Google Gemini. From “Top 3 Identity/Biometric Marketing Mistakes: Avoid These False Differentiators.”
For those keeping score, this is Bredemarket’s third NotebookLM video, and the second based upon a Bredemarket blog post. A nice way to repurpose text in video form.
Google Gemini. From “Government Anti-Fraud Efforts: They’re Still Siloed.”
But let’s ask the uncomfortable question. Does NotebookLM’s current video capabilities actually enhance Bredemarket’s own marketing? Sure it gives me another avenue to get my message out, but the common look of NotebookLM output results in a message that is…not differentiated.
There are some customization options when creating videos, so maybe I should explore those more.
With apologies to “experts” who can detect AI-generated text—they know who they are—I want to DELVE into a statement I made in my 9am post.
“I don’t ask for your feature list; no one cares.”
Over the years I have managed or marketed a number of products and services: Omnitrak, Printrak BIS, MorphoBIS Cloud, Morpho Video Investigator, Incode Omni, AEM Resurgence, IB360°, and many others.
All of which had extremely impressive lists of features.
And over the years I slowly realized that prospects and even happy customers didn’t care about ANY of those features.
Because customers don’t buy features…or products.
They buy solutions to their problems.
If you’re telling prospects about your 1000 pixel per inch resolution, they will respond “So what?” and ask about reducing their jurisdictional crime.
If you’re telling prospects about your certifications, they will respond “So what?” and ask about keeping privacy lawsuits away.
And if you’re telling your prospects about your financial integrations, they will respond “So what?” and ask about making money. Lots of money. Loads of money.
Everything counts in large amounts.
Your product marketing shouldn’t talk about your products.
It should speak to your prospects.
Because then your products won’t only make money for your customers, but will also make money for you.
And don’t you want money, rather than a long feature list?
If your product marketing is so “me too” that you only generate leads for your competitors, how can I help?
I ask, then I act.
The Seven Questions I Ask.
I don’t ask for your feature list; no one cares. I ask to uncover YOUR “why” story that compels your prospects to buy your stellar product, rather than all the products that aren’t as valuable as yours.
Then I act. I create a draft for your review. And you act in reviewing it. And when we are both happy, you publish.
Bredemarket has consistently argued AGAINST “me too” product marketing, and FORdifferentiating your identity/biometric product from its competitors. But your differentiators must resonate with your prospects.
This post lists three false differentiators, and why you should avoid them.
False differentiator 1: we’re a great place to work
Does your company description place undue emphasis on the shiny happy people who work for you? Their competitive salaries? Their unlimited PTO? Their community days? Their “best place to work” awards?
Who cares?
While you would think happy employees are important to prospects, they really aren’t. Enron was a best company to work for, but definitely did not deliver for its customers. Other companies are slave drivers, but customers love their products.
Save the “best place to work” mumbo jumbo for your careers page, not your prospect-facing content.
False differentiator 2: we’re a unicorn
Other companies take a different tack. Some emphasize their financial might: they’re a unicorn, a Series C, a NASDAQ-listed firm. Others take the opposite tack, asserting they are small and scrappy. (Bredemarket is in the latter category.)
So what?
Your prospects don’t care how big you are. Size doesn’t matter to them. Your performance does.
Stick the “unicorn” talk in your investor pitch decks, not on stuff your prospects read.
False differentiator 3: we have great features
By now you’ve probably figured out that your customers care about your product, not your employee satisfaction or your valuation. So you start talking about your product and its impressive array of features. 1000 ppi fingerprint capture. Sub-second matching. Integration with over 100 third-party systems.
How so?
Prospects don’t care about your product and what it does. They care about what it does FOR THEM. Does it solve crimes and keep bad people off the streets? Does it ensure that bank account applicants really are who they say they are? Does it complete its checks quickly before e-commerce buyers abandon their shopping carts?
Talk benefits, not features. Save the feature lists for your sprints.
How do you isolate true differentiators?
Your prospects need to see why your product is great for them, and why competitor products are terrible for them. How your product achieves their objectives: get stuff done, make money.
So what are the differentiators and benefits of your product?
Bredemarket can help your identity/biometric firm with the strategy and tactics of marketing your product. My services and process help you position your product for your prospects.
Bredemarket: Services, Process, and Pricing.
Do you want to learn more? Go to https://bredemarket.com/mark/ and schedule a free meeting with me to learn how Bredemarket can benefit you, so you can fulfill the needs of your prospects.
