Ben James
A USP (Unique Selling Proposition) or Value Proposition is a summary of what makes your business unique and valuable to your target market. It answers questions such as “How do your products or service benefit your potential and current clients better than anyone else can?”
Your message will generally be narrowed down to one, two or three sentences, it will be clearly defined and specific to your prospects’ needs while also evoking emotion. Ideally the emotion you evoke will be one of excitement that your prospective clients have found the solution to all of their problems or to further improve their business.
Describe Your Target Audience
Consider your ideal customer profile and buyer personas when developing your value proposition. Will this be something they can relate to?
Explain The Problem You Solve
What problem does your product or service solve? How does it improve a business? In essence you want to understand the value of your offering so you can answer these types of questions effortlessly. Once you have determined these answers you can start to think about how you can be more specific, creative and ultimately unique in your messaging.
This is your opportunity to really pull in your target audience and attract the right leads for your business.
Differentiate You from Your Competition
This is where your USP really kicks in. Finding what is unique is what will establish your brand and separate you from the competition. Why are you the better choice? How does your product or service provide a unique solution?
Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes. Explain why your services are important to them and why would they choose you over another provider.
Test Then Rework or Commit
You will want to test your value proposition before you commit to this messaging. Internally test your message to see if everyone in your company is happy and in agreement with your proposition. Does it define your offering? Will it draw in new leads? Will it resonate with your prospects? Will the customers you have agree with it?
If needed rework your message. Take any recurring ideas and thoughts and start merging statements and rewriting this in a way that flows and makes sense with the new information
Once you have a paragraph that defines your offering it’s time to commit. An effective value proposition can increase ROI by approximately 15% – so it might be worth creating two different value propositions and A/B test to see what messaging is more effective.
In Conclusion
Ultimately you want your value proposition to be unique, resonate with your potential customers, be agreed by your current customers and give you a competitive advantage over other brands in your market. Start small and have a solid understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and buyer personas so you know who you’re targeting and who your message will reach.
“Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage”
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