How to Write Technical Blog Posts that People Actually Want to Read

By David Ronald  

Okay, let’s be honest.  

Technical blog posts have a problem.  

Too often, they're written as if the primary objective is to prove that the author understands the technology. 

The result is technically accurate, thoroughly researched, and about as fun to read as a software manual.  

But it doesn't have to be that way.   

The best technical content does two things at once: it makes the reader smarter and gives them a reason to keep reading. 

In this blog post I explain how complex ideas can be written about in a way that feels clear, relevant and, ideally, enjoyable.

Let the Writing have Personality

Character comes from small things: a strong opinion, a little humor, a short sentence for emphasis, or an observation that makes the reader think, "Exactly." 

We've all seen the architecture diagram with 47 boxes and approximately 900 arrows, and that kind of observation can communicate more personality than another paragraph about "increasing architectural complexity." 

You don't need to make every sentence funny, either. In fact, please don't. A technical blog shouldn't read like a stand-up routine written by an engineer who just discovered coffee. 

The goal is simply to sound like a person rather than a documentation generator. 

Conversational language, varied sentence length and occasional humor can make even complicated technical subjects feel much more approachable. 

Begin with an Idea

Don't begin by defining the technology. 

Begin with something interesting that creates a question in the reader's mind. Instead of saying, "Artificial intelligence is transforming manufacturing," try something like: "The most expensive data in a semiconductor fab may be the data nobody can find." Now you've created curiosity, and the reader wants to know why that might be true. 

That's what a good opening should do. 

It shouldn't immediately tell readers everything they need to know; it should give them a reason to continue reading.  

A strong observation, surprising fact, provocative question or counterintuitive argument can be much more effective than the traditional opening that tells us a technology is "rapidly transforming the landscape." 

At this point, the landscape has been transformed so many times that it probably needs a break.

Have a Point of View

Technical content becomes much more interesting when the author believes something.  

Don't simply explain that companies are adopting multimodal AI; tell readers what you think about it and why it matters.  

For example: "Adding another AI model isn't going to solve the problem of fragmented manufacturing data. The real challenge is giving AI the context to understand what that data means." 

Now there's an argument.  

The reader can agree, disagree or keep reading to find out whether you're right. That's much more engaging than simply presenting a collection of facts and hoping someone makes an interesting conclusion from them.

Explain Why the Technology Matters

Technical explanations are most effective when they begin with a real problem rather than a definition. 

Rather than immediately explaining how retrieval-augmented generation works, start with the problem: an LLM can be remarkably good at answering questions, and remarkably confident when it doesn't know the answer.  

Then explain how RAG addresses that problem. 

The technology becomes easier to understand because the reader already knows why it matters. A useful formula is problem → why existing approaches fall short → technology → practical consequence. 

This approach provides technical depth while keeping the reader focused on the bigger picture instead of making them wade through three paragraphs of terminology before discovering why any of it matters.

Tell Stories and Use Examples

Even highly technical subjects benefit from storytelling. 

Instead of saying, "Engineers need to correlate information from multiple sources," describe the engineer investigating a failed component: opening a failure report, searching historical test results, examining an image, checking a spreadsheet and asking whether anyone has seen the same problem before. 

Now the reader can see the problem rather than simply being told about it. 

Once they understand the situation, they're much more receptive to an explanation of how technology can help. 

Concrete questions, workflows and scenarios are particularly effective because they turn abstract capabilities into something readers can visualize. "AI can analyze multimodal data" is abstract. "Can we find every previous failure that looks like this one?" is a question a real person might actually ask.

Don't confuse complexity with expertise

Technical credibility doesn't come from using the most jargon or explaining every possible technical detail.  

It comes from knowing which details matter and leaving the rest out. A good test is simple: Am I explaining this because the reader needs to know it, or because I want to demonstrate that I know it? 

If it's the second, cut it. The strongest technical writers understand that expertise isn't demonstrated by making something complicated; it's demonstrated by making something complicated understandable. 

