Positioning - the foundation of content

Good content strategy is not as simple as opening up LinkedIn and firing off a post each day.

Content marketing that adds value, matches your brand voice, and most importantly, resonates with the customer, is only possible with thoughtful positioning.

It only “works” when you understand where customers spend their time, what other voices are part of their media diet, and your startups’ relative positioning against all of the above.

Here is a positioning checklist marketers and founders can use to plan content that cuts through the noise.

1. Who is the one ICP (ideal customer profile) that you want to market to?
   

2. Where do they hang out? What does their media diet look like?
   

3. When or how does your ICP realize they have the problem your product can solve?
   

4. What is the pain that they feel before entering your funnel?
   

5. How do you solve that pain and on what measure does your customer determine how well you solved that pain? 
   

6. How do alternative vendors solve this problem? What makes them choose you over your competitor? And vice versa? Don’t be the best, be different.
   

7. What’s the main cause for inaction (status quo)? Why is the status quo painful?
   

8. What are the topical areas of expertise that can speak about infinitely?
   

9. What are the hot topics in your industry relevant for your specific ICP? (e.g. AI/ML compensation, zero-based budgeting)
   

10. What are the underlying business drivers behind these marketing themes? (reducing costs, compliance, increasing revenue)

By filling out this framework, you can get a better sense of what pieces of content will be relevant to your customer and which will not.

Good luck.