In the world of online education and information products, positioning is arguably the most critical factor for success. But what exactly is positioning in this context, and how has it evolved?
Let’s explore this concept through the lens of some influential marketing thinkers and the books they wrote on the topic. You’ll see how the conversation about positioning has evolved and discover the hidden truth about its importance when it comes to thriving as an online education entrepreneur.
The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Our journey begins in 1961 with Reality in Advertising by American advertising executive Rosser Reeves. Reeves introduced the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) — a specific, compelling benefit unique to a product that sets it apart from competitors in a way that they cannot or will not replicate. A classic example is the enduring M&M’s slogan: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Fast forward to 1980, when Jack Trout and Al Ries released Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. They shifted focus from product attributes to the prospect’s perception. In other words, positioning transcends the USP by focusing on how your audience thinks about your brand and your products, not just what your product does.
Purple Cows and Liars
Seth Godin further developed these ideas with Purple Cow (2003) and All Marketers are Liars (2005). Godin emphasized the importance of being remarkable and creating a compelling narrative that resonates with your audience or “telling people a story they want to hear.” It’s not enough to be unique; you must generate conversation and create a narrative people want to engage with.
Made to Stick: Creating Lasting Impact
In 2007, Chip and Dan Heath wrote Made to Stick, which explored what makes ideas endure. While not positioned as a marketing book, it nonetheless builds on previous positioning concepts. It examines how to create differentiated messages that not only stand out but also leave an enduring, lasting impression.
Play Bigger and Category Pirates
The current iteration of positioning theory lies in the realm of what’s known as category design, a concept introduced in the book Play Bigger (2016) by authors Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney. Lochhead and other partners in the Category Pirates Substack have expanded upon these ideas.
The Meta-Lesson: Positioning in Action
Interestingly, each of these books serves as a prime example of positioning in the information product space. They all discuss similar core concepts but differentiate themselves through context, presentation, and language.
The objective of “category design” and the USP are literally the same — to stand alone in the marketplace. And this is exactly what Trout and Reis were talking about with Positioning and Godin with Purple Cow and All Marketers are Liars, just said in a new and different way.
The Category Pirates betray the fact that category design is, at best, merely a different way of explaining positioning with their advocacy for “languaging.” This simply means that you find a fresh and unique way of talking about a concept or idea that already exists to present it as new and different.
Godin even gave us a striking example of a positioning fail, thanks to the language he chose. His attempt to grab attention with the title All Marketers Are Liars (an edgy way to say “storytellers”) resulted in a backlash from his target audience and, ultimately, the retitling of the book in future editions.
This demonstrates a crucial lesson for online educators: positioning for online courses is an exercise in creative adaptation. Information is just dry facts and figures, but how you choose to present that information makes all the difference (no pun intended). In fact, this is why I use the term winning difference when discussing positioning in general.
Even when covering similar ground, you can create unique value by:
Adapting to changing contexts
Presenting information in novel ways
Applying concepts to new fields or audiences
As an online education entrepreneur, consider how you can position your courses or information products:
What unique benefit do you offer?
How do you want to be perceived in your students’ minds?
What remarkable story can you tell about your offering?
How can you present familiar concepts in fresh, engaging ways?
Remember, the world of online education is competitive, but that creates opportunities. By thoughtfully positioning your training products, you can stand out and provide genuine value to your audience, even when teaching timeless fundamentals or well-known principles.
Positioning is Your Means of Production
When it comes to marketing, positioning is an essential aspect of how you formulate your messages. Whether you’re selling toothpaste or enterprise-level software, your ideal prospect guides how you position the product in the marketplace with words, packaging, and pricing.
However, when selling information products in general, and online education in particular, your product is made up of messages. The particular words, stories, metaphors, and analogies are dictated by what will best resonate with your ideal audience of learners. That makes positioning part of your product development process in addition to how you sell the product.
Fortunately, the process laid out in the Empowerment Marketing Toolkit allows you to discover your means of production as an online education entrepreneur. It reveals “what to say and how to say it” in a way that allows you to develop training programs that better hit the mark for your audience, even as you refine and improve your course materials from student feedback.
Let’s revisit the positioning aspect of the Empowerment Marketing Framework. The F.A.S.T. framework is designed to help you find and execute your winning difference based on the work you’ve already done to define your unique mission and movement.
Find Your Brand Expression
I’m a big fan of creating brands for my projects that communicate something meaningful to my ideal prospects right off the bat. Both Further and Unemployable are metaphors that express part of the overall story I’m trying to convey.
Even Copyblogger was perfectly positioned with its odd portmanteau when I launched it. Today, the historical positioning is lost on people, but it has become a brand that stands for something based on its reputation that transcends its literal meaning.
Duct Tape Marketing is an online education company whose brand is an example of metaphorical positioning that instantly communicates the underlying values of the company and its founder. It’s a great starting point for creating your own values-based brand.
