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.
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