All things branding & marketing. Whether you're early in your career, a solomarketer, or a small business owner, my goal is to support you on your path to brand & marketing success.
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Earlier this week an email from Neil Patel, founder of NP Digital, landed in my inbox.

The subject line: “Will ChatGPT replace search engines?”

It was another installment of his ongoing discussion around the intersection of AI and SEO.

A topic he’s meticulously studying and sharing about across all his content over the last year.

But, I’m not writing to you today to discuss AI or SEO.

Rather, to highlight a crucial aspect of branding:

Anticipating customers’ problems and positioning yourself as the ultimate solution provider.

Patel’s success isn’t solely because of his knowledge of SEO.

It’s his interest and curiosity in future trends, his knack for predicting the challenges his audience will face, staying ahead of the conversation and offering clear, actionable solutions that sets him apart.

Whether through his podcast, social media, live events or newsletters, he continues to educate his audience and has become the go-to reliable source for all things SEO and digital marketing.

While many in the SEO field are anxious about losing their jobs to AI - Patel has taken a more proactive approach.

Instead of panicking and immediately pivoting, he’s been busy learning, applying, testing, and transparently sharing his findings. This not only keeps him at the forefront of the conversation but also reassures his audience that he’s prepared to navigate and lead through the changes.

The Takeaway: A Blueprint for Activating Your Brand Positioning

Neil Patel’s strategy offers a powerful lesson in brand positioning.

• Identify Customer Problems: Understand the biggest problems and concerns of your target market
• Immerse Yourself in Solutions: Research, test, and engage with your audience to deeply understand and solve these issues
• Share in Public: Document and share your findings through various channels - emails, social, podcasts, live events, etc. [Activate the positioning]
• Offer Practical Advice: Share strategies and solutions that help your audience navigate the challenges

By consistently addressing your audience’s most pressing problems, you achieve several things:

1. Build Trust and Loyalty - Establish yourself as the go-to source
2. Shape Industry Narratives - influence the broader conversation within your industry
3. Strengthen Brand Positioning - Become the expert customers seek to work with

The ultimate benefit of this approach is a steady stream of customers who view you as the obvious choice for solving their problems.

Your thought leadership and relentless pursuit to share and educate makes objections and competitors simply irrelevant.

And another big observation and lesson I've learned is this:

It's one thing to have a positioning statement. It's another to fully activate it across all your marketing and messaging.

Patel and his team master this. I'm a fan.

Thanks for listening today :)

Dani

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