Announce Your Difference
Now, it’s time to announce your positioning beyond your brand. And by “announce,” I don’t mean you claim to be different. I mean that you consistently demonstrate your difference with every message you put out into the world.
It starts with your website copy, especially your About page. Your About page is not really about you; it’s about the intersectional unity you share with your intended audience. This is where you discuss your values, illustrate your mission, and promise to solve their problem as their mentor.
You don’t have to literally use words like mission, movement, mentor, or manifesto. That’s missing the point. Those elements are part of the mindset that guides your About page copy, which is like a mini sales page where you “sell” people on opting in to your “Unity Magnet” content that establishes a common bond.
Separate From the Status Quo
We think in terms of movements because they are always a move away from the status quo. And that means they’re inherently new and different, which means you’re satisfying one of the core tenets of effective positioning, marketing, and storytelling.
When people belong to a specific group, they demonstrate signifiers of their group identity. When I was growing up in Houston, beyond the typical Breakfast Club roles of jocks, nerds, and punks, there were the “kickers,” who dressed in western/cowboy gear even though they’d never worked on a ranch a day in their lives. Today, I live in Boulder, where cyclists walk around in spandex as a signifier — even in places where you’d think it wasn’t appropriate.
Online education is all about the content as a signifier. And people indicate that they’re part of your “tribe” by sharing content through social media, email forwards, and other forms of word-of-mouth. What people share online reflects who they are, what they believe, and where they belong.
Turn Away the Other
Finally, it’s just as essential to turn away the wrong people as it is to attract the right people. In fact, if you’re strongly attracting and engaging with the right people, you should naturally be repelling the wrong people.
This is often where your villain comes in. People who don’t agree with your characterization of a conceptual enemy will naturally not gravitate toward you and your message. But those who do will gravitate toward you strongly. This is what you want, and you can’t be shy about stating your mission and values loudly and proudly.
Again, this isn’t about attacking other people directly. The critical thing to remember when you move away from the status quo is that people who like or are benefitting from the way things have always been aren’t going to appreciate it. Good. That’s exactly what you want to become a leader to those who desire a new and different direction.
Six Proven Ways to Uniquely Position Your Training Program
To attract a profitable audience, you need new ideas for solving problems. A fresh opportunity to finally succeed when other approaches have failed.
Novel ideas are new mental frames of reference. In dictionary terms, that means a set of ideas or facts that a person accepts and influences their behavior, opinions, or decisions.
Ultimately, reframing is simply changing the context of an existing idea to enhance relevance to a particular audience. So, to craft a relevant message, you have to understand the context in which your prospect currently thinks or their existing frame of reference.
Another way to approach this is to start with your own worldview and attract people who see things as you do. That allows you to “color inside the frame” while still presenting a unique point of view.
That will enable you to pick a congruent frame that is authentic to you yet still resonates with your specific audience. Here are six approaches that work.
1. Timeless Principles in a New Context
Apply classic wisdom to modern situations. For example, Seth Godin’s “Tribes” reframes cult psychology for business leadership, while Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” has been adapted for various fields.
Potential course idea: “The Benjamin Franklin Guide to Small Business Success”
2. Industry Insider
Share valuable insights from your professional experience that others might overlook. Claude Hopkins’ Schlitz beer campaign is a classic example of turning industry standards into compelling marketing.
Potential course idea: “What Your Broker Won’t Tell You: Real Secrets to Success in the New World of Real Estate Investment”
3. Cross-Industry Positioning
Apply concepts from one field to another seemingly unrelated area. Henry Ford revolutionized car manufacturing by borrowing ideas from meat-packing plants.
Potential course idea: “Referral Marketing Networks for Professionals” (adapting online marketing tools for traditional service providers)
4. Lateral Thinking
Identify underlying similarities between apparently unrelated topics to create innovative hybrids. This approach requires looking beyond conventional categorizations.
Potential course idea: “Zen and the Art of the Stay-At-Home Dad”
5. Tell a Better Story
Find new, engaging ways to present familiar information. Examples include Tony Robbins humanizing NLP principles and Malcolm Gladwell making cognitive science accessible through storytelling.
Potential course idea: “How to Become an Internet Celebrity in 90 Days” (applying social psychology to online marketing)
6. Packaging
Transform existing information through innovative presentation and delivery methods. Interactive online courses can breathe new life into traditional textbook material.
Potential course idea: A comprehensive alternative medicine course featuring multimedia content and expert collaborations
In Summary
When it comes to effective teaching, how you position the instructional messages is the key to both your product development process and your marketing strategy. It requires careful consideration of your audience, your unique strengths, and the competitive landscape. Applying the F.A.S.T framework via one or more of these six reframing strategies allows you to create genuine value for your specific learners. And that’s how you develop a standout training online education program in even the most crowded markets.