That's especially important when writing for business audiences, who usually care less about how a technology works in isolation than what it enables them to do.  

The goal is to make technical writing more human. The best technical blog posts leave readers thinking two things: "I learned something," and, just as importantly, "I actually enjoyed reading that." 

If you can accomplish both, you've done something considerably harder than explaining the technology. You've made someone want to read the next paragraph. 

Thanks for reading my blog post. 

Are you interested in discussing how to write blog posts that people actually want to read? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.

Why Your Content Strategy Needs to Change

By David Ronald  

So, for years, content marketers have followed a simple strategy. 

Identify the keywords customers are searching for, create content around those keywords, optimize the content for search engines, drive traffic to a website, and convert that traffic into leads.

But something fundamental is changing…

Buyers are increasingly using AI to discover information, research problems, compare solutions and decide what to explore next.

And that means your content strategy needs to change with it. 

 

In this blog post I explore how to make the most of the changes and re-tune your content strategy. 

Search Is Becoming a Conversation

We marketers know that traditional search is based largely on keywords.  

For example, a buyer might search, "Best customer data platform for B2B companies."

But AI-powered search allows that same buyer to ask something much more complicated, such as, "We're a 500-person B2B SaaS company with a fragmented customer data environment. What should we look for in a customer data platform, which vendors are strongest for companies our size, and what are the biggest implementation risks?"

And that's a very different search experience.

Google describes this as a more conversational approach to search, allowing users to ask longer and more complex questions and continue with follow-up questions.

For we marketers, this creates an important shift…  

The goal now is no longer simply to rank for a keyword but to become one of the sources an AI system considers valuable when answering a customer's question. 

It's About Answer Optimization

Now, I’m not suggesting that keywords no longer matter.

They do. 

But we marketers need to think beyond individual keywords and start thinking about the questions behind those keywords.

For example, a company selling sales enablement software shouldn't just create content around "sales enablement software."  It should answer questions such as: 

• What is sales enablement?
• When does a company need sales enablement software?
• What should you look for in a sales enablement platform?
• How much does sales enablement software cost?
• What are the most common implementation challenges?
• How does sales enablement software compare with a traditional LMS?
• Which sales enablement metrics should companies track?
• What should a company do before purchasing sales enablement software?

These questions address different stages of the buying journey.

And collectively, they provide something much more valuable than a collection of keyword-optimized articles: a comprehensive body of knowledge around a customer's problem. 

Commodity Content Won't Cut It

AI is making it easy to create mediocre content, and a marketer can ask an AI tool to write an article about virtually any topic in seconds.

As a result, the internet is becoming increasingly saturated with generic articles that repeat information already available elsewhere. 

And this creates a problem for marketers.

If your article simply says what everyone else has already said, why should an AI system, or a human buyer, consider it particularly valuable?

Which is where original thinking becomes a competitive advantage. 

Authority Matters More Than Ever

There's another major change marketers need to understand. 

AI systems can draw on information from across the web. That means your company's visibility on third-party websites, industry publications, communities, podcasts, analyst sites and other authoritative sources can influence how your company is understood.

This makes traditional content marketing increasingly interconnected with brand building and digital authority.

Consider this scenario: 

• Company A publishes 100 articles on its own website but has almost no independent recognition.
• Company B publishes fewer articles but is frequently mentioned by customers, industry publications, analysts, podcasts and other respected sources.

Which company is more likely to be perceived as an authority? 

Don't Abandon SEO

None of this means SEO is dead. I’m not saying that. 

In fact, Google's own guidance makes the opposite point: many established SEO practices remain relevant for AI-powered search. 

But SEO should become part of a larger strategy.  

 And, at the end of the day, I like to think of it this way: great SEO helps search engines find and understand your content. A strong content strategy gives them something worth finding. And brand authority gives them a reason to trust it.  

That's a much more powerful combination in my opinion. 

Measure More Than Traffic

Finally, AI search requires marketers to rethink measurement.

Website traffic will continue to matter. But it shouldn't be the only metric.

