A Value Proposition is a promise of value to be delivered to a customer. It represents a bundle of products and services that create value for a specific customer segment and need or desire
It is the main reason customers choose one company over another.
I am going to use the word product here to mean product or service.
A Value Proposition is one of your most important conversion factors. It is the first thing a visitor should see when visiting your website. It is the most significant thing that determines whether people will bother reading more about your product or service.
A Value Proposition is not a slogan or a positioning statement. Rather, it is used to define a promised value for a single product or a specific product bundle. Each value proposition should address a specific customer segment. Depending on the variety of products, or the variety of customer segments, you can have one value proposition that covers the whole business or one for each different product or product bundle. In many cases, there is a difference between the value proposition for your company and your product. If so, you should address both.
Wikipedia states: “A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services.”
Even if you provide the same product to different customer segments, it is important to have a different value proposition defining the specific value for each customer segment. If you find it difficult to differentiate, you might be too vague in your definition of the customer segment.
When writing a value proposition, always strive for clarity. If the readers must look through a lot of text to understand your offering, you’ve got it wrong. Sufficient information for a clear understanding is crucial for converting readers to customers, but you need to draw them in with a clear, compelling value proposition first.
Before you embark on creating your value proposition or propositions, you should do the following:
1. Clearly identify your product and its benefits. Do this for each product if you have more than one.
2. Identify the target market to whom your product will provide its benefits.
3. If you have more than one product repeat step 2 for each product.
4. If you have more than one target market for each product repeat step 2 for each target market.
5. Identify your competition and their competing offerings.
6. Determine how your offering differs from the competition.
7. Identify social and physical proof that your product does what you claim.
8. Identify any options that your target market has by acquiring and using your product.
Now you are ready to start creating.
Here are some suggested elements of a Value Proposition:
· A headline – describing the benefits
· A sub-headline or paragraph – explaining what, to whom and why
· Bullet points (optional) – listing benefits and/or features
· A visual element – image or video
Consider each of the following questions:
• How do I make it clear and easy to understand?
• Who it is for and how it is useful to them?
• Have I communicated benefits or results a customer will get from purchasing and using my products?
• How is my offer different or better than my competitor’s offer?
• Have I avoided hype, superlatives and business jargon?
• Can be read and understood in about 5 seconds?
There are some examples offered by Hubspot at the following link:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/write-value-proposition#sm.00001psrgtcwhff1puz0rqiuxp5mm
Creating a Value Proposition is one of the focus tasks undertaken in the Reality Business Game “Follow That Dream” You can find out more about the game by sending an email with the subject line – game Information request to
[email protected] You can register for the game by clicking on the link: www.opusmagnum.com/follow-that-dream
To your success.
Peter Messervy
