Episode 501 Copywriting With Todd Jones What Is Differentiation?
Show Summary
This podcast episode features a discussion between Rob Cairns and Todd Jones on differentiation for service-based businesses. Jones emphasizes identifying a unique value proposition by asking key questions about one’s services and target audience. He proposes several differentiation strategies, including leveraging one’s story, refining one’s processes, providing exceptional service, establishing expertise and reputation, implementing strategic pricing, and focusing on a specific type of client. The discussion highlights how these strategies can help service businesses stand out in a competitive market.
Show Transcript
Hey everybody, Rob Cairns here and in today’s podcast we have our Copywriting with Todd Jones segment. Hey Todd, how you doing?
I am um trying to stay warm. We got a cold January this year.
Keep it. I don’t want it here. But today we thought along with staying warm, we’d talk about differentiation. So what does that mean to you? How well Okay, go back to my u unique value proposition. The four questions I asked and there’s a bonus question I asked too, but the the four is who am I? What do I do? How do I do it? or um well who am I what do I do who do I do it for and then how do I do it differently that is where differentiation comes to me so for a company a service company so when you dig into differentiation particularly the B2B world you tend to fall you tend to get people who are really I do I should say I I people listening this may not but I do I hear a lot of B2B SAS differentiation like,
you know, you get it from there is a lady um you know, I’m drawing blank on her name right now. She obviously different um she’s a she’s a very sharp lady and right now I’m drawing a blank on her name, but anyway, Amy uh Amanda Anyway, she’s got a book called Obviously Different, which is kind of the hallmark of SAS uh B2B SAS uh differentiation. Very good book. Uh I would recommend it. But but the problem with pro product companies is that uh most people that are listening this podcast in our circle are service businesses and I don’t find a whole lot about service businesses except that you always recommend that book by Robert Bloom.
You beat me to it.
The inside.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s okay. I was thinking about it this morning whenever I was getting ready for this podcast. I was thinking about that book. Um he does talk about and there’s all these I have heard Rob probably a dozen different ways to say this. Um, and it is an inside advantage. It’s a secret sauce. I’ve heard secret sauce. Um, these types of phrases that we come up with. What is your unique advantage? What is your secret sauce? What is your, you know, what is it makes you different? People have a a number of different ways to say that, but basically it’s how you do what you do differently. What is it that you do differently? Now, when you’re a service business, and this is true with any business, but when you’re service business. Let’s just take web designer for there’s there’s some web designers that listen to this podcast. Let’s take web designer. There are thousands of web designers and if you’re in a metropolitan area, there’s probably hundreds. Okay. So, you’re one of many.
Yeah. Now, we we when we talk about narrowing that down, we talk about, okay, what kind of web designer are you? Uh I do websites for people who are vendors in the the wedding industry. Okay, there’s one type of web designer. I do uh I do c I design course websites for course creators. Okay, that’s another one. There’s all these different uh niches if you we call niches. Um you may niche in a particular part of the skill. We know of course you and I a lot of people who are who have really niched into the web consult not the web the web care industry which you know you can call it you call it security. I’ve niched even more. I’ve gone right into security, not general webcare.
Well, even in that in that in in that is webcare though that in my my way. We may have a difference opinion on that, but that’s webcare. Ryan has done webcare. Now, does that mean you don’t do webs build websites? No, of course you do. But your your major thing is you but but this is we’re we’re continuing to narrow the scope down. You get into a spot where You have a target audience. Now, how do you differentiate yourself from other people like you and the same target audience? This is where differentiation comes into play. And I started thinking about this a while back because like, you know, if you’re going to you you can do differentiation a lot of different ways. And your SAS compan software companies and your product companies, they have various ways they differentiate. But I’m like, what is it about a service business? How can they differentiate? So, I put my brain to work once in a blue moon. I do that and I created a list and I don’t know that it’s exhaustive. Um I don’t think it’s too exhaustive, but it’s a number of different things and I think there’s one I added after you got the show notes, but that’s okay because it’s low value and you’ll see what I’m talking about when I get to it. But let’s talk about these
story. How can you differentiate yourself? Story is one of the first ones and that is actually if If you’ve got no other way to differentiate yourself and you’re maybe new as a service provider, your story can be your differentiator. Now, we’ve already talked about on this podcast about an origin story. Uh I talk about there’s one story that I call a pivot story. That’s when a company pivots.