We marketers should increasingly pay attention to questions such as: 

• What topics are we associated with?
• Which competitors are being recommended alongside us?
• What sources are AI systems citing when discussing our category?
• Are customers and third parties reinforcing the same positioning we communicate
• Is our content influencing pipeline?

Some of these measurements are still emerging.

And that's okay because, after all, the behavior of buyers is changing faster than the traditional marketing measurement stack. 

Conclusion

Some of the people that I speak with  view AI search as a threat to organic traffic.

But I think that's too narrow a perspective…  

In my opinion the companies that will mean in this new era are going to be the ones that develop the strongest point of view. This means: 

• They'll understand the questions their customers are asking.
• They'll create content that answers those questions better than anyone else.
• They'll build authority both on and off their websites.

And they'll make sure their brand is consistently associated with the problems and categories they want to own.

The AI search revolution is about creating content that is so useful, distinctive and authoritative that both machines and humans recognize its value.

And that’s a much bigger, and much more interesting, content marketing opportunity.

Thanks for reading my blog post.

Are you interested in discussing how to change your content strategy to take advantage of the Ai search revolution? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.

Tolerating Bad Employees is the Fastest Way to Lose Good Ones

By Sharon Lee

Let's be honest.

Every workplace has difficult people.

They may create unnecessary conflict, undermine morale, blame others for their mistakes, or create an environment where people feel like they have to walk on eggshells.

Most leaders recognize these people, but the real problem isn't always the behavior itself. It's what happens when leaders see it and choose not to address it.

Perhaps the person is a strong individual contributor.

Perhaps they get on well with customers. 

Or perhaps they’ve have knowledge of the more arcane aspects of a business. 

So instead of addressing the behavior, everyone else is expected to work around it.

And while that might seem like the easier option in the short term, it can create a much bigger problem over time.

 In this blog post I explain why tolerating bad employees is the fastest way to lose good ones. 

Your Good Employees Are Watching

Here's something leaders sometimes forget: your best employees are paying attention.

They notice when someone consistently misses commitments and nothing happens. They see when a colleague treats people poorly but continues to be rewarded. They notice when someone takes credit for other people's work or creates problems that everyone else has to clean up.

They may not say anything, but they're forming an opinion about the organization and its leadership.  

Eventually, they start asking themselves some uncomfortable questions. 

• Why am I working so hard when this person isn't?
• Why does leadership allow this to continue?
• Does anyone actually care about how people treat each other here?

Those questions can gradually turn frustration into disengagement, and disengagement can eventually turn into a job search. 

What You Tolerate Becomes Part of Your Culture

Leaders often talk about culture as though it's something created through values, mission statements and company offsites.

But culture is also defined by what leaders allow to happen.

If someone consistently behaves badly and there are no consequences, employees receive a very clear message: this behavior is acceptable here.

And once that message takes hold, it can spread. People become less willing to speak up, collaboration becomes harder, and trust starts to disappear.

Good employees may begin doing only what is necessary rather than going the extra mile.  

The irony is that the person creating the problem may be perfectly comfortable while the people who are actually contributing to the organization become increasingly frustrated. 

Accountability Doesn't Mean Being a Tough Boss

Addressing bad behavior doesn't mean becoming the boss everyone is afraid of.

It means being willing to have honest conversations when something is hurting the team.

Sometimes that means setting clearer expectations. Sometimes it means coaching someone who genuinely doesn't realize how their behavior affects other people. And sometimes, it means making the difficult decision that someone's behavior is no longer compatible with the organization.

The goal isn't to punish people or create a culture where everyone is afraid of making a mistake.

The goal is to create an environment where people understand that how they treat their colleagues matters. 

Don't Make Your Best People Pay the Price

One of the biggest mistakes a leader can make is assuming their best employees will always stick around because they're committed to the company.

They won't necessarily.

Good employees have choices, and when they repeatedly see bad behavior being tolerated, they may eventually decide that finding a healthier environment is easier than continuing to deal with the situation.

Think about the cost of that decision.

