The Positioning Statements of 44 SMS/Text Platforms

Welcome to a new monthly blog series called ‘Say What?’ all about B2B positioning statements. I’ll choose a category and then tell you what B2B solution providers are saying in their positioning statements to stand out from others (differentiators), say where they fit (category), show who they serve (target market), and inform prospects how they meet their needs (value). And of course, I’ll share tips to improve B2B positioning statements.

First up: SMS/text marketing platforms.

I’m curious how SMS platforms—battling in a saturated category—are positioning themselves today, if at all. How do they say they’re different? Do they say they’re different?

Aiming to help B2B tech marketers and founders write strategic positioning statements, I analyzed 80-plus websites, press releases, and more. Seeing them stacked on top of one another, way too often the type or size of customers they supported was missing.

In 10 seconds or so, B2B positioning statements have to communicate their unique value and be relevant to a reader. Sad to say, many fail.

Compiling the positioning statements of SMS providers like Attentive, I wanted to see if they could answer three questions:

1. Are the SMS platforms calling out their target audience?
2. Are the providers clearly saying what they do?
3. Are search trends impacting the positioning statements?

Before inspecting 44 positioning statements of SMS platforms, let’s talk about where to find them and their required elements.

Where Do I Find B2B Positioning Statements?

B2B positioning statements are usually in the first sentence or phrase in the first paragraph of a press release. The words immediately following ‘Klaviyo‘ is its positioning statement. To find them, go to Google, enter a company name, then and add ‘press release’. you will find positioning statements right away if they have published press releases on a wire service or company website.

Sometimes you have to go to company newsrooms.

What Are The Four Elements of B2B Positioning Statements?

Now you may ask, “What makes up a strong B2B positioning statement?”

Clearly stating who you’re for (target market), how you’re unique (differentiator), what category you’re in, and how you’re meeting a market need (value) are the four components of B2B positioning statements.

See the screenshots below of some SMS/text platform positioning statements. Do you know what services they offer? Can you tell who Avochato supports? Do you believe their claims?

So, why did I read hundreds of website about us pages, press releases, and more? Firstly, I did this to give B2B marketers, GTM strategists, and founders some inspiration for when they write/rewrite their positioning statements. Secondly, I wish more B2B founders and marketers would put themselves in the shoes of prospects who are in the discovery phase more often.

I’ll admit to giggling at the expense of one vendor. They made a baseless claim as ‘The Best SMS Marketing Service in the World’.

Me: “Oh yeah? Who says? Gartner? G2? Oh, you? Oh. Cool.”

Here are 3 facts from the 44 positioning statements:

• The most common word other than ‘platform’ (used 20 times) was ‘text’ (used 17 times)
• ‘All-in-one’ was used 3 times
• ‘Leading’, a totally meaningless word adored by B2B marketers and founders, was seen 12 times

1. The #1 Automation Platform
2. The conversational commerce platform
3. The customer engagement platform that drives real-time, personalized experiences for today’s leading brands
4. Mass Text Messaging Platform for Business
5. Get your message across
6. The CRM built for growth
7. Ecommerce marketing automation that builds brand love.
8. The Best Business Text Messaging Software
9. The business text messaging app built for productivity
10. A customer experience-focused email and SMS marketing automation solution
11. A vertically integrated customer platform for ecommerce businesses
12. The leading digital marketing cloud technology provider for retailers
13. The world’s leading chat marketing platform for 1.5 million businesses around the world
14. All-in-One Platform for Marketing Lead Generation and Sales Outreach Automation to Close More Deals
15. The premier text marketing platform for small and medium-sized businesses
16. The Best Text Alert System for Businesses.
17. The zero-party data marketing platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus merchants
18. A leading email and SMS marketing automation platform for ecommerce merchants
19. The world’s leading customer engagement platform
20. Tools to Help Local Businesses Win
21. The leading text message marketing platform for Shopify stores
22. The Fastest Way To Grow Sales With Email & SMS
23. The Leading Text Messaging Platform
24. Cloud-Based Text Messaging Service
25. The simple, scalable, secure business texting platform makes it easy for businesses to send, receive, and manage SMS conversations online
26. 2-way texting, SMS marketing, calling, & more.
27. Email and SMS marketing tool that will help your business grow numbers, not daily tasks
28. The leading all-in-one digital marketing platform for small to medium-sized businesses
29. The Best SMS Marketing Service in the World
30. The Only All-In-One Text Messaging Service
31. A proven leader in text marketing
32. America’s #1 SMS Software for Fundraising
33. The ultimate SMS marketing solution for businesses with high potential
34. The leading SaaS-based eCommerce marketing platform that helps retail brands accelerate online revenue growth and bolster customer loyalty
35. The leading provider of mass text messaging and automated calling services
36. Keep people informed when it matters most
37. Your next best revenue channel
38. The most secure business text messaging platform for modern customer support, sales, and logistics teams
39. The UK’s most advanced SMS platform
40. Text Message Marketing Software for Business
41. The business text messaging platform built to ignite customer engagement
42. The leader in sales and marketing automation software for small businesses
43. The leading messaging engagement platform
44. A leading provider of enterprise-grade SMS texting solutions