One thing they offer and they pivot. Um but anyway, an origin story of whatever you want to call there’s founder story and an origin story kind of the same thing. If you’re a bigger company, you probably have one founder. Like for instance, we, you know, last episode I mentioned Walmart. Okay, the founder is uh Sam Walton. You know, everybody, anybody you probably read his book, Sam Walton’s the founder. So if you go to Walmart, you the but there’s going to be crossover, right? Um the founder story and the origin story are going to be very similar. It may be the same. In some cases, uh in a business, it is the same, but it is something uh I experienced this a lot when I wrote um articles about startups uh working for talk business and politics. Um I would get you would go to a startup conference of some kind and people would do their pitches and and you get it if you watch Shark Tank. You get it when you watch Shark Tank. Uh we had this problem and I searched for a solution. I couldn’t find a solution. I couldn’t find one that was satisfactory. So I decided to do it myself there. I mean it’s a very basic story. But those always work better than almost any other pitch you can show. Um, that’s because in in general, your story is usually something similar to that and people are interested in that. Why why is Rob so into website security? Well, you know, there’s a few events you can go back to and point to uh where where you saw how important security was and you got passionate about it. Um, I think that’s the same for many of us in WordPress. space that uh do web care uh other you know but you see it it’s always interesting those stories are always interesting they they allow us to connect um with the service provider a little bit easier and builds that no like and trust factor that that we talk about having so that story is the first these are none of these are you don’t have to have all of these and so you may have one of these things that I mentioning and story is the first one. The second one is process. Um I don’t have a good example right now unfortunately but anytime somebody brands a process our unique patented process you hear you might hear that sometimes
McDonald’s how they make hamburgers.
Yes, that’s a great one. Uh Ray Croc he went to town on they they use the whole um actually I think that predates Ray Croc.
And if you want if you want to go watch the Ray Croc story there’s um a movie on Netflix called The Founder and there’s a book that
story
um that actually predates him because I think it was the original brothers and one of them had had a manufacturing experience that he brought that to the burger making process. Um so they did that so they could get them out faster. Uh now I would argue David’s Burgers in central Arkansas is 10 times better than McDonald’s, but that’s another story for another day.
That’s a market that’s a bit of a marketing game too though to some degree. Like it’s hard it’s easier for a company like McDonald’s to market more than a smaller
Oh, sure. Yeah. I would say u for David’s Burgers, there’s one is the quality of their food, but also the service when you go in there, they just almost fall over themselves trying to take care of you.
Leads you into your next point called service differential. So there.
Yeah. Um service difference. Yeah. Um that is a good one. So um I did a story a few years ago when I was with talk business of politics and this is a this is really a productized service. It’s called the sle app. Um the guys that started it, one of them is from Arkansas. So that’s how it got on my radar. And so he’s telling me the story and how it all works and all this kind of stuff. And he says and so on the app when we we make the arrangements. So what they do is in the big cities um delivery for smaller boutique furniture stores are difficult because most of them don’t have trucks and deliveries. And so, like he said, in Arkansas or almost any rural area in this state or probably even Canada for that matter, there’s a lot of people who have trucks or SUVs or vans and your neighbor. And so, in fact, the first original tagline was your neighbor with a truck or something like that.
Um, but so it was basically Uber for boutique furniture delivery. So, So, you go through the app, you say, “I just bought a, you know, armoire. I’m making something up. I just bought a a desk or table for in table down at the furniture store in the city.” So, I live in Chicago or Indianapolis or whatever. And you schedule a pickup. And so, they use gig workers to do this, right? And um but one of the questions they ask them, and this is an example of service differentiation, and they didn’t have too much competition, but um how do you like your coffee? and they brought them a cup of coffee. I don’t remember where they got it from, if they went to Starbucks or what, but they brought them when they brought their delivery, they also handed them cup of coffee the way they requested it. And so I thought it was pretty cool. Uh it’s a very good example that pops in my head about um service. I think Zapos was really good about uh doing customer service.
That’s where they may um
and certainly your your local restaurant. Well, you know, I always like to talk about Round Mountain Coffee, my favorite coffee shop in town. I walk in, they they know my name. Hey Todd, you want a drip today? You want a pour over? You know, I mean, they know so much about me, my behaviors, um, just from me coming in. Uh, the service is exquisite. I mean, clearly the product is exquisite, too. But, you know, uh, I sat down and talked to Austin this morning about college basketball. You know, u, I could talk to him about wrestling sometimes or they they talk about what they like to talk about, you know, but they’re they’re very good about talking about what we want to talk about. Um that’s and he he puts that in his hiring because he told me he said, “I want to make sure that my barista staff can talk. They don’t have to like it or love it, but they got to be able to communicate with the customers.” I
and so it’s it’s a very good service. So that’s not you can’t get that at Starbucks, especially nowadays for whatever reason.
So expertise.