You can spend years recruiting great people, developing them, earning their trust and building them into important contributors. Then you can lose them because you weren't willing to deal with one person's behavior.

That's an incredibly expensive trade-off.  

So, if you want to retain your best people, pay attention to the environment you're asking them to work in. 

Final Thoughts

When good employees see that bad behavior is tolerated, they begin to question whether their contributions, values, and well-being are truly valued by the organization.

They start questioning the leadership that allows it and whether those in positions of authority are willing to address problems when they arise.

Over time, this can erode trust, morale, and engagement, especially among the employees who consistently do the right thing.

Eventually, high-performing employees may start asking themselves a difficult question: If this behavior is accepted here, is this really an organization I want to be part of?

Thanks for reading my blog post.

Are you interested in discussing how to attain the most from your best employees? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email address is shamikodesign@gmail.com – I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Turning Customer Insights into Better Marketing

By David Ronald  

Customer insights are one of most valuable resources for marketers.  

Yet they remain one of the most underutilized.  

Many organizations collect enormous amounts of customer data yet struggle to turn that information into decisions that improve marketing performance.  

They know how many people visited their website, opened an email, downloaded a report, or requested a demo, but they don't always understand why customers behave the way they do.  

Customer analysis is a powerful tool that goes beyond collecting demographic information or tracking website activity.  

It is about developing a deeper understanding of who your customers are, what they need, what problems they are trying to solve, what influences their buying decisions, and more.  

When those insights are translated into action, customer analysis can improve virtually every part of the marketing process, from positioning and messaging to content, demand generation, campaigns, sales enablement, and customer retention. 

In this blog post I examine how to turn the insights you glean from your customers into better marketing.

What Is Customer Analysis?

Customer analysis is the systematic process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about current, prospective, and former customers. 

The goal isn't simply to create a customer profile. The goal is to identify patterns that can help marketing make better decisions.

A comprehensive customer analysis might examine:

• Who your most valuable customers are.
• The problems that motivate them to seek a solution.
• Their biggest objections and concerns.
• How they research potential solutions.
• Why prospects choose not to buy.
• Why existing customers renew, expand, or leave.

The most important question is, "What can we learn from our customers that should change the way we market?". It’s not simply, "Who are our customers?".

That distinction is critical.

Start With the Right Customer Data

Customer analysis can draw on many different sources. 

Conversations with customer success teams, customer survey and in-person interviews, interactions with support teams, and product reviews all provide valuable information.  

Moreover CRM data can reveal purchasing patterns and customer characteristics, website analytics can show what prospects are researching, marketing automation platforms can identify content engagement, and sales conversations can reveal objections and questions that aren't obvious in quantitative data. 

For example, a technology company might initially believe that its primary differentiator is its sophisticated technology but interviews with customers might reveal that buyers actually value something much simpler: the company's ability to reduce implementation time.

That insight can fundamentally change the marketing strategy.

Instead of emphasizing technical capabilities, marketing could reposition the product around faster implementation and reduced operational disruption. 

The lesson is simple: what your company thinks customers value and what customers actually value aren't always the same thing. 

Use Customer Insights to Improve Segmentation

One of the first areas where customer analysis can improve marketing is segmentation.

Many companies segment customers using basic characteristics such as industry, geography, company size, or job title. These characteristics can be useful, but they don't necessarily explain buying behavior.

Behavioral and needs-based segmentation can be much more powerful.  

Suppose, for example, a software company discovers that its customers fall into three distinct groups: 

1. Efficiency seekers want to automate manual processes.
2. Growth seekers want to use the product to support expansion.
3. Risk reducers primarily want to improve compliance, security, or operational reliability.

All three groups may use the same product, but they have very different motivations.

Marketing can therefore develop different messages, content, campaigns, and customer journeys for each segment.

So, instead of saying, "Our platform helps businesses improve operations," marketing might say: 

• "Automate the work slowing down your team."
• "Build the operational foundation for your next stage of growth."
• "Reduce operational risk without adding complexity."

The product hasn't changed, but the understanding of the customer has. 

