How To Write The Perfect Value Proposition For Your Business ✍️
Proven templates to correctly formulate the value proposition of your product and convince customers to buy...
Hi everyone 👋
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Why you need to write down your value proposition
As an entrepreneur, if you want your startup to be successful, next to building a great product, you also have to manage to sell it to your customers.
A well formulated value proposition is key to achieve your business goals. 🎯
What is a value proposition?
2 things:
First thing.
Your value proposition stands at the center of your business model.
It’s what you (promise to) deliver to your customers through your (sales) channels.
That’s what your business is articulated around 😉
In this post, I’ll assume you already built or are building a great product. Meaning…
You got out of the building and talked to your target audience to validate the problem you wanted to solve is real, and painful. 😣
You tested your potential solutions iteratively until the point you got clear signs that you would release a hit.
You used the Value Proposition Canvas to document the features (certainly the pain relievers and gain creators) of your value proposition.
Good job!
Your value proposition is made of the benefits of your product or service for your customers.
That’s what makes your startup or product unique to the eyes of the market. What makes it attractive and desirable. 😍
Second thing.
Your value proposition is this sentence or message that stands at the top of the landing pages on your website.
Examples of great value propositions
Let’s start with a famous one. Facebook clearly announces what it’s all about.
Next. This is Uber’s value proposition for drivers 👇
Another one. Invision is a leading collaborative tool for digital product designers.
Hotjar’s turn. Ain’t it clear the value you can get using their product?
lemlist. The startup that recently refused a €30 million funding. Tell me who’s their target audience. 😉
Who’s next? Even if you never heard of Cazoo, in seconds you understand their value proposition 😱
Last but not least. Need cash for your business? 🤑
A value proposition is not a slogan
I’m gonna be clear.
A value proposition is not a slogan. ❌
Slogans are part of brand concepts.
If you wonder what a brand is, here’s Jeff Bezos’s definition👇
Hearing or reading a slogan immediately connects you to the brand. But slogans hardly say something about the value proposition.
Examples:
Because You're Worth It.
Just Do It.
Think Different.
Open Happiness.
Would these slogans make it clear for you what the products are if you didn’t already know the brands that hide behind them??? 🤩
This also means that, as a startup, you don’t have a brand (yet). Nobody knows you. Nobody is talking about you when you’re not in the room. Nobody cares.
That’s an inconvenient truth.
And that is the exact reason why being able to perfectly articulate your value proposition is key to building your brand, and to your success! 🥇
How to create a good value proposition
A good value proposition is clear, understandable for your target audience and quickly assimilated by visitors (in less than 5 seconds). ⏱
That’s the little maximum time you have. So, make sure your page loads quickly 🏎
It generally is a sentence. But most of the time the message will be reinforced or supported by visual designs as you could see on examples above.
It has to be clear on what you offer, your differentiator(s) or USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and who you build that for.
I have my own template to write a good value proposition relying on the Golden Circle’s Why, How and What as well as on the Value Proposition Canvas.
It looks like this:
(Product/Startup name)
A (Feature 1), (Feature 2), (Feature 3) (What) for (Customer Segment)
That’s how I articulated Flora’s first product value proposition 👇
Flora
A simple, fast and transparent insurance for home renters.
The “100% digital” feature, which is a clear differentiator, is not especially written. I decided to communicate this message with 2 visuals: a background image representing a girl on her phone and a screenshot of the mobile app embedded in a smartphone.
That’s not one size fits all!
Upgrading my digital strategy course at UCLouvain, I recently discovered a document entitled “10 Proven Templates for Writing Value Propositions That Work” that I found relevant and useful, shared with my students, and I wanted to share it with you today.
If you have a look at it, you may also notice that my template is close to Dave McClure’s one. 😌
You’ll also see that it’s not the only relevant one and that you can have a lot of fun trying to find the perfect formulation of your business value proposition.
So, have fun!
✌️
Fabee
PS: Sharing is caring. ❤️