How To Craft A Value Proposition: Articulating Your Product Value To The Customer
The purpose of product value is not to pitch to your customer but to convince them enough to make a purchase.
You may have a great product that could change the way people do business in your industry. But without a compelling product value proposition, you may come short of convincing your audience that it is a game-changer.
Therefore, a value proposition should address how your product or service will solve problems, the benefits your customers can expect, and why they should buy from you over your competitors.
Any value proposition with these three elements clearly defines your competitive advantage that attracts the audience to your product.
What Should Product Value Proposition Include?
A product value proposition is about what the customer will get out of the product. It is the identifier that makes your product unique.
It differentiates your product from the rest of your competition, prompting the audience to choose it over others.
What A Value Proposition Is Not
If the value proposition of your product is vague or confusing and not to the point, it can affect your sales and cause miscommunication with the customers.
So, your value proposition should not be limited to the following information:
- Your product’s features and specifications
- A tagline for your startup or a slogan
- An incentive
- The mission statement of your company.
- Your market positioning
The critical thing to remember as a business owner is that it shouldn’t address ‘what’ the customer needs (product features and specifications) but ‘why’ they need your product.
How Do We Articulate Product Value?
The value proposition should address three crucial questions:
- Why does your audience need your product? Phrase your customers’ needs or desires.
- How will it work? How your product can solve or improve their pain point.
- What are the most important features it provides? State the facts about your product or the service you are providing.
Keeping this in mind, let’s discuss how to write a value proposition in more detail.
Steps to write an Effective Value Proposition
Here are the steps you can follow to articulate product value. You can add the value proposition to your website, include it in your multimedia content using visual presentation, and use it in every vital outreach program for your startup.
Get In Your Customer’s Shoes
The first step is accurately identifying your customer’s problems or pain points. Next, you have to get out of an entrepreneur’s mind and get into your target audience’s shoes. The issue you may be solving may not be as important as you think to your customers.
To identify the problems of your customers, you may need extensive research.
- What are the tasks they are trying to finish?
- What roadblocks are they facing?
- What are the benefits they seek or the outcomes they want to achieve?
- The general information of your customer profile and identifying their voice
To understand your customer’s problems, you can ask existing customers for feedback and review any testimonials, client communications, or online reviews on Google and social media sites. It’s essential to add the customer’s voice to your product value proposition to connect with them.
How Will Your Product Benefit Your Audience?
Now that you have analyzed the problems faced by the customers, we describe how your product can benefit them. Or the outcome your customer will achieve by choosing your product.
This can be as simple as listing your product and mentioning its primary benefit. You can do it for each of your products according to the capacity of your enterprise.
The benefit should be concise and not focus on more than one customer need. The benefit or outcome can be functional or social gains, cost savings, or emotional benefits.
How Valuable Is The Benefit?
So far, you have analyzed your customer’s pain points and how you can solve them. Now, the next aspect is to specify how much value that adds to the lives of your target audience.
Be it time management, hassle-free business, or ease of use, highlight the value that your product can uniquely provide. Then, write it in your customer’s tone so they can easily relate to it.
Differentiate Yourself From Your Competition
Identify the elements that differentiate your product from the competitors while focusing on the buyer’s needs. Adding those to your value proposition will make it unique. For example, do you offer better customer service? Do you provide additional offers that others charge? Are there other value-additions to your product?
Emphasize them to create a unique value proposition that hooks your target audience.
You can find some templates for writing your value proposition here.
Crafting Your Value Proposition
Once you have all this information, you must craft the value proportion creatively.
Your value proposition can have these four parts:
- Headline
- Sub-headline or 2-3 sentence paragraph describing what you offer, your consumer, and its values.
- 3-5 bullet points listing all the benefits and features of your product
- Visual element (photo or video) to enhance your message
As we have been discussing, the focus should be on how to alleviate the specific needs of your customers.
You may have to make more than one draft and test them out before choosing the right one. You can get feedback from your existing customers and new ones, according to which you can finalize the value proposition that works best for your product.
The value proposition is not a static or permanent statement. Like your product, business and industry evolve, you can also update your value proposition and messaging.
Examples of compelling value propositions
Here are a few examples of successful businesses with great value propositions.
Buffer:
If you are someone who does social media marketing, you may have heard of Buffer.
“Simpler social media tools for authentic engagement.” That is the value proposition they provide.
Simplicity is their competitive advantage, which they have highlighted here. They also address the problem their customers face while posting content on social media.
FedEx:
We all know about the worldwide delivery services offered by FedEx.
This is their value proposition: “Manage Your Home Deliveries.”
“Sending and receiving packages is convenient and safe for individuals who want to ship ideas and innovations across the globe.”
They also address the customer’s needs (the hassles in shipping) and offer unique solutions that make them stand out from the competition.
Tidio:
Tidio is a live chat software that enables users to add their chatbots to their website without experience in coding.
Value proposition: “Add Tidio to your website in three minutes. Chat with visitors in real time and turn them into happy customers. Try this free live chat software for free and increase sales now!”
They address the complexity website owners have in developing this feature and offer them to get it done in three minutes. It also highlights the free-of-cost feature they offer and the value it adds to the customers.
These examples provide many startup tips for writing the value proposition for your product.
Will Your Value Proposition Work?
Articulating your value proposition is not complete until you optimize it. An optimized value proposition answers these questions effectively:
- Can you articulate your product value passionately?
- Is it easy for your customer to understand and relate to?
- Do your employees understand and support it?
- Does it stand out against the competition?
- Can it be included in your marketing and sales material?
- Does it enhance the reach and market position of your brand?
You can use a value proposition canvas to make this process easier. The Value Proposition Canvas is a framework developed by Dr. Alexander Osterwalder, which analyzes whether a product or service is positioned around what the customer values and needs. It can aid you in identifying the specific needs of your customers and the solutions for them.
Conclusion
When writing statements, the value proposition is one of the most important ones you can write as an entrepreneur. You could literally be answering a million-dollar question!
Articulating the product value takes innovation and creativity, but it also involves an in-depth understanding of your customer’s needs. It is from that pool of information you are going to find the right solutions and cost-effectively deliver them.
Marketing the product value is as important as identifying and crafting a value proposition. Highlight your uniqueness and value wherever you can and attract the customers looking for the solutions you are providing.
As business owners, we sometimes get blindsided to build a great product. However, building a great value proposition is essential as well. And Voila can help you with that. Just download the app and find a perfect business expert who can help you write and deliver your value proposition.