Who Did It Best?

If you think this was difficult, I have a prime condo to sell you in the Metaverse. My top pick goes to ‘The leading text message marketing platform for Shopify stores‘. I chose it for two reasons. 

Reason #1

They described their target market, Shopify stores, which is a basic element of positioning statements. This causes two things to happen.

The vendor lets prospects know if their solution/product is for them right off the bat; no digging in G2 reviews of SMS platforms or on a website is needed.

Secondly, if this SMS platform is consistent with their messaging, they likely hear from fewer unqualified leads. Brands and merchants on BigCommerce, WooCommerce, VTEX, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Squarespace, and others know that this text marketing platform is not for them.

Reason #2

This vendor said ‘text message marketing platform’, which to some degree considers what people Google while looking for an SMS/text marketing provider. Look at the screenshot below from Google Trends. You’ll see ‘sms platform’ has a lower search volume than ‘text platform’. As for ‘text message app’, I’ll assume that’s a heavy consumer search, but it’s still useful for B2B marketers to see.

Bonus tip for your positioning toolkit: use Google Trends. While developing or reviewing positioning statements, I’ve seen that reviewing user searches via Google Trends (and other tools) is usually skipped over by B2B companies. Do not ignore search history.

Room for Improvement

They did use a fluff, skippable word: ‘leading’. Ugh. This word and others like it (e.g. ultimate, revolutionary) make unsupported claims that can lead B2B buyers or users to distrust the words and marketing of solution providers. If a brand is looking for an SMS/text provider, they’ve probably seen similar claims several times on different websites. I saw them countless times in headers on provider homepages.

Looking at search trends is a powerful, yet neglected step by B2B companies when writing a solid positioning statement. If B2B marketers ignore insights from search to overcome their implicit biases, they could be discarding a growing portion of their target market.

4 Tips to Improve B2B Positioning Statements

Get Emotional

Did you know 50% of B2B buyers are more likely to make a purchase if they connect to a brand on an emotional level? Let’s face it, most SMS/text message platforms including Postscript, Twilio, EZ Texting, Omnisend, Attentive, and Yotpo SMSBump offer similar features. By bringing up what customer desires are, SMS platforms make them feel heard and can easily stand out from the competition.

Know the difference

Most of what’s above are value propositions or benefit statements, which means the bulk of SMS providers are unsure of what positioning statements are. How B2B positioning statements have traditionally been written—packed with features and buzzwords—is unappealing to people. Leave the feature talk for benefit statements.

Think specific

A frequent brand positioning mistake made by B2B companies is not calling out their target audiences. In fact, several positioning statements used by SMS/text platforms did not mention who their solution is for. Don’t fret, this is fixable. Narrow targets down to particular groups that people immediately identify with like ‘BigCommerce brands’ or ‘sales teams of one’.

Use customer words & phrases

Marketers must use the words their audiences use. B2B marketers shouldn’t forget to scan verbatims used by customers or buying committees they have on file (in tools like Gong). It helps to look at Salesforce notes, listen to sales call recordings in Gong, or pay attention to what clients say during quarterly business reviews (QBRs). If none of that exists, Customer Success team members are great resources for B2B marketers.

Unfortunately, no SMS/text message platform achieved a B2B positioning statement trifecta: an emotion, relayed an outcome, and said who they serve (target market). Sad face.

Which positioning statement do you think was numero uno? Which came close? Shoot me a note here.

What category do you want me to look into next?