The value Proposition
The value proposition is one of the pillars of a successful marketing strategy. It allows your customers to quickly understand if your solution answers their problem, and therefore if they want to « click » to find out more. It represents one of the main sources of improvement of your retention/conversion. If you feel that you have found the value proposition of your product without having tested it, think again.
Definition of the Marketing Value Proposition
A value proposition is not a slogan! It is the promise of value that you will deliver to your users. It is the main reason your customers buy your products.
Depending on your business model, you may have several value propositions: it can apply to your whole company/startup, to one of your products or to one of your people.
The value proposition is one of the pillars of a successful marketing strategy
A value proposition is not a slogan! It is the promise of value that you will deliver to your users. It is the main reason your customers buy your products.
Depending on your business model, you may have several value propositions: it can apply to your whole company/startup, to one of your products or to one of your people.
Your Value Proposition must answer the questions that your potential customers are asking, consciously or unconsciously
- What is the problem you are trying to solve ?
- What makes your solution unique ?
- What concrete / measurable result can we expect from your solution ?
Answering these questions will allow you to identify why you are THE solution your users are looking for. This sentence will then be the most important of your acquisition, it will serve as a catchphrase on your home page, in your adwords / facebook ads, on your flyers…
How to build a Value Proposition ?
There are many ways to build your Value Proposition, and none of them will be perfect because a lot depends on your product, sector, etc. However, it will always have to respect certain elements.
What problems do you solve ?
Your people/targets have problems and needs. Faced with these problems, they set (consciously or not) objectives to solve them. They discover solutions and create an unconscious list of objections to their use. Your product must defuse these objections.
This will need to be taken into account in your proposal.
What type of language should be used ?
Your personas also have an « identity » (age, gender, city, profession, technicality, etc.) that will allow us to determine the type of language to use:
- First name or first name?
- familiar / sustained tone?
- which lexical fields should be used?
- technical language ?
Clarity / Simplicity
A value proposition must be clear & simple. And like everything simple, it will be the hardest to achieve. You will have to refine, cut, refine again. Keep only the essentials.
How do I know if my Value Proposition is good ?
You will surely get an impression, a preference, etc. But if you ask your colleague, he or she will have one too. And worse… If you ask your boss, he’ll get one too, and since he’s the boss, he’ll be right. In reality, you will have no other choice but to test it.
AB Test your value proposition
Set up an AB Test with your 2 best value propositions, let it run, measure, keep the champion and find him a new challenger.
Easy, it’s just AB test. But potentially time consuming if you start from poor quality value propositions. So before you set all this up, determine the A and B versions by asking yourself if they make you want to click. Keep in mind that the goal is to push your user through the conversion tunnel: every click is a step towards your goal ????
Set up an Adwords ad
If you don’t have enough traffic to experiment quickly, Adwords is your friend. Set up an advertising campaign targeting your prospects, and test your value propositions directly in the title and the 2 lines of text.
After a few days, measure the click rate (CTR) of the different versions. The highest CTR wins.