Want a simple way to immediately differentiate your brand and the content you create? Develop a brand point of view! I’ve seen tech companies of all types and sizes dramatically accelerate their demand gen results when going all-in on a strategic brand POV. In this post, I’m sharing the various types of POVs to choose from and the framework I use in my workshops to guide clients in developing their POVs.
Why You Need a Brand POV
Developing a brand point of view takes some work. So before we dive into the framework, let’s get clear on why it’s worth the effort. Here’s what a strategic brand POV can do:
Set your brand apart in the marketplace — A clear brand POV gives people a concrete way to think about your brand and quickly differentiates it from competitors.
Create an emotional connection — Aligning with the things your prospects care about creates an emotional connection and makes them feel like you’re on the same team.
Highlight your product’s unique value — Points of view can help demonstrate that you understand your prospects’ most problematic pain points, leading them to believe that your product is the ideal solution.
Establish expertise — A strategic point of view can help you establish your team as experts in the industry, positioned to best meet your prospects’ needs.
Motivate prospects to act sooner rather than later — Most importantly, a point of view can lead prospects to understand the impact of the problems you solve best (and why the status quo is so dangerous).
Types of POVs
You have several options for your brand point of view. The type you choose will depend on your audience, product, and brand.
The Values-Based POV
One of the most common types is the values-based brand POV. It’s so common because it’s incredibly effective when it aligns with your audience’s values.
A values-based POV is also a great word-of-mouth generator, as people who aren’t even in the market for your product get excited about what you stand for and start talking about it.
Tip: Choose a values-based POV if your product or the problem you solve overlaps with an ethical issue your audience is passionate about.
Aurora Solar is using this POV with its focus on climate action and solar energy adoption.
The Vision of the Future POV
Your vision of the future might be to transform the status quo of your industry or to transform the lives of the people you serve. This POV is powerful because it gives prospects a concrete way to picture what they can expect when using your product and connects them to the exciting mission you aim to fulfill.
Tip: Choose this type of POV if you’re doing things very differently from others in your industry or if you can honestly say that you’re changing lives.
A great example is Marathon Health’s POV that the healthcare industry should be held accountable for patient health outcomes.
The Shared Enemy POV
When you identify an enemy that your prospects and customers are driven to overcome and then position your company as an ally in the fight against that enemy, you automatically stand out from competitors. In the process, you can create a movement that spreads, with word of mouth traveling rapidly through your target market segments.
Tip: Choose the shared enemy type if your product solves a pernicious problem that has a significant emotional impact on your prospects.
Metadata uses this type of POV incredibly effectively. In their case, the shared enemy is manual work that keeps teams running ragged and still not reaching their targets.
How to Develop Your Brand POV
Ok, so how do you actually go about developing your brand POVs? Here’s the framework I use in my workshops to guide clients.
1. Start with your primary POV
You can (and should!) develop secondary POVs when you’re building out your content strategy, but start with your primary brand POV and be sure it’s something that truly represents the heart of your brand and speaks to the value you deliver. Then, all the brainstorming and thinking you’ve done to land on your primary can be used to develop the secondaries.
2. Use the following questions to brainstorm:
- Is the problem you solve one that relates to values or ethics?
- Why do your customers care about solving this problem?
- Why was your product born?
- What would the world look like if everyone in your target audience was using your product?
- What do you do differently than most others in your industry?
- What’s wrong with the way the majority of your industry does things?
- What makes your prospects angry or frustrated?
3. Go through the answers you wrote down to the questions above
Circle/highlight any emotional phrases or action verbs that are tied to meaningful outcomes. Now, look at your answers through the eyes of a prospect and consider:
- What gets you fired up?
- What makes you feel seen?
- What fills you with hope?
The insights you uncover in this exercise should provide direction for POVs that would be meaningful and effective for your target audience.
4. Consolidate your ideas
By now you should have several ideas for a primary POV, some of which will overlap. Consolidate your ideas and pick the top three that are most promising.
5. Test!
The best way to find out whether a POV will resonate with your audience is to test it with people who fit your ideal customer profile. You can do this informally via phone/video interviews, conduct a market research survey, or incorporate your POV into your website messaging and test it via a service like Wynter.
Share Your POV
Of course, a brand point of view is only effective if you share it! Ideally, you’ll weave your POVs into all your marketing — from your website to your demand gen content to your events and your sales materials. As prospects associate your POV with your brand, they’ll immediately see why you’re different and why your difference matters to them.
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