The secret to standing out from the pack

Define what you stand against

If your brand is successful, your audience sees you as a trusted expert, resource and friend.

To do this, you don’t need a unique value proposition.

Instead, you need to define What You Stand Against.

Be bold. Stand apart from your competitors by declaring What You Stand Against.

People reject:

• hype;
• posturing;
• arrogance;
• wishful thinking;
• self-righteousness;
• sugar-coated B.S.

If you hesitate to say What You Stand Against, ask yourself: Am I in this to “not offend” or am I in this to win? Make your WYSA statement strong, simple, quick and clear. State it up front. The risk of insult is the price of clarity.

Share What You Stand Against on your website, social media, marketing material.

People do business with people they connect with. You must solve people’s needs, deliver what you promise and be transparent in your offerings.

What’s your WYSA?

Step 1: To determine What You Stand Against, answer these questions:

• What does your audience need?
• What’s your differentiating factor?
• How do you stand apart from your competition?
• Does your branding and design reflect what you stand against?
• Are you generous with your content?

Step 2:

Answer these questions, taking no more than two minutes per question.

What do you know for sure you stand for? Examine:

• Yourself;
• your motivations;
• your desires;
• your objectives.

What is your why?

Why do you do what you do? What is your passion? What are three things that you wish to change about your industry.

What are you doing that is unique to what your competition is doing? You know your strengths, your uniqueness, your power. And you know your weaknesses.

Use the information you just gathered to create a one-sentence statement of What You Stand Against.

Make sure your WYSA statement is a message that speaks to the need your prospective customer feels – not self-centered words about you.

People are bombarded with messages all day. Approximately 6,000 per day, from signage on buildings to commercials to social media.

Bore them and you’ll lose them. Especially online.

Attention spans are short and memories even shorter. Instead of boring them to tears with the same drivel everyone else is telling them, simply tell them What You Stand Against.

After writing your WYSA:

1. Listen to your audience, do keyword research, discover what it wants and needs.
2. Speak to people’s needs. It’s not about you, it’s about them. Is the homepage of your website about you? Or about your customer’s needs?
3. Define What You Stand Against. Speak forcefully against what your audience is against and your audience will more easily find you and connect with what you’re offering. Let your audience know what you are by clearly voicing what you aren’t in your products, services and messaging.

Your success depends on your ability to adapt to the shift in society’s values and on your ability to stand apart from the crowd.

Start by getting clear on what you aren’t.

Be a purple cow.

I bicycle quite a bit in the summer. I bike past pastures with brown cows, black cows, spotted cows. And I keep biking. But when I see a purple cow, I stop, get my phone out and take a picture.

Be bold. Get noticed. Be a purple cow by defining What You Stand Against.

Inspiration for this post came from Michael Drew and his ebook: The #1 Way to Increase Your Close Rate; and Seth Godin and his purple cow.