If you are just like everybody else, what is your hope? How do you get picked?
That is not a rhetorical warm-up. It is the only question that matters before you write a single word of marketing copy, before you decide on a pricing strategy, before you pick which features to build next.
The sameness machine
I look at G2 regularly. I pick a subcategory at random. Survey tools. CRMs. Email platforms. I scroll through the top twenty companies and read what they say about themselves. Most of them are marketing as if they are the only one doing what they do. That is the textbook definition of sameness.
There were roughly 150 marketing technology tools in 2011. There are over 10,000 today. And when I zoom into any mature subcategory, I find that the top tools offer nearly identical features, use nearly identical language, and look nearly identical to each other. That is what competitive markets produce by default. Not excellence. Conformity.
Think about hotels. You have never been to this particular hotel. But you already know the layout. You know there will be a soap, a lotion, a shower cap. You also know there will be no toothbrush, no toothpaste. Every hotel in the world arrived at the same set of amenities without anyone coordinating it. They got there by watching each other. Sameness is the default in every category, in every market.
Features will not save you
The common response to a crowded market is to build more. More features. More integrations. A better product.