Why should your ideal customer choose you?

A value proposition is a statement that explains what you do, how you do it differently, and why it's better for your customers than what your competitors are offering.

We are going to boil down your points of differentiation and how you are better than your competitors by drafting a value proposition for your business.

Your value proposition is very powerful for selling your products/services. It's what you put on your homepage banner of your website or tweak for use in brand campaigns. It should quickly tell customers what you do and why they should choose you over the competition.

To get started, take a few minutes to answer the following questions:

How am I better than my competitors? (Better can mean many things. It can mean better customer service, higher quality of work or product, more creative, more delicious, healthier, more effective, faster, the best x in the city etc.)

How do I solve my Ideal Customer/Ideal Community's needs better than my competitor? (This is an important distinction because we look to see if 'how you are better' translates to 'why this is better for your customers')

PRO TIP: You want your Value Proposition to be simple and easily understandable to anyone so we don't want to use confusing language or industry jargon. Also, it's important to think about the end-result you are providing your customer.

Generally, the Value Proposition is one sentence but I've seen great examples with sub-headings that further describe what you are offering. It really depends on your business!

Here's a couple of examples:

Slack:

Be More Productive at Work with Less Effort

HelloFresh:

HelloFresh - Stressfree meals

Salesforce:

The world's No. 1 CRM

Listia:

Sell your old stuff. Get new stuff for free.

Now it's your turn! Use this guide to draft your own.

What you do (should solve your customers problem), how you do it differently than your competitors and/or what your customers can expect as a result (the value or experience they get by choosing your product or service).

Once you have a value proposition you are happy with, get some feedback from clients, colleagues or friends. The Value proposition is the cornerstone to your Marketing Strategy. If you read our Why you need a marketing strategy blog, and did the exercise I listed there, you should have the two most important parts of any marketing strategy. 1. Your goals: What you want to achieve in the business (and some thoughts on how you’ll use marketing to achieve these goals, and 2. How you will position yourself in the market (your value proposition).

Next time we’ll look at how to build your marketing plan. Stay tuned!

Happy Marketing!

Emilie