What makes your business unique? Sure, it’s similar to other businesses in many respects, but in every market, you’ve got to show how you have a leg up on the rest, lest you fall to the wayside and fail to attract those all-important customers.
This is where having a value proposition and delineating a clear CVP strategy can benefit you and your business greatly. Let’s explore just what you should be using your value proposition for, and how you can refine yours to achieve the maximum effect.
Defining Terms
One thing that many businesses get hung up on is differentiating their value proposition from their general brand purpose. The two overlap, to be sure, but they are not exactly the same.
Your brand purpose is a statement about why your organization exists and what it’s supposed to achieve. It’s a declaration of your goal and ideals, and it can provide a strong basis for other elements—like your value proposition and brand strategy. It is not, however, these things themselves. You can think of your brand purpose as an ethos—the bedrock from which the tangible elements of your business can be built. Speaking of which…
Your value proposition, on the other hand, speaks more to the specific deliverables that you provide to your customers. It encompasses the “what” and the “how”, while the brand purpose is geared more toward explaining the “why”. Included in your value proposition are all the different “touchpoints” your customers may have with your brand.
Why Your Value Proposition Is Important
Now that you understand a bit more about what the value proposition is, you might be wondering why it’s important. In a nutshell, your value proposition is a tool that you can use to help expand your customer base and boost your sales (and, by extension, profits). It’s critical, because it can show how your product or service is ideal for a particular segment of customers, and thus persuade a greater number of customers to choose your brand.
What Does A Value Proposition Need?
In order for your value proposition to be effective, it has to embody certain characteristics, the first of which is visibility. If nobody knows about your value prop, how could it possibly be used to persuade? For maximum effect, your val-prop should be front and center across the multiple channels where customers will be interacting with your brand.
Clarity and conciseness go hand-in-hand with visibility. In order for your value proposition to be easily understood by a customer segment, you should write it with plain language and keep it brief, otherwise it may become confusing or even a chore to read through. A good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to a quick-and-snappy headline and then a paragraph explanation that drives home the point that your brand has meaning for your intended audience.
Lastly, you want to make sure that your value proposition is lean and value-rich. Conciseness means nothing if you aren’t saying anything of import, so be sure to focus your value proposition statement on what’s most relevant to your potential customers.