Companies who are looking to launch, grow or diversify need to communicate how their product or service is different AND better than its competitors.
Read on to find out how to achieve this using a Value Proposition and download our detailed guide on how to create compelling content and messaging using your Value Proposition.
A well-thought-out Value Proposition helps your customers understand the Value of your company’s products or services. It also cuts through the noise and communicates to your target customers how your services benefit them and are their best available option.
So, what is a Value Proposition? Simply put, it’s the aspect of your business that solves a particular customer problem. More importantly, solving a problem that your competitor can’t. It’s your USP. Without it, people won’t have a specific reason to pick you over somebody else.
It is not a list of product or service features that you agree to deliver to the customer. It’s not just a tagline and it’s not your positioning in the market either. It’s all about tapping into the things that are important to your customers.
More than half of companies that do nothing to understand their Value Propositions have significantly lower conversion rates and sales than ones that do. More than half!
Those companies who overlook this key ingredient fail to get this right by not being 100% clear on the problem(s) that they are trying to solve. If you can’t answer that question – and you’ll be surprised how many people cannot – then you’ve got to stop and evaluate your strategy.
A simple strategy that we employ with clients to quickly establish their Value is to pick a target customer and work out why they buy from company x. Knowing exactly how the customer is benefiting by using company x’s product or service helps us determine which product features are appropriate in future messages. We list the appropriate features and benefits and score them on a scale of 1-10 for their uniqueness. Ten meaning that product feature is unique to them.
This enables us to develop an angle and a series of attention-grabbing headlines that speak directly to target customers, intending to stop them in their tracks. Something clear that can be easily read and understood in under 5 seconds.
Yes, you need to do a bit of legwork and do some competitor research to enable all this. However, it’s essential to know why your customer may choose someone else over you. It doesn’t have to be a big formal research project, but you need to spend time correctly identifying why you are better than anyone else.
Once you know how and where you outperform your competitors, the next step is to communicate to your target customers how your product/service is different and better. It has to be from the perspective of the customer – based on the actual benefit and Value that they receive from your products or services, not just what features you think they may like.
Infographics or comparison tables work really for this. You haven’t got a lot of time in the inbox or timeline, so clarity and ease of understanding are paramount.
This level of targeting isn’t something that can be rushed and takes a bit of time, but it’s time well spent if you want to boost your conversion rates and beat your competitors. Sadly, many companies are still applying outdating marketing tactics and opt for the old scattergun approach.
Take a look at Apple. Apple has a range of products. They have MacBooks, phones, watches etc. If you look closely at their marketing, they explain each of their products’ benefits differently, depending on the segments they’re targeting. When they target a business user with a MacBook, they explain the benefits of that product differently than they would to a student or someone using it for home computing.
Apple has a headline proposition, but it nuances its communication style based on that Proposition depending on the people it wants to attract as customers. Yes, the product is the same, but the customer needs and expected results are different.
When you think about it, of course, it’s obvious that this is how we should be thinking when we sit down to plan communications.
Once you craft your Value Proposition, you need to test it through various media channels to see which channels are more receptive and which ones are less so. Do more activity in the channels where you see success and adjust the messaging or re-evaluate the channel for those that aren’t working so well.
Getting your Value Proposition right and getting it right early on is essential. Remember. Your Value Proposition is not just a product or service that you agree to deliver to your customers. It is the ingredients of your business that solves the problems that competitors can’t.