A great question came up at a conference I was speaking at this week.

“My sectors are agnostic and my service offering is broad. How should I approach finding a point of difference?”

It’s easier if you have a vertical focus or a service niche - you can dig deep and narrow in. But for many agencies, that isn’t the case. They work across sectors, their services are broader and they feel like their proposition could apply to almost anyone.

But before we get into addressing that, let’s first look at why differentiation is important…

A point of difference

In an industry of many, carving out your own USP isn’t just difficult, it’s kinda critical. The higher up the proposition pyramid you are (i.e broader), the bigger your competitor space becomes as you overlap and bleed across into other’s spaces. The more specialist you are, the fewer competitors there are, because by definition, you’re niche.

Most agencies don’t have that true differentiator nailed and if they do, it’s rarely a true unique, because very few exist. So they operate in very saturated spaces, standing for little but trying to shout loudly.

The silence in the chaos is deafening.

That’s where something I feel very strongly about comes in: differentiating by service offering isn’t a thing. Neither is differentiating by your people or by your culture. I’m sure they’re brilliant, but those are subjective calls - they’re indefensible, as others can claim and counter them just as easily. Unless your people are kept under lock and key or your own proprietary 3-stage process is genuinely ground breaking, it’s not much to hang on.

A differentiator is armoured. It’s bulletproof. It’s your secret weapon, so it has to be able to defend against the onslaught of a thousand other agencies.

By leading with a perspective or opinion, you’re able to claim something others can’t - a viewpoint. You can then explain your reasoning, provide evidence and ultimately show how your service offering acts as the enabler.

Step 1: Ladder up

When you can’t differentiate by industry or by service, you have to “ladder up”. Start at the bottom and move up a level each time you can’t find an answer. Can U differentiate through a niche, or do I operate in a vertical? No. Move up to audience. Do I niche by a very, very narrow audience profile? No. Go up another level.

Instead of looking down at specifics - retail, automotive, SaaS, e-commerce - look up to what unites your audience. What’s the common thread running through them?

Who are you really trying to reach? What are their shared challenges, goals, frustrations or ambitions? What keeps them up at night, regardless of sector?

The only way to find this is to have a strong grasp of your ideal client profile (ICP). Once you understand the commonalities between them, you can form a defensible point of view around those.

For example, if your clients all struggle with delivering consistent customer experiences, your agency’s perspective might be built around designing for trust - a belief that no brand can scale without operationalising trust across every channel. That belief then becomes the spine of your narrative and one you take to market.

It applies horizontally across your all your audience, irrespective of sector, industry or service requirement.

Step 2: Recognise the trade off

The higher you ladder up though, the broader your message becomes and the less inherently unique it will be. That’s the trade-off. If you’re not niching, your hooks will be broader.

If your specialism isn’t in the sector or service, you’ll need to build your differentiation elsewhere, as a stand alone POV in this instance won’t be strong enough to exist on it’s own. Which brings us to the second layer.

Step 2 (pt II): The brand layer

Your brand becomes the wrapper that bolsters your differentiator because on it’s own it can’t provide.

Tone of voice, style, behaviour, creative expression, your values. These things stop you from sounding like everyone else offering the same list of services.

Plenty of agencies have similar capabilities. Few have the same character. Your brand gives context to your beliefs and flavour to your opinions. It tells the market not just what you do, but how you show up, your style, substance and your flare.

If your differentiator alone isn’t enough, there’s an extra ring of steel around it and that’s often overlooked by agencies - your brand. Do not underestimate the power your brand plays in differentiation.

Step 3: The execution layer

Even with a strong opinion and brand, you still need a way of taking it to market that reinforces your position and your execution style plays a part that isn’t to be underestimated.

This is the third layer. The more creative and aligned with your brand style and ICP behaviours, the better. You might:

- run a provocative podcast that invites honest, uncomfortable discussions your competitors avoid

- take a highly targeted ABM approach that shows deep empathy for specific buyer pains

- experiment with disruptive campaign ideas that show your thinking rather than just describing it

- create a community that supports and shares ideas for your target ICP — a safe space for them to learn from each other, curated and managed by you

How you execute your marketing becomes another layer of differentiation. It’s your proof through action and it’s your style and flare, on-show, for everyone to see.

Put it all together

Each of these layers on its own may not be enough. But layer them - your point of view, your brand and your marketing execution — and together they form a powerful, defensible position. One that is unique to you and allows you stand for something very clearly.

This is your superpower: a mixture of uniques and strengths that add up to a sum of individuality that allows you to sidestep the majority and be the minority.

This is how broad, “agnostic” agencies can still own something distinct:

1) A unifying perspective that resonates through their audience

2) A brand that amplifies that belief and wraps it in a distinctive layer

3) And a marketing approach that brings it to life in a way competitors can’t easily copy, focussing on the strengths, skills and the passions of your team

Most agencies don’t lack talent. They lack structure in how their differentiation is built and expressed.

You don’t need to be narrow to be distinctive. You just need to be deliberate about where your distinctiveness lives.

The power of differentiation.