What is Positioning (and Why Most Businesses Get It Wrong)
If you ask ten business owners what positioning is, you’ll get ten slightly different answers.
Most of them will mention branding, messaging, or niche. Very few will describe what it actually is.
Positioning is the space you occupy in the mind of your customer. It’s how people understand who you are, what you do, and why they would choose you over someone else. And that last part is the key. Because positioning only exists in comparison.
Where most businesses go wrong
They think positioning is something they say.
So they:
Rewrite their bio
Tweak their website copy
Change how they describe their services
But none of that changes how they are actually perceived.
Three common mistakes I see:
1. Confusing positioning with branding Your colours, fonts, and logo don’t define your position. They express it.
2. Trying to appeal to everyone If your business could be for anyone, it’s not clearly positioned for anyone.
3. Looking sideways at competitors Borrowing language or structure from others often leads to blending in, not standing out.
If your audience isn’t clearly defined, positioning becomes vague very quickly. I break this down further in Ideal Client vs Niche vs Target Audience.
What strong positioning looks like
When positioning is clear:
People “get it” quickly
You attract the right type of client
Your messaging becomes easier to write
Your offers feel more aligned
It removes friction across your entire business.
A simple sense-check
If someone landed on your website, could they answer:
Who is this for?
What do they do?
Why would I choose them?
If not, that’s a positioning issue.
Case Study:
A coach here in Dublin came to me after a few years in business. She had a solid client base, strong experience, and was starting to move into higher-value work, especially after launching two books and some impressive PR exposure around those. But her brand was still attracting early-stage clients.
She assumed she needed a full rebrand. In reality, the issue was how she was positioning herself. Her messaging still spoke to where she started, not where she was now.
Once we clarified who she was really for and what she wanted to be known for, everything shifted - her messaging, her offers, and the level of enquiries she began to attract. We did end up reviewing her brand design and her website, particularly as she wanted to launch online courses and create a community, but her positioning work came first.
Why positioning matters
Most businesses think they have a visibility problem. Usually they have a positioning problem.
And until that’s clear, everything else - branding, content, marketing, their website - has to work much harder than it should.
