If I ask you what your differentiating element is, the one that makes you stand out from your competition, can you tell me? You will find the answer in your value proposition . Thanks to it, you can get to know better the reasons why your customers buy your products or services and not those of other companies.
Also on the Internet, 3 out of 4 companies admit that they do not know how to communicate the reasons or factors that make them different from their competitors. In fact, unfortunately there is a high percentage of organizations and businesses that do not even know that the concept exists.
Today I want to talk to you about what it is and how to make a value proposition . A strategic tool that, well designed, can generate a high engagement rate with your potential customers. Therefore, we will also see where and when we should transmit it and some examples of real companies.
What is a value proposition in Marketing?
The value proposition of a company is the set of benefits that it offers to potential customers who decide to consume its products and/or services and that differentiate it from its competitors.
In order for your value offer to be attractive enough, so that customers want to stay with you, these benefits (tangible and intangible) must be able to exceed their expectations, as well as be different from what your companies are already offering. competitors.
Said in a more colloquial way, it is the point of union between your company and your buyer persona . For your potential customers to trust you and decide to buy your products and/or services, they need to know you and perceive the value they will receive, beyond the price they are going to pay.
This is the differentiating element that every company must have well defined in order to survive in this society that we are living in, where competition is fierce.
The ” promise” of a company must be unique and must answer the question that many users and consumers ask themselves: why should I choose you and not a company from your competition?
Why is it important to define the value proposition?
Through a company’s value proposition, customers receive and understand the real value of the products and/or services it offers. And it is that, beyond the price they pay for them, there is the value they perceive of both your brand and your products.
I will give you a very simple example. Are you an Apple user? Why do people buy this brand being the most expensive on the market? Apple is one of the companies that has invested the most resources in working on its branding and creating its proposal.
Think that if you have not defined your proposal, you only have the way to lower your prices. Because if your potential customers are not capable of perceiving the value of what they are acquiring with your products and/or services, then they will only look at the price, and either you lower it or you don’t sell, it’s that crude.
Therefore, turn your brand projection around, leaving behind what you do and how you do it, and bringing to the fore the benefits that people who decide to trust you will receive.
Turn your potential client into the protagonist of your brand, and also explain why you do what you do to improve their life and, above all, how you do it, showing them that you are not like your competition.
How to make a value proposition for your customers?
When creating your proposal, you must be able to fit the profile of your potential customers with the value map , which is nothing more than the way in which you intend to create that value for your customers.
This proposal will also mark your brand positioning . And when you get both sides to agree, then you have created your value proposition.
Let’s see in detail the 2 main steps that you must carry out (and the three parts into which each of them are divided) for the process of creating the canvas of our proposal.
1st Customer Profile
In order to offer your products and/or services, you need to know your customers very well . This will help you better understand what the concerns, problems and needs of your target audience are . Thus, you will be able to design products and/or services that help them solve them.
A very useful tool that will help you get to know your customers is an empathy map , where you must try to answer the different questions that will bring you closer to knowing them.
Now, divide your map into 3 parts where you write down the following states of your client:
customer works
Jobs describe the activities that your clients carry out in their personal and professional lives. Here they are included from the tasks that they have to finish, to the problems that they must solve or the needs that they try to satisfy.
Some questions that can help you identify the work of your clients can be these:
- What tasks do you try to do in your daily life?
- What are the problems that you find and try to solve?
- What jobs give you the most satisfaction when you get them done?
- Etc.
customer frustrations
Here is everything that annoys your customers before, during and after trying to solve any task. We also include here everything that prevents you from solving it.
Pay attention to the frustrations caused by not doing a task, or how you feel if you have not managed to do it well.
In order to detect those frustrations you can try to answer some of these questions:
- What things make you feel bad?
- What challenges and difficulties do you encounter?
- What are your biggest concerns?
- Etc.
customer joys
As its name suggests, this part of the empathy map collects the results and benefits that your clients obtain in their lives. Think that some joys are expected, desired and necessary, while others will be unexpected.
And so that you can find out what makes your customers happy, here are some ideas for questions:
- What savings make you happy?
- What is the level of quality you expect?
- What do you aspire to achieve in life?
- Etc.
With this analysis on the table you have to be able to visualize what matters to your customers. You must understand both their jobs and their joys and frustrations.
Having this information will help you a lot to work and create the next step.
2nd value map
The goal of creating a value map is to explicitly describe how the products and/or services your company sells create value .
Did you know that more than 50% of companies do not connect with their customers because they do not agree on their perception of their value compared to what they actually have?
The creation of the value map can be done in these 3 steps:
Your products and/or services
Make a list of all the products and/or services that you offer in your company. This is the foundation on which you will build your value proposition.
It is very important that you understand that the products and services that you offer in your company do not create value by themselves, but in relation to a specific customer segment with their jobs, frustrations and joys.
The frustration relievers
Write how your products and/or services can alleviate the frustrations of your customers. You should explicitly outline how you can eliminate or reduce some of the things that bother them before, during, or after doing a task, or that prevent them from doing it.
He believes that the best value propositions focus on the frustrations that matter to customers, especially the most extreme ones.
You can do this exercise by giving answers to the question Could your products and services achieve…?
Here are some ideas:
- Generate savings?
- Make your customers feel better?
- Eliminate risks that scare them?
- Etc.
creators of joys
This part of creating your value map describes how your products and/or services create joy for your customers. You must summarize how you intend to generate the results and benefits that your potential client expects, in addition to those that they want and also those that may surprise them.
As with the previous step, try to find answers to the question about: how can your products and/or services…?
Here are some ideas:
- Make life easier for people?
- Fulfill a wish you dream of?
- Increase work productivity?
- Etc.
How to transmit the value proposition of our company?
Once you have created your value proposition, it is time to transmit it to all your potential customers, as well as the people who show interest in your company.
The trick is to create a brief, clear and concise proposal . You have to be able to explain in a few words what are the benefits that people who decide to buy your product or service get.
Do it using clear and simple language that can be understood by everyone and, in turn, add the points that differentiate you from other companies in your sector.
Take advantage of any means of communication or communication from your company to transmit “your promise”.
Where to communicate it?
- On your website.
- Inside the sales pages.
- On social networks .
- Within your digital or offline advertising campaigns.
- In corporate videos.
- In your email signatures.
- Etc.
Some examples of value propositions
Here are some examples of companies that have already known how to work on their brand message.
Netflix
The famous streaming series and movie company is committed to the versatility and variety of its product.
On its website we can read the title “All the movies and series you want, and much more”. And to reinforce its message, Netflix reminds us that we can enjoy and cancel the service wherever and whenever we want.
evernote
This famous note application highlights with its proposal the ease with which we can write down whatever comes to mind, when the idea comes to us and wherever we are.
PayPal
This secure payment application over the Internet has known how to define its promise very well, responding to a concern that users have and that not all online stores on the network cover: the cost of returning purchases.
Conclusion
Knowing how to convey the benefits that customers who decide to buy your products and/or services obtain is an important step forward, where you are showing that you empathize and understand the needs of people interested in your brand.
With a good value proposition you are gaining the trust of your customers , making them feel unique and listened to. And you already know that this is the basis of any professional relationship.
