What role does your unique value proposition hold in your business life today? Have you revisited it recently?
The reason we ask is that, in a world where traditional businesses are competing with agile startups, it’s harder to stand out than it was. In addition, the array of choices available to customers via e-commerce can satisfy their preferences more easily.
To succeed, therefore, among multiple businesses in the same niche, you need a unique value proposition (UVP) to distinguish you instantly and attract the attention of your preferred customers. It may well also be a case of meeting them “online first” these days. The result is that your words are often the first thing a potential customer sees.
So, What is This UVP?
The unique value proposition is something that clearly communicates to your target customers
- the unique benefits of your products or services,
- how these will address their needs, and
- what gives your product added value for them.
In other words, it’s a form of marketing strategy that simply states your special and unique value to your customers. This instantly gives your customers a reason to do business with you rather than with your competitors.
How Do You Find Your Unique Value Proposition?
Your unique value proposition is more than just a statement. And it’s definitely not your unique selling point. In some respects, it’s a form of business identity. It’s what your brand stands for, uniquely.
There are several famous examples here and here that you will immediately recognize.
The obvious conclusion, therefore, is that you need to find and develop your own UVP.
The whole process of finding your UVP might look like this:
1 Identify What Your Customer Needs and Cares About
To grab your customers’ attention, you must decide what solutions your business is offering that will solve the problems your ideal customer has and cares about. Your unique solutions must be relevant to them, whether that’s personally, socially, or environmentally.
You can do this by revisiting your buyer personas. This will remind you what they need and care about. It will also remind you how you can target these specific desires via with the unique value proposition you’re developing.
2 Figure Out What You Do Really Well
Once you understand your customers’ needs on a deeper level, it’s time to look within your business. What are your business’s key strengths that can be used to highlight solutions to the unmet needs of your target customer? When you’ve identified this key strength, you can work out how to use it to bring a particular value to your customers.
3 Note Your Competitors’ Unique Value Propositions
Lastly, but not least, you have to find out what unique value propositions your competitors are communicating to their customers. Knowing your competitors’ secret ingredients to capture the customer base will help you to:
- prioritize your own business values that resonate well with your customers’ desires
- avoid replicating strategies your competitors are using
- identify your unique value that will make you stand out to your ideal customers.
You now have a unique value in mind!
Create the Proposition From Your Unique Value
We can create this by breaking it down into its parts.
1 Unique. Take a little time to think some more about the unique value you’ve identified. How does it set you apart from every other business in your industry? Is it to do with your customer’s buying journey? Can it be framed in such a way that no other product or service offers the experience?
2 Value. This is what you’re offering in exchange for the price a customer pays. You can express the worth of your value in monetary terms, of course. Alternately, it might be in some other terms such as social or environmental ones.
You can find out if the value you’re offering is worth the price your customers are paying. You can do this in a variety of ways. Track them on social media. Run a focus group. Ask customers to describe how your service or product has helped them in terms of functionality and performance. This input will help you develop your unique value proposition over time. It’s not written in stone!
3 Proposition. You need to work on a statement that expresses how your products and services uniquely benefit your customers and why they should choose you. Variations of this statement will help you target different arenas: online, email, leaflets and offers, advertising slots, etc.
What is Included in a Good Unique Value Proposition?
Now that you’ve constructed and established your UVP, it’s time to communicate it clearly in all your communication channels. As we said, there will be variations of your one UVP. There’s no single formula to get you to the one perfect UVP statement. These tips will suggest what you can include in yours:
Structure. Make sure your UVP statement has a clear structure that’s easy to understand in any channel. It might need a headline, or bullets, or visuals to capture attention in a particular channel.
Clarity. The key value should be clear and accessible in seconds. Avoid business jargon and hype. Clarity is everything in marketing, or customers will move on.
Messaging. Your UVP must describe the value from the buyer’s perspective. Use the language of your target audience. These messages might be testimonials or case studies, for example, or simple posts on Twitter.
Results. Show clearly what value your prospects will gain by choosing your products/services. These include quantified and/or qualified results.
Presentation. How you present your value proposition matters. Together with the key value statement, include other small benefits and unique features that are easy to notice throughout your messaging to emphasize the benefit to your customer when they choose you.
How is Your Unique Value Proposition Serving You?
Could you dismantle it and improve it? A unique value proposition grabs people’s attention by its simplicity and persuasion. It can only work in today’s marketplace if it’s communicated clearly across all your platforms.
But more importantly, it is arguably the most crucial part of your marketing strategy – certainly not one to be overlooked or skimped on.
Here at 360 Consulting, we have experts who can help you achieve your sales goals with a perfect, unique value proposition. We’ll
- Assess your business’s unique values,
- Determine a strategy that highlights your value to your customers, and
- Provide a plan of action to communicate your unique value proposition in all channels.
Contact us today to discuss how we can help you.