Improve Positioning and Messaging

Customer analysis can also reveal whether your positioning reflects the way customers really think about your product.

Consider a company that markets itself as an "AI-powered analytics platform." That description may accurately explain the technology, but it doesn't necessarily communicate why customers should care.

Customer interviews might reveal that buyers aren't particularly interested in AI. What they really want is to identify revenue opportunities faster and make better decisions without relying on analysts to manually assemble reports.

That insight provides a much stronger foundation for positioning.

The company could move from, "An AI-powered analytics platform" to, "Turn complex business data into actionable insights in minutes."  

The technology remains part of the story, but it is no longer the story. 

Create More Relevant Content

Customer insights can dramatically improve content marketing as well.  

Many organizations create content based on what their internal teams believe customers should know. A better approach is to identify the questions customers are actually asking. 

Sales calls are an excellent source of these insights. 

Imagine a sales team repeatedly hearing prospects ask: 

• How difficult is implementation?
• How long will it take to see results?
• Can we integrate it with our existing systems?
• What happens if our team doesn't adopt it?
• How does it compare with doing this internally?

Those questions are telling marketing exactly what content to create.

Instead of producing another generic industry report, marketing could develop an implementation guide, integration checklist, ROI calculator, comparison guide, or customer story addressing those specific concerns.  

The result is content that supports the actual buying journey rather than simply filling an editorial calendar. 

Improve Demand Generation

Customer analysis can also make demand-generation programs more effective.

Suppose analysis shows that your highest-value customers typically engage with three types of content before becoming sales opportunities: customer case studies, product comparison content, and ROI-related resources.

That insight can influence campaign strategy.

Rather than distributing a broad mix of content to everyone, marketing could build campaigns around those specific information needs.

For example, an account-based marketing campaign targeting senior executives might lead with a business-outcome-oriented customer story, followed by an ROI assessment and then a product comparison.

The campaign becomes more relevant because it reflects how real customers evaluate the category.

Customer analysis can also help marketing identify which channels produce valuable customers rather than simply generating leads.  

A channel producing 1,000 leads may appear more successful than one producing 200 leads but, if the smaller channel generates twice as many qualified opportunities and significantly higher customer lifetime value, it may actually be the better investment. 

Strengthen Sales and Marketing Alignment

Customer analysis is particularly valuable for improving the relationship between sales and marketing.

Sales teams often have direct access to customer insights that never make their way into marketing strategy; marketing can change this by systematically capturing information from sales conversations.  

For example, marketing could conduct a monthly analysis of: 

• Frequently asked questions.
• The most common prospect objections.
• Reasons opportunities were lost.
• Reasons opportunities were won.
• Features customers value most.

These insights can then inform messaging, campaigns, content, sales enablement, and product marketing.  

If sales reports that prospects consistently believe a competitor is easier to implement, marketing shouldn't simply tell sales to "handle the objection." 

It should investigate the perception. 

Perhaps the competitor really is easier to implement. Perhaps the perception comes from stronger messaging. Or perhaps your company actually has a faster implementation process but has never communicated it effectively. 

Customer analysis can turn those conversations into marketing intelligence. 

Use Customer Analysis to Improve Retention

Customer analysis shouldn't stop once someone becomes a customer.

Understanding why customers stay, expand, or leave can reveal opportunities to improve both marketing and the customer experience. 

For example, suppose churn analysis shows that customers who don't engage with a particular product feature within their first 60 days are significantly more likely to leave.

That insight can trigger a marketing intervention. 

• Customer marketing could develop an onboarding campaign designed specifically to drive adoption of that feature.
• Customer success teams could receive targeted messaging and resources.
• Marketing could create educational content that demonstrates the feature’s business value.  

This creates a continuous feedback loop in which customer behavior generates insights, those insights inform marketing actions, and those actions ultimately lead to better customer outcomes. 

Conclusion

In my experience the best marketing organizations are the ones that know how to turn customer data into customer understanding, and customer understanding into action.

