"Only" is dead.
And you missed the funeral.
Cold outreach is dead. Inbound is dead. Yadda yadda.
These things aren’t dead, people just suck at them.
But, I think I’ve found a marketing strategy that truly is dead, at least for agencies, and I’m excited.
Why would someone be excited over death?
Well, for one, as a positioning coach, I feel like I was left something good in the will.
So many agencies are still trying to find their “only” and eventually they’ll realize it doesn’t exist.
The strategy so many agencies used to differentiate their business is dead, with no chance of revival.
First, let’s define ”only.”
Twenty years ago, maybe even ten years ago, this strategy worked. An agency could claim they’re the “only” in a category.
We’re the only agency for roofers.
We’re the only agency that connects marketing and sales within SaaS companies.
To claim something as your “only,” it must be defensible and something people care about.
You can’t say, “We’re number one for X,” like “we’re the fastest,” unless you’ve rank-ordered the competition. If someone asks who number two is and you can’t name them, then how do you know you’re number one? Indefensible.
Also, to say, “we’re the only remote agency,” matters only if people actually care about hiring a remote agency. If there’s no benefit to them, why would they care?
So, if you can find something defensible, that people care about, by all means, use it. But that’s going to be harder than you think.
Why “only” got hard.
Over time, as spaces crowd, this became harder to claim because anyone with a laptop in their mom’s basement could do the same thing.
Today, it’s near impossible to find something where you’re the “only” and if you did, someone would copy it tomorrow.
People will naturally gravitate towards easy. We want the pill and magic bullet that solves our problems. For agency marketing, this means copying what works for others.
So, the second someone sees you’re doing well as the “only” agency doing something, you’re no longer the only one.
You see this happen faster in partner ecosystems. When the first HubSpot partner got into revops, it was unique and defensible. Then, HubSpot started promoting the service because they stood to benefit as well, and now thousands of agencies offer revops.
In fact, so many agencies offer revops, that buyers are actually skeptical the agency knows what they’re doing.
Stop avoiding the hard.
Few people are willing to do the work to truly differentiate themselves.
I’ve laid out the map here:
Read that article, then come back.
If you can find 3-5 levers where you’re in the top 20th percentile of different, you stand a chance.
But finding where you stack in those levers and being hypercritical about it is incredibly challenging, primarily because your perception is different from the market’s.
Take stock of your own thoughts, but then ask your team, your new customers, and your veteran customers what they think about your differentiation.
Your team talks with customers and prospects every day. They see things differently.
Your new customers chose you for a reason, and it would be great to capture those thoughts.
Your veteran customers are continuing to choose you every day. And while they may stay for different reasons than why they hired you initially, we want to grab their thoughts as well.
When you have all these inputs, run that levers exercise and start to develop your stack.
Stop trying to find your “only”
There are still agencies trying to find their only, and they’re coming up short.
When a new space comes out, they’re moving fast to adopt and claim territoriy, but it only gets them so far. When AI came out, people could say, “we’re the only agency incorporating AI into marketing for law firms.”
A year into the AI takeover and that statement wouldn’t hold up.
Instead of trying that approach, stack your differentiators. Find the multiple reasons you’re different and lean into them.
I promise that’ll get you way further than seeking a space where you’re alone.
