The seventh eBook in the Foundations category. It walks positioning as a small business job, not a brand-agency exercise - a single sentence that tells the right customer who you're for, what you do better and why they should choose you over the alternatives.
Members ebook·5 chapters· 15 minute read
Chapter 4
Positioning for Local and Online Businesses
How the positioning statement shifts depending on whether the business serves a local area or operates online.
The positioning formula doesn't change between a local plumber and an online software firm. The emphasis does. Local businesses lean on geography, repeat custom and reputation in a small market. Online businesses lean on niche, evidence and search - their customer might be anywhere. The same three clauses get tuned differently for the two contexts.
This chapter walks the local version and the online version side by side, with the small adjustments that make each one work harder for its context. By the end, your sentence is tuned for the shape of business you actually run.
Most businesses are mostly one or the other. A few are genuinely both - a local clinic with an online programme, a local consultancy with international clients. The chapter handles those too.
The full chapter has the local positioning adjustments, the online positioning adjustments and the way to handle hybrid businesses without writing two sentences.
The local adjustments
Local positioning emphasises
Geography in clause one ("within 15 miles")
Differentiation that's felt locally (response time, named neighbourhoods, on-the-ground presence)
Alternatives that are also local (the other firm in town, the chain branch, doing it themselves)
Proof that's local (Google reviews, named local customers, recognised local landmarks)
The plumber's sentence works because every clause is local. The customer is a local landlord. The differentiation is response time and prevention, both felt locally. The alternative is the local pay-as-you-go option. The proof is local Google reviews. None of that translates to a national audience, and it doesn't need to.
The online adjustments
Online positioning emphasises
Niche in clause one ("B2B software companies under 500 staff")
Differentiation that survives a stranger reading it (process, speed, named outcomes)
Alternatives that match the channel customers found you through
Proof that travels (case studies, screenshots, named clients, numbers)
The copywriter's sentence works online because the niche is sharp enough that a stranger searching "copywriter for SaaS landing pages" recognises themselves. The differentiation is a felt process. The alternative is the agency they nearly hired. The proof is conversion data they can show on a call. None of those need geographic context.
Hybrid businesses
A clinic that runs in-person sessions locally and an online programme nationally. A consultancy with a base in one city and clients in three. A coach with local workshops and online cohorts. The temptation is to write two positioning statements - one for each side - and the temptation is wrong at the start. Pick the one that drives more revenue and write the sentence for that. The other side gets a sub-page on the website with its own headline, but the business has one positioning, not two.
When to consider rewriting from local to online
Three signals. The bulk of new enquiries already arrive from outside the local area. The offer can be delivered remotely without losing what makes it work. The owner is genuinely willing to give up the local emphasis. If all three are true, the rewrite is worth doing. If any are false, stay local and lean into it.
When to consider rewriting from online to local
Less common but real. The owner is exhausted by chasing customers everywhere. The local market is large enough to sustain the business. The differentiator is something easier to prove face-to-face than over Zoom. In that case, narrowing geographically can be the easiest growth move available.
Worked rewrites
The therapist's sentence in local mode names the city and travel distance. In online mode it names the time zone, the language and the kind of employer programme it fits. Same business, two contexts, two slightly different sentences with the same backbone.
What to do this week
Decide whether your business is mostly local, mostly online or genuinely hybrid. Tune the positioning statement accordingly. Read the tuned version aloud. Update the strategy template.
The recurring principle this chapter sits on is use low-cost channels intelligently. Tuning the sentence for context makes the channels cheaper to run. The next chapter, Testing Your Positioning, takes the sentence into the market.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
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