What is value proposition?
A great value proposition makes your business the obvious choice amongst competitors. Writing a great value proposition statement is hard. In this article we show you not only how to write a great value proposition but also share our template on how we have done it for hundreds of businesses worldwide.
The value proposition of any business can be outlined by completing one single sentence.
"Only they can ......"
Now that you’ve defined your business, it’s time to craft your unique value proposition(s). Your website, marketing campaigns, and overall brand messaging should revolve around completing this essential sentence: ‘Our company offers [insert value proposition(s) here].’ Note that you may have multiple value propositions, so consider creating a list to showcase the various benefits you offer to customers
- One tap and a car comes directly to you
- Your driver knows where to go
- Payment is cashless
How to write your value proposition?
Value proposition may be evident in your product/service before you write your copy. However, for a lot of businesses, you will have to sit down, brainstorm and derive their value proposition.
In order to derive the value proposition for your business, we will also follow inversion. The steps are:
- List attributes of an ideal customer. A customer who may be your ideal customer after 5 years in business. Some attributes that you can think of are loyalty, billables, recurring revenue, ease of interaction, the value they derive from your product and so on.
- List all competing products that this customer can use. List in a few bullet points what you believe to be the biggest challenge with this competing product from the customer’s perspective.
- Against each challenge, list what you provide as a lucrative option or your proposition.
Value Proposition Template Example & Download
Let’s see an example about Zap fitness club in Melbourne.
Click this link to see an example template.
Use the sheet above to derive a value proposition for your business. Make sure to create a copy before diving into the exercise.
We use weights column in the sheet to give a value of how much each problem would be worth to the customer. For an example would a traveler and an Individual in the same area care about 12-month contract equally? Not really.
Pitfalls
Some of the most common pitfalls you will see when reading websites are:
- Generic statements describing their products. Cloud flare for an example has “Making the Internet Work the Way It Should for Anything Online” which is as generic as it gets. Remember, that even at Cloud flare’s scale such copy on the homepage may not be the most effective.
- Direct competition comparison. For example, Bigcommerce’s landing page says – “More built-in features than Shopify, without the transaction fees” assumes the notion that everyone visiting bigcommerce’s page knows about Shopify. It hints that perhaps the visitor should check out Shopify too. To attack a rival is never good advertising.
- Not highlighting all value props at the get-go. Think of each visitor and assume that they are only going to give you the 1 minute to read the copy. If you will not hook them in the first minute, chances are they are less likely to come back.
When to re/derive your value proposition?
There are two instances when you should re/focus on your value proposition.
- When you are launching your products/service and want to position yourself.
- Your competitor is making it increasingly hard for you to survive.
In-between, you should never have to worry about value proposition.
Value proposition template download
Click here to download the value proposition template