Expertise um expertise and reputation kind of go hand in hand. Um but if especially if you’re like a a solo service provider um I I think I added some notes of but so conversion copywriting a lot of people will point to Joanna Weeb who is from Canada. Um I call her the conversion copyrightiting queen. Email copywriting there’s a lot of people people point to but Ben Settle is somebody that uh I think about a lot of people talk about uh direct response copyrightiting Dan Kennedy these are people who have been recognized for having expertise in the things they do um so web security uh Oliver Sid uh uh Kathy Zant Rob Karens you know in the in that community they know that these people are experts in their field and it comes with it’s not something you develop overnight right you know, you’ve you’ve got to approved it over and over and over again in this to a point where people start saying, “Yeah, man. If you want um if you want to secure your enterprise website, you need to talk to Rob Karens.” Uh if you need to learn how to write storydriven emails, you need to read Ben Settle. You know, this kind of thing. Um there’s a lot of people who um who are experts at it. They become recognized. Uh you can’t really um manufacture that it just happens organically. Uh reputation is very similar to that. Um and but if you think about it from a company level, uh as opposed to a singular person um so um you know I’m trying to somebody in Canada that would have Tim Hortons maybe I don’t reputation for being a good coffee shop. Um but but even goes beyond that like okay go back to the last episode we had, you talked about your jewelry store and in the local Facebook group they get praised. Well, that comes one with expertise but two they have developed the reputation for quality service and products and that reputation precedes them and they are constantly recommended which of course is a powerful word of mouth right so that is reputation reputation is more and the way I’m looking at it if you want to is more of a company level than a personal level.
Yep. So, the next one you say premium pricing, but I would also argue and say non premium pricing as well. It
that that’s the one I that’s the one I added after I sent you the notes. And
pricing as a whole really
Yeah, pricing is a differentiation. You can either price really high and um or really low. I don’t recommend especially as a service provider being on the low end. That is a that’s going to cost you in the long run. Now,
the only time low pricing works is discount stores and dollar stores. They
Yeah, I was going to say, and I brought up Sam Walton many times and Walmart, that’s how they started by undercutting the competition. Uh, when I was a kid in the growing up in the 70s and 80s in America, we had other discount stores. There was Kmart, Gibson’s, and Magic Bar. All these were things our town had.
Local local,
huh?
Did you guys Did you guys have local stores or I don’t recall that one.
But the other three were right there with them. And guess what? None of them are left.
No,
Walmart’s still standing.
Canada had buy one. We had um even in Toronto, Ed Mver, the big theater king, had a store, made his money on a store called Honest Eds, and it’s gone. It’s
Yep. Yeah. So, you know, um but but I don’t recommend, especially in the service business, trying to win on the lowest price. That’s you will probably bankrupt yourself doing that. So, but it is difficult and a hard me mentality to gather to become the premium pricing at something. I did hear a story a long time ago and I wish I could find the source of this but I can’t. Um, I tell you I’ll tell a story. Okay, it’s a story. Your your readers will probably roll their eyes, but here’s another story. She was a photographer and she was kind of looking to get out of it and she got a bid for a wedding. um to do. And because she wasn’t really gung-ho on doing it, she priced it way high out of the market.
I have done that before.
They took it.
I know.
They took it and then word spread that she was the premium photographer for weddings. And suddenly people were paying to fly her to exotic locations to do the high-end weddings. And um I she Wouldn’t that be cool? I mean, but what a fantastic um story for becoming the premium. Um I you know, don’t don’t differentiate on pricing as a service provider unless you can do the premium and probably
you probably better have the expert uh expertise and reputation to to go along with it. Uh but do not as a service business go with the low end. pricing, which is another differentiation that I don’t recommend.
Yep.
Now, the last the I’m sorry. Go ahead.
The last but certainly not least is type of audience and common denominators.
Yeah. Uh this goes back to the niche audience thing. Um and you know, you can really get niche with an audience. Um so, um but I I’m you know, people when they start doing an audience and niching down, they tend to go demographic. And I you know, sometimes that works, but it’s really good for B TOC businesses, not always so much for B2B. Um, what you want to do and and I say common numbers denominators because a lot of times I think, and this is just me pulling a number out of my head, I don’t have any verification to back it up, but I think it takes probably about 10 years for somebody in the service business to really figure out what their target audience is most of the time. And at that point, you can look back and see the common denominator. ers. These are the people I like working with. These are the people I have a good relationship working with. And our friend Ryan has been developing that lately. He’s a he’s he’s cut off some people that weren’t good for him and and tightened that niche in a little bit for him. Um it’s it comes back to common denominators. But sometimes it is niche based industry. People tend to use industry for niche. Um but it’s but let’s take a take the example of our friend who was a wedding photographer. Um, she niched down to weddings, but even even more than that, it was weddings that were high-end expensive weddings. Like, we’re flying you to Bermuda or Hawaii or some exotic location. These are not the average weddings by the average family. These are probably weddings by the richest of the richest. That is an incredibly tight niche. Um, but you look for the as a service provider, you look for the common denominators, especially if you’re struggling to figure out really who you’re target like like me. I honestly I I struggle with that quite a bit because I like a lot of different things. Uh but I’ve began to figure out like who I like working with best and I’m trying to put uh my foot in that direction. So
So that kind of gives it. We’ve talked a little bit about uh differentiation. I hope that helps. people. Todd, thank you so much as always. Uh, copyfight.com to find out about you. You’re on most of the socials, including Blue Sky now, believe it or not. Right.
Not very active there, but I am on Blue Sky. Yes.
U certainly LinkedIn and X probably the best two places to get you, I would think. And have a wonderful day, my friend. Be well. Bye-bye.
Thank you. You as well. Thanks for having me.