There are thousands of crowdfunding campaigns happening every day, so its vital that you can grab your audience’s attention and have them immediately understand why your offer is suited to them. If you don’t get their attention your campaign will fail. In this blog we at wowyourcrowd will help you learn how to create a product positioning statement that will set your campaign up for success.

Positioning is the act of defining why your product is the best at doing a particular thing and why the defined target audience cares a lot about it. Get your positioning statement right and you will knock the competition for six, making more sales and increasing revenues faster. Positioning is fundamental to all forms of marketing, from content written, to campaigns launched and sales pitches made.

Your product positioning statement lays the foundations to all of your crowdfunding, advertising, marketing and selling activities. Most businesses and start ups fail to develop a positioning statement and if they do make one, you can bet the attempt is fairly generic and doesn’t deliver what a well thought out and developed positioning statement should do.

The following 6 steps will help you to create an effective positioning statement which you can use for your crowdfunding campaign and beyond.

1. Competitive Alternatives
The competitive alternatives is what your audience would do if your product didn’t exist, what would they use or do instead? When developing your product its vital you are an expert on the different solutions on the market – list all of the advantages and disadvantages to the alternatives. Remember not all alternatives to your product will be another product – it may be the user doesn’t do anything or instead hires a student to carry out the arduous work.
Really understand what your customers compare your solution with.

2. Unique Attributes
Your products unique attributes are the capabilities or features that your offering has, that the competitive alternatives don’t have. They are your secret sauce; what differentiates you from the competition. The attributes can range from the features you offer, to the materials you use, the process used to produce the product, your team’s experience, a particular skill set, technology involved etc. List down all of your products attributes. When developing a product particularly for crowdfunding its important your product is completely different and unique to what has come before.

3. Value
Value is formed from your products attributes and the benefits those attributes provide. Value is the reason your audience will care about your products attributes. Be sure to explain the physical and emotional benefits your product provides and then back this up with proof. For example your product is a camera, which films in 20 mega pixels (feature) that provides sharp photo images (benefit). The value is how this relates to the user’s goals, i.e. images can be zoomed in or printed in large format and still look sharp.

4. Target market characteristics
Generally the value your product provides is relevant to a large amount of people but as a start-up particularly when crowdfunding your advertising budget is likely to be minimal, so its vital you target an audience who are ready and hungry to buy your product straight away. Your positioning statement should clearly identify who these people are. Your ideal audience are the customers who buy quickly, rarely ask for discounts and tell their friends about your product.

5. Market Category
Market categories help users to understand what they don’t know about your product as they will naturally associate your product with other leading products on the market. For example you say your product is a luxury men’s sports watch – people automatically think of a brand like Tag Heuer. The positive (or negative) connotations of Tag Heuer’s brand will automatically help the user to position your product in their mind. Choose your category wisely and this will have a very positive effect on your brand.

6. Relevant Trends
Positioning your product with a certain market category is very beneficial, however what is even better is also associating a ‘relevant trend’ to the product. This has the effect of making your product relevant now in your customer’s mind. Use Google trends to research what trends are in fashion and see if one fits with your product.

We at wowyourcrowd believe that a well thought out product positioning statement will help you with your crowdfunding campaign whether you are making a crowdfunding video or planning the marketing for your project. Use the above tips to help create the best positioning statement and skyrocket your product’s success!