Customer insights can influence virtually every aspect of your go-to-market strategy, from refining your positioning and sharpening website messaging to identifying the audiences you should target and the content you should create.  

They can also uncover new opportunities for demand generation, equip sales with better ways to address objections, and, in some cases, even influence the direction of the product roadmap.

That is why customer analysis should be viewed as a strategic capability.

Ultimately, the goal isn't to know more about your customers, but to use what you know about them to make better marketing decisions.

Thanks for reading.

Are you interested in using customer insights to improve your marketing? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you. 

Make Creativity a Daily Choice

By Sharon Lee 

I don’t know about you, but I find that staying creative is one of the hardest things to do.  

Life has a predictable cycle of routines, responsibilities, meetings, deadlines, and obligations.  

And, frankly, I love much of it. There is something satisfying about having structure and knowing what needs to get done.  

But there’s a downside.  

When I go too long without being creative, I feel like a lesser version of myself. I’m still productive. I’m still accomplishing things. But something is missing. 

That’s because creativity isn’t something we can simply turn on when we need it. It’s a muscle. And like any muscle, it needs to be exercised.  

Creativity requires intention.  

It requires creating space to think differently, explore new ideas, and make unexpected connections, even when everything around us pushes us toward repetition.  

So, in this blog post I explain why I’m recommitting to staying creative, no matter what life puts in my path. And how you can too.

1. Stay curious

Read about topics outside your expertise.  

Talk to people who have different experiences and perspectives. Follow your curiosity even when there is no obvious connection to your work.  

The more diverse the inputs, the more interesting the ideas you can generate.

2. Protect time to think

Creativity needs space.  

Go for a long walk in the forest. Take a bike ride through the park. Sit somewhere without your phone and simply let your mind wander.  

Some of our best ideas emerge when we stop trying so hard to have them.

3. Embrace constraints

We often think creativity requires unlimited freedom.  

The opposite can be true.  

Constraints force us to find new approaches. Limited time, resources, or information can push us beyond the obvious solution and toward something more inventive.

4. Discuss your ideas

Don’t keep every idea in your head.  

Share your thinking with friends, colleagues, or people you trust. Someone else’s question or perspective can take an unfinished idea somewhere you never expected.  

Creativity is often collaborative.

5. Capture ideas wherever they happen

Great ideas rarely arrive when it’s convenient.  

Keep a place to capture thoughts, observations, questions, and interesting connections before they disappear. A notebook, notes app, or voice memo can become a surprisingly powerful creative tool.

6. Create before you consume

Before opening email, scrolling through social media, or consuming everyone else’s ideas, create something of your own.  

Write. Sketch. Think.  

Even 15 minutes can make a difference. Start the day by contributing something to the world rather than simply consuming what others have created.

7. Break your routine

Take a different route. Work from somewhere new. Try something you’ve never done before.  

Routine makes life easier, but breaking routine gives your brain new inputs, and new inputs create new possibilities. 

Final Thoughts

The goal isn’t to become more creative overnight. It’s to create the conditions where creativity can happen consistently.  

Because in a world designed to keep us busy, distracted, and consuming, staying creative is a choice.  

And I’m choosing creativity.  

Thanks for reading my blog post.  

Are you interested in becoming more creative? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email address is shamikodesign@gmail.com – I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

If Your Positioning is Weak, Your Messaging Won’t Save You

By David Ronald  

What is a common reaction to slowing growth?  

It’s, "We need to fix our messaging."  

And this is often accompanied by a variety of actions that include reviewing the website, brainstorming a new tagline, and a demand for better content.  

Yes, there's nothing wrong with improving your messaging.  

After all, clear, compelling messaging is essential because it helps customers understand who you are, what you do, and why it matters.  

The problem is that messaging often gets blamed for issues that actually stem from weak positioning.  

And, if customers don't understand why you're different or why they should choose you, no amount of polished copy is going to change the outcome. 

In this blog post I examine how to ensure your positioning will enable you to create compelling messaging, along with an impactful website and great content. 

