge of completion and put it on their resume or LinkedIn finally you have udemy they have a bunch of courses that fit your needs and your budget these are content from thousands of instructors around the world and you're going to be able to see real reviews and readings from users
it's like a Marketplace and you can just pick the course that you want to take this way people can upskill continuously without breaking the bank because these courses are all pretty cheap let's go ahead and fill out the positioning for each of these companies for Udacity it's going to be learn the latest tech skills from industry pros and we can even put Nano degree this is what people think of when they think of Udacity they learn from googlers or microsofters This Is How They position themselves we bring in the industry experts to teach you and
get an anode degree for Coursera is going to be get graduate level or professional certifications their positioning is around the idea that you don't have to go to graduate school you can just take an online course with Coursera and then you're going to get graduate level or professional certificate that you can add to your LinkedIn and resume then we have udemy which sells the idea of optionality or choice we can just say choose from a wide array of courses the idea behind this is that you can take any course that suits your budget and needs
with these three positioning in mind we can come up with a springboard positioning so what is the one thing that we want people to remember we have job ready skills Mentor job guarantee which corresponds to three pain points what do we think is the most compelling of those three things that we want to convey I think compared to these competitors the most compelling thing is going to be the job guarantee which none of them offers and is probably top of mind for career switchers so we can say learn online with a job guarantee that is
our positioning which is we are the alternative and that we offer a job guarantee with our online learning courses quick recap positioning is how you differentiate from your competitors the key is to focus on one thing that sets you apart so it's easier for your customers to remember however if you're relatively unknown you can anchor on one well-known brand and call out a value proposition for example when springboard wasn't well known I would tell people that were Udacity but with the job guarantee immediately people knew what we did and how we're different now back to
the video next we have messaging when it comes to messaging there are three different ways to message to customers there's problem marketing so motion marketing and benefit marketing let's go ahead and write those out problem marketing is really starting with the problem and then offering the solution we have a few different ways to do this then we have solution marketing which is starting with the solution and then ending with the benefits and then we have a few different ways to do this as well and then finally we'll do benefit marketing so remarketing the benefit or
the outcome first and then describing the solution which is how you're going to get them to that outcome when it comes to messaging it'll be very easy to plug everything in because you've done the work and the overview section which is to list out your problem solution pain points value props and benefits so all you really need to do is to Plug and Play and mix and match I'm gonna go ahead and start mixing and matching for example the problem is going to be breaking into Tech as hard and expensive the solution would be to
learn job ready skills with a mentor and a job guarantee I can do the same for all of these let me go ahead and do that I added everything in with problem marketing we start with the problem then offer a solution the first one would be tired of Starting by never finishing well you can stay on track with one-on-one mentoring from an industry expert same thing for two tired of learning Concepts and skills but not being able to apply it solve your world problems with a Capstone project the last one would be tired of getting
certificates and failing and job interviews you can get personalized coaching until you get a job or a full refund this is compelling because we're leading with the pain points that resonate with customers then we're offering tangible specific solutions to each one of them we could also start with the solution first for some customers they might want to hear the solution first they might say I'm having problem finishing courses on my own oh wow I can get on track with one-on-one mentoring and I can learn five times more effectively so that's a different approach and then
finally you have benefit marketing which is to lead with the outcomes a good example here would be get a job or your money back get personalized coaching until you get a job or a full refund this is something that will resonate for people who are more intentional about the courses that they want to take when it comes to getting a job these are 12 different messaging combinations that you can play with you can put this on different pages on your website this could be a different ad copy you can even use this as different email
titles and subtitles to see which message resonate the most with customers so make sure to test out your messaging on different customer segments and on different channels quick recap here messaging is how you talk about your product to your customers you can do this in three different ways you can leave with a problem a solution or a benefit the key is to mix and match your problems solutions and benefits to see which resonates with your customers the most also keep in mind the rule of three which means that people don't remember more than three things
about your product so try your best to communicate at most three things for example which springboard the three things that I want people to take away are mentorship job ready skills and job guarantee now that we have our positioning and messaging done let's bring it all together on a website we can start with headline description call to action then we'll have a how it works section testimonials use cases and that will end with another call to action for Tech products use cases will be helpful but given that we're marketing and online course we can change
this to outcomes because that's what people will care about let me go ahead and fill all of these in great I just filled everything in for the headline the one big piece of text that we want people to take away is learn online with a job guarantee this is how we're gonna separate ourselves from the competition the description will be again mentored one-on-one on job ready skills get a job or your money back guaranteed this is referencing all of our value proposition then we'll have have a call to action which is to apply today then
we have the Howard Works section breaking into text shouldn't be hard and expensive get mentored one-on-one with an industry expert we call out the pain Point tired of starting online courses but never finishing then we talk about the value proposition which is stay on track with one-on-one mentoring then we talk about the different features which is to set goals get guidance on your career journey and understand what hiring managers are looking for don't go at it alone learn five times more effectively with a mentor in your corner in the same way for job ready skills
we lead with the pain point then the value proposition our feature and then finally end with the benefit which is creating a portfolio that impresses employers the last one would be get a job or your money back tired of getting certificates but failing in job interviews get personalized coaching or get a full refund if you don't get a job with six months get a job all your money back guaranteed it's a nice way to package how you're going to learn with springboard you're going to get mentored you're going to do real world projects and then
you're going to get career support or your money back if you don't get a job next we have testimonials these are testimonials that I came up with based on the Three core value propositions that we're offering so one is around accountability I said hey thanks to springboard I'm able to finish things and get advice on my Learning Journey I'm a data scientist today I read it so this is sharing the outcome the second testimonial is focused on the practicality of the course everything is practical and actionable and the best part is being able to apply
those skills to solve a real world problem then I give an example of that real world problem and how it has impacted their ability to get interviews and and press employers I had a testimonial that puts everything together which is that if you're looking to get a job springboard is the answer I have the outcome section this is where I'll share the most important stats that would back up all of these claims one would be a salary increase another would be a 12-month job placement and then how many students are enrolled and finally I have
the apply today it's a very simple website framework I don't think websites should be super long it should be very clear this way you can get the customer to quickly understand your differentiator your value props your testimonials your outcomes and most importantly take action which is to apply today final recap here when it comes to website copy you should keep things simple so it's easy to follow and a B test different headlines and descriptions to see what resonates the most with customers the key is to always be testing even if you have a winning common
Nation because competitors and customers are always changing and so should your messaging that's all for today if you enjoyed this video please give it a like and comment below on what kind of videos you want to see next till next time see you
