Blog Layout
Value Proposition: The Foundation For Success
Jan 01, 2019
Building Your Value Proposition To Drive Results
There’s more to building a great brand than a catchy tagline or having a clever technology acronym. Your product or service needs to provide a tangible solution that solves a pain point or specific benefits to your target customer. Most importantly, the difference in choosing you over the competition needs to be obvious - and this is where a well-crafted value proposition makes a huge difference.
Many entrepreneurs struggle with creating a unique value proposition
for their business. Specifically, it can be hard to articulate the value of a deeply personal idea in ways that relate to a broader audience.
What does it take to distill your big idea into a few sentences? Most importantly, how do you make yourself stand out as the invaluable option?
I will share five pillars for your value proposition - creating a framework that will clearly define what your product or service does best.
Clear Solution
We all come up with great ideas that we think are going to be “next level.” However, you should think critically about whether or not you are providing clear value for users. If your solution resolves a minor issue or delivers only a slight advantage, people will not be compelled to use it. Instead, your value proposition must be anchored by bringing a tangible advantage
or experience to your customers.
Target Audience
As tempting as it is to solve all of the world’s problems, you should start by focusing on your own neighborhood. In other words, your brand needs to own a specific user base that fully understands the value of your business. For example, find a customer segment that fits the criteria of those who benefit most immediately from your services. After you build initial success with your core segment, that’s when you can start to think about your next big feature or new target market. Simply put, you need to walk with those you know before you run with a new crowd.
Features & Benefits
Even with next-level tech that’s light years ahead of its time, customers need to understand why using your product will deliver value. In other words, your features can’t simply stand on their own without clearly articulating the intrinsic benefit that they bring to customers. Your value proposition should include at least three to five distinct features
that are backed by meaningful benefits to illustrate what your brand brings to the table. Most importantly, the benefits must be easily explainable and resonate as invaluable advantages for customers choosing your business.
Competitive Advantage
Unless you’re a “unicorn” and have created a category, you can’t own every single aspect of your business segment. As a result, your product or service should focus on one or two focal points that you can honestly claim for category leadership. This is not to suggest that you should conflate or misrepresent what your product can do. Instead, you need to identify what you do better than your competitors. From there, you can focus your messaging around what makes your solution compelling and special.
Reason To Believe
Beyond providing clear solutions for customers, your value proposition should present your brand that makes it more than just a collection of features and benefits. In other words, this is your opportunity to connect customers with your mission on a personal level. Ultimately, people want to feel good about the choices they make and feel a sense of ownership with the brands that they trust. More so than any tangible feature or benefit, your brand needs to connect with customers on a visceral level.
In summary, your value proposition gives your brand and mission a clear set of truths about what makes you stand out. It’s harder than ever to escape the noise of the competition. As a result, you need to ensure that everyone in your organization (and most importantly, your customers) is singing your song the way you’ve written it. Remember that anyone can make lemonade - but with your own lemons and sugar, it’ll become something that’s uniquely yours.
Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Monthly Social Media Calendar
Google Updates Local Opportunity Finder We are combining free tools and resources offered by Google to navigate small business owners through the onboarding process easily. Claimed Business Business Details New Opportunities Available Services Pick Up, Delivery, Booking Fundraising Gift Card Promotion Showcase Live Inventory Digital Toolkit During this month's update, another tool Google provided helps small business owners without the funds to hire a marketing agency grow their business - something much needed after a majority of small business owners went under when COVID hit. Without the resources and guidance to launch and market their business online, they closed their doors for good. With Google's new Digital Toolkit, brands can enter their website URL and see personalized recommendations. Business owners begin with a series of intro questions to better understand their product, industry, and operations. Moments later, they are delivered with a report highlighting the opportunities and improvements - often only used during the merchant center approval process. By launching this feature, it will prevent brands from being disapproved for selling on the marketplace. Our favorite feature with this product is the industry insights section - often only available to large brands. Small business owners can see how they rank in the marketplace and understand their target customer's shopping behavior. Amazon? Moving to a new platform, maybe? Social Media Updates Facebook Advertising Explained Ever wondered how Facebook advertising works? You can learn more about the algorithm and understand how the ad auction works in Facebook’s newest update . Instagram Advertising Update Brands can now advertise on Instagram without having a Facebook business account. This is excellent news for many small businesses that want to promote posts within the app easily. Twitter Launches Audio Clips Twitter Launches Audio Clips in Tweets on iOS. After it shared a test of audio clips in tweets last month, Twitter has today launched the option to add 140-second audio clips to tweets among a selected group of users on iOS. Other Updates You Should Know How TikTok's Algorithm Works - As Explained by TikTok This week, TikTok has tried to provide another level of transparency in explaining exactly how its recommendations algorithm works, and how videos gain traction, or don't, on its platform. As explained by TikTok: When you open TikTok and land in your For You feed, you're presented with a stream of videos curated to your interests, making it easy to find content and creators you love. This feed is powered by a recommendation system that delivers content to each user that is likely to be of interest to that particular user. Walmart partners with Shopify to expand web marketplace business Walmart announced a new partnership with the e-commerce shopping platform, Shopify, now used by over 1 million companies. The deal will open Walmart’s Marketplace to Shopify’s small business sellers, to bring 1,200 Shopify sellers to the marketplace this year. The partnership will greatly expand the participating brands' reach by placing them in front of Walmart Marketplace’s 120 million monthly visitors.
Google Updates Google Search Algorithm May 2020 Update Small businesses need to be on the lookout for impacts on their local SEO. Early data shows the update is ranking directories and aggregate listing sites higher while reducing search positions for pages with minimal content. BUT... as with any update... give it a few weeks to see how the algorithm learns and adjusts. Until then, you may see a fluctuation in search rankings. One thing to keep in mind is the continued focus on search intent with this update. If you haven't shifted your blog content to focusing on user intent keywords, then now is the time to do so! Google Surfaces - Product Listings Free For years it was only possible to have your products listed on Google Shopping through paid ads. Google announced they are allowing brands to feature their products through Google Surfaces for free. This is huge for small businesses! You can opt into Surfaces by creating a Google Merchant Center account. Google Local Inventory The next awesome release from Google is the ability for local retail businesses to list their local inventory on Google Surfaces for free. Buyers will be able to shop local inventory without having to visit the store.