Positioning Comes First

Positioning and messaging are closely connected, but they're not the same thing.  

Positioning answers the big strategic questions: Who are we trying to help? What problem do we solve better than anyone else? Why should customers choose us over the alternatives? What makes us different?  

Messaging takes those answers and translates them into language your customers understand.  

You can think of positioning as deciding what you want to be known for, while messaging is how you communicate it.

If you skip the first step, the second becomes little more than guesswork.

Signs Your Positioning Needs Work

The good news is that weak positioning is usually easy to spot. 

In my experience, it tends to show up in the same ways across companies, regardless of industry or company size. 

You Sound Like Everyone Else

Spend a few minutes browsing the websites of companies in your market.  

You'll probably come across phrases like "best-in-class," "trusted by leading brands", "AI-powered," and so on. 

They're so common that they've lost much of their meaning.  

The real question is whether your messaging would still make sense if someone swapped your logo with a competitor's.  

And, if the answer is “Yes”, your positioning probably isn't strong enough.  

After all, buyers don’t remember companies that stand for something specific.

Sales Leads With Features

When positioning isn't clear, sales teams naturally fall back on what they know best: the product itself.  

Conversations become feature-by-feature demonstrations instead of discussions about business outcomes, competitive advantage, or solving meaningful problems.  

Yes, features certainly matter…but they're rarely the reason customers buy. 

Buyers are looking for confidence that your solution will solve an important problem better than the alternatives. Strong positioning gives sales that story before the product demo ever begins. 

You're Constantly Rewriting the Website

I've seen companies redesign their homepage every year hoping it will improve conversion rates.  

While better design and clearer copy can certainly help, they're often addressing the symptom rather than the cause.  

If visitors don't immediately understand why your company is different, changing the headline isn't going to solve the underlying issue.  

Great websites amplify strong positioning, and they rarely create it.

Prospects Forget You

One of the clearest indicators of weak positioning is simple: prospects struggle to remember what made you different.  

After evaluating several vendors, everything starts to blur together because everyone makes similar claims. 

Companies with strong positioning are much easier to remember: they occupy a distinct place in the customer's mind, making it easier for buyers to explain internally why they're worth considering. 

Strong Positioning Makes Everything Easier

One of the reasons I enjoy working on positioning is that its impact extends far beyond marketing.  

When positioning is clear, marketing knows exactly who it's speaking to and what message will resonate. 

Sales has a compelling story instead of a long list of features, and product teams have a better understanding of which investments will strengthen differentiation.  

And the benefits don't stop there.  

Customer success reinforces the same value customers were promised before they purchased, leadership communicates the company's vision more consistently, and recruiting becomes easier because candidates understand what makes the company unique. 

Positioning isn't a marketing exercise, but a business strategy that creates alignment across the organization.

Weak Positioning Is Expensive

Weak positioning creates costs that often go unnoticed at first. 

Marketing spends more to generate awareness, sales cycles become longer, win rates decline, discounting becomes more common, and product teams chase features instead of sustainable differentiation.  

Individually, those issues may seem manageable – collectively, they slow growth and make it increasingly difficult to compete in crowded markets.

Building Better Positioning

There's no shortcut to building strong positioning. 

It comes from understanding your customers, your competitors, and the market you're trying to serve. 

That means talking to customers, interviewing lost prospects, listening to sales conversations, and looking for patterns that reveal why people choose, or don't choose, your company. 

The strongest positioning also requires making difficult choices. Trying to appeal to everyone usually results in messaging that resonates with no one. The companies that stand out are the ones willing to define exactly who they're for and why they matter.

Stop Starting With the Product

One mistake I see repeatedly is companies trying to build positioning around product features. 

That's understandable because teams invest years developing capabilities they're proud of. The challenge is that customers are buying better outcomes, not features. 

Instead of asking, "What makes our product unique?" ask questions like: “What business problem do we solve best?” “Which customers benefit the most?” “Why do customers choose us instead of the alternatives?” “Why do some prospects decide not to?” 