“A purple squirrel is a candidate so rare and perfectly matched to what you need that finding one feels impossible. Someone who checks every single box, including boxes you didn’t even know you cared about.”
Then Welsh provided an example of a purple squirrel, a man named Sagar Patel who worked for him at PatientPop.
On paper pyramids
At the time PatientPop had less than $40,000 in annual revenue, so it didn’t have a huge marketing department. It didn’t even have Bredemarket as a product marketing consultant because Bredemarket didn’t exist yet. And anyway, at the time I knew next to nothing about PatientPop’s healthcare-centered hungry people, physicians who needed to attract prospects and clients via then-current search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.
Google Gemini.
Patel could have launched into a complex, feature-laden SEO discussion, but his target physicians would have responded, “So what?” Doctors want to doctor, not obsess over choosing trailing keywords…and understand the benefits of a solution immediately.
“So Sagar grabbed some notebook paper and drew five sides of a pyramid. He labeled each one, describing his ‘5 sides of local SEO for healthcare providers,’ and then taped them all together.
“He made himself a little paper pyramid to use in his sales pitches.”
Google Gemini. My prompt asked Nano Banana to create a “realistic” picture.
Was Patel’s paper pyramid an effective sales tool for PatientPop? Read Welsh’s article to find out.
What’s your paper pyramid?
Too many companies wait months for the perfect marketing solution instead of doing something NOW and refining it later.
Bredemarket’s different. I ask, then I act.
I ask, then I act.
Once I’ve set my compass, I get my clients a draft within days. Last week alone I turned out drafts for two clients, moving them forward so the content is available to their prospects and clients.
With my suggested schedule for short content—three day drafts, three day reviews, three day redrafts—your new content can become your online “secret salesperson” within two weeks or less.
Don’t believe me? This post alone is chock-full of links to other Bredemarket posts and Bredemarket pages, all of which are functioning as “secret salespeople” for me every single day.
If you want secret salespeople to work for you, talk to me and we’ll devise a plan to improve your product marketing awareness RIGHT NOW.
When engineers engineer products, they naturally pack in as many features as possible. Why? Because engineers, um, calculate that prospects desire a wide array of features.
Proposal managers and product marketers know the truth. Some prospects find too many features to be undesirable.
But first, a quote
From Biometric Update.
This quote from my Biometric Update guest post is pertinent. These are three of my recommendations to biometric vendors (and other identity vendors) to ensure responsible data use.
“Collect only the minimum necessary personal information. If you don’t need certain data, don’t collect it. If it’s never collected, fraudster hackers can never steal it.
“Store only the minimum necessary personal information. If you don’t need to keep certain data, don’t store it. I’m sure our decentralized identity friends will agree with this.
“Comply with all privacy laws and regulations. This should be a given, but sometimes vendors are lax in this area. If your firm violates the law, and you are caught, you will literally pay the price.”
Two of these three recommendations came into play shortly after I wrote those words.
When “feature-rich” is undesirable
I recently fulfilled two roles for a Bredemarket client: first a proposal manager, and rhen a requirements manager. And as my role shifted, my focus shifted also.
Bredemarket the proposal manager
Hundreds of proposals. Imagen 4.
Some time ago I helped a Bredemarket client manage and write a proposal for a prospect. I can’t identify the client or the prospect, but I will just say that the proposal was for a product that collected personally identifiable information (PII).
The proposal not only presented the features of my client’s product, but also the benefits. And it presented several alternative configurations to the prospect, including an array of value-added options.
Bredemarket the requirements manager
Fast forward after proposal submission, and after my Biometric Update guest post was published.
The prospect wanted to hold further discussions with Bredemarket’s client, and Bredemarket shifted from consulting proposal manager to consulting requirements manager.
The prospect’s first request?
Remove ALL the proposal’s value-added options from the final deliverable.
Not because of cost, but because these value-added features would make the prospect’s life MORE difficult.
While the prospect had no issue with the data that the supercharged value-added configured product collected, it had other concerns:
Some of the storage features of the value-added product ended up storing things the prospect didn’t need or want to store.
In addition, the value-added product caused privacy issues with the prospect’s own end customers.
An added benefit to removing these features: the slimmed-down product would be easier for the prospect to manage.
Reduce. Imagen 4.
Sometimes less is more, as a sculpture artist will tell you. A huge hunk of marble is less desirable than a sculpture in which much of the marble was taken away.
If you need Bredemarket to help shape your proposals, requirements, or other content or analysis, let’s talk.
Bredemarket 