Presentation delivered at HostingCon 2013

1. Finding your story
Finding Your Story
Branding & positioning in the hosting industry
Simon West
Chief Marketing Officer

2. “Lead generation is the single most important objective of
any business-to-business marketing department. Other
objectives, such as brand building, <…> are also on the
list, to be sure. But, providing a sales force with a steady
stream of qualified leads is job one.”
Ruth P. Stevens, Maximizing Lead Generation

3. “ If you’re not a
brand, you are a
commodity.”
Phillip Kotler

5. Lead generation
– Brand
Spam

6. 1. Understand your identity
2. Define your position
3. Tell your story

7. Understand your identity
Culture
Values
Vision
Voice

10. “ Positioning is not what you
do to a product. Positioning
is what you do to the mind
of the prospect.”
Jack Ries & Al Trout, Positioning

12. Functional
Solves problems, provides benefits
Experiential
Sensory & cognitive stimulation
Symbolic
Provides meaning & identity

13. Functional positioning

14. Experiential positioning

15. Experiential positioning

16. Functional positioning

17. Functional positioning

18. Functional positioning

19. Symbolic positioning

20. Positioning
1. Evaluate the market
2. Determine open space
3. Be authentic & true to your identity
4. Ensure alignment

21. “Great marketing is storytelling”

22. 1. Keep it simple

23. TinyCorp is a leading provider of nextgeneration turnkey holistic solution-sets
that provide synergistic paradigm
disruptions.

24. If (Count(Adjectives) > (Count(Nouns)+Count(Verbs)))
{ myBoilerplate = Crap;
Die (“Nobody wants to read this”);
}

25. 1. Keep it simple

26. 1. Keep it simple

27. 2. Follow the rule of three

29. 1. Keep it simple
2. Follow the rule of three
3. Make it resonate

31. 1. Understand your identity
2. Define your position
3. Tell your story

32. 1. Know who you are
2. Work out why I care
3. Tell that story