Positioning problem, internal comms problem or copywriting problem?

When I first meet with a company, I try to prepare by having a look at the company’s website. If a company has excellent positioning, it will be reflected on the website. But if the website is vague, confusing or undifferentiated, I don’t immediately know if positioning is the problem. No one can without digging deeper into the company’s internal workings.

Positioning is the foundation of a good website. If your positioning sucks, the message on your website is going to suck. Period. But you can get the foundation right and still build a terrible house.

You can have awesome copywriters and awesome, differentiated positioning, but if you are incapable of communicating effectively with whoever is doing the copywriting on your website, it’s going to be a failure. Copywriters can not read your mind, and if all you do is tell them your positioning verbally, it won’t be enough to go on — especially if they are getting four different versions of the company’s positioning from the two founders. I often see founders expecting their marketing agency to essentially do their positioning work for them, and is always a failure.

Lastly, you could have an amazing positioning, and you could have followed all best practices and written it down, in detail, in a positioning canvas. And your copywriter(s) could suck at translating that to your web copy.

In short: If your positioning isn’t clear on your website, it could be a positioning problem, but we can’t know for sure.