Those questions almost always uncover stronger positioning than another internal brainstorming session.

Different Is Better Than Better

Almost every company claims to be "better."  

The problem is that every competitor says exactly the same thing, making the claim difficult for buyers to believe. 

Being different is far more powerful than simply saying you're better.  

Perhaps you serve a specific industry, deploy in days instead of months, or solve a problem your competitors overlook.  

Those differences help customers quickly understand where you fit and whether you're the right solution for them.

Conclusion

When growth slows, it's tempting to assume the solution is better messaging. 

A new tagline, a redesigned homepage, or another campaign can feel like tangible progress because those changes are visible and relatively easy to execute.

Before rewriting the words on your website, though, ask a more important question: Are we struggling because our messaging isn't clear…or because our positioning isn't?

When your positioning gives customers a compelling reason to choose you, great messaging simply amplifies that story.

But if the positioning is weak, no amount of copywriting will be enough to overcome it.

Thanks for reading.

Are you interested in improving your positioning? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.

Creating a Newsletter that People Actually Read

By David Ronald

Many marketers that I’ve spoken with believe that a newsletter is essential for their business.

But the truth is, many newsletters miss the mark.

In fact, I rarely read them.

My inbox is filled with newsletters that all look the same.

They announce company news I don't care about, summarize blog posts I've already seen, or try to sell me something in every issue.

Yet I still believe newsletters are one of the most effective marketing tools available to small and medium-sized businesses.  

In this blog post I explore How to create a newsletter that provides value and that people actually want to read. 

Focus on Helping, Not Selling

The first step is to stop thinking of your newsletter as a marketing vehicle and start thinking of it as a resource.

Every edition should answer a question, solve a problem, or teach your audience something they can use immediately.

If readers finish your newsletter feeling smarter than when they opened it, they'll look forward to the next issue.  

When your newsletter consistently helps your audience succeed, sales become a natural byproduct rather than the primary objective. 

Know Who You're Writing For

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is trying to write for everyone.

A local accounting firm shouldn't send the same content to startups, nonprofits, and retirees. A software company shouldn't write the same newsletter for executives, developers, and end users.

The more specific your audience, the more relevant your content becomes.  

Readers are far more likely to engage with content that feels like it was written specifically for them. 

Consistency Beats Frequency

Many businesses launch with ambitious plans to publish every week, only to run out of ideas after a month.

A monthly newsletter is often the better choice. It gives you enough time to create thoughtful, high-quality content while establishing a publishing schedule your audience can count on.  

Keep in mind that our readers would rather receive one outstanding newsletter each month than four mediocre ones. 

Keep the Format Simple

A successful newsletter doesn't need elaborate graphics or complicated layouts.  

A simple format often performs best: 

• A short introduction
• One helpful article
• One practical tip readers can apply immediately
• A link to a useful resource
• A brief call to action

Using the same structure for every issue makes the newsletter easier to produce and easier for readers to consume. 

Share Your Expertise Freely

Too many business owners worry that giving away advice will reduce demand for their services.

In reality, the opposite usually happens.

When people consistently learn something valuable from your newsletter, they begin to trust your expertise.  

And when they're ready to hire someone, they'll naturally think of the company that has been helping them all along. 

Measure What Really Matters

Open rates and click-through rates provide useful information, but they don't tell the whole story.  

Pay attention to the responses that demonstrate genuine engagement: 

• Readers replying to your emails.
• Customers mentioning an article during conversations.
• Prospects requesting meetings after reading your content.
• Referrals generated by newsletter subscribers.

These interactions often reveal far more about your newsletter's effectiveness than analytics alone. 

Final Thoughts

A newsletter shouldn't feel like another item on your marketing checklist. It should become an ongoing conversation with your customers and prospects.

If every issue educates, informs, or inspires your readers, they'll welcome it into their inbox instead of sending it straight to the trash.

The goal here is to become the one newsletter your customers actually look forward to reading.

Thanks for reading.

Are you interested in improving the impact of your newsletter? If so, feel free to get in touch. My email is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.