It’s a fast moving world for any business. The competition is cut-throat. Consumers are overwhelmed. They skim through options faster than a goldfish.
As a result, you must leverage a strategically designed value proposition (also known as a selling proposition) to position your brand in the sea of similar offerings.
Defining your unique selling point might seem difficult in the beginning. You might feel that there is nothing that hasn’t been said already.
That’s where this guide comes to rescue. Read on to craft an impactful and truly unique selling proposition for your company.
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What Is A Unique Selling Proposition?
A selling or value proposition is a declaration that conveys why a prospect should purchase from your business.
It clearly explains what makes your brand stand out, or makes your offering different from other similar brands. In other words, it answers why you are the best choice in the industry.
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Your unique selling proposition answers to “why” in the shortest way possible. According to a B2B agency Belkins:
“Up to 65% of B2B companies take the time and care to establish value propositions.”
It’s because a unique value proposition resonates with customers and increases lead generation. Your unique selling point provides a base or a starting point for your business.
To make it stronger, you have to adhere to some things. Let’s start with the basics first.
Writing A Unique Selling Point
While writing a unique selling proposition, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- WHAT: What product are you offering?
- WHO: Who will benefit from your product?
- WHY: Why would customers pay attention to your product?
- HOW: How does your product differ from your competitors?
Apart from that, your unique selling point must create a lasting first impression. A good first impression would make your prospect stay with you for longer.
Joshua Conran, the senior partner at a branding agency called Deksia, mentioned in a blog post published by Inc.:
“Your advertising efforts ultimately boil down to the first five seconds. In these crucial moments, consumers decide whether they’ll buy into your brand or check out completely.”
Image Source: Oberlo
Therefore, your chance of grabbing your customer’s attention through your unique selling proposition will be at the beginning itself. Make it worthy of their time.
Steps To Create A Best Selling Value Proposition
A carefully curated unique selling proposition makes you stand out in the crowd. If your value proposition statement is not relatable, prospects will not be able to build trust in you.
The hard part is figuring out just how to make your brand stand out at the outset. To help you with that, here are the steps to gather and organize the components of a unique selling point.
Define Your Target Audience
The focus of your unique selling point is your target audience. That’s why it’s also called a “customer value proposition.” Therefore, understanding the mindset of your most probable customer is very crucial.
Knowing what your customers value makes it easier to come up with a unique selling proposition. Allie Decker, a content marketer, and freelance writer, states in a blog post:
“Working with a defined audience gives you a clear roadmap for your marketing, messaging, and relationships with your customers.”
Remember that your unique selling point is an appeal to your audience to buy your product. Therefore, it’s important to know what the interests of your customers are and what they are searching for in the product.
You can either conduct a survey or an FAQ session and identify what your audience cares about in the product the most.
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Just so you understand better, let’s take the example of Skillshare. It’s an online platform made for people (its target audience) who want to learn creative skills in a more convenient manner.
Define The Core Offer
Your core offer is the ‘what’ of your unique value proposition that defines the core product or service you are selling. Your value proposition statement must clarify what you are selling and whom you are selling it to.
According to Kurian Mathew Tharakan, the Founder and Managing Director of a marketing firm StrategyPeak Sales:
“The identification of your core utility allows you to discover all possible competitors, substitutes, and complements for your product.”
Make sure that your value proposition statement is on point. Be clear and concise and don’t try to be clever when creating a unique selling point.
It will help if you come up with a few different value proposition ideas and then choose the one that you think best conveys your message. You can also run a poll on social media and find your audience’s opinion on each idea.
Your unique selling proposition should ensure if what you are offering is addressing the pain point of your target audience or not. Once you address the pain point, present your product as a viable option.
Image Source: Melotti Media
Your unique selling point should also contain that special touch your audience is expecting from you. Something that only you are offering.
If we talk about Skillshare, they focus (core offer) on providing a platform for learning ‘creative skills’ rather than ‘online courses’ or ‘new skills.’
Tell An Intriguing Story
Ensuring your customers that they are investing in something useful is a plus point. Show them a picture of how your product can make their life easier and more comfortable through your unique selling proposition.
Jeff Charles, the founder of an Austin based content marketing agency, said in a blog post by Small Biz Trends:
“People like to think that they operate on a logical level but they communicate through words (logic) that are laced with many layers of emotion.”
Think beyond just a practical approach. Connect with your customers emotionally by means of your value proposition. Tell them an evoking story. Make them feel the desperate need to get your product.
Image Source: Storysoft
Instill honesty and integrity while telling your story. Using gimmicky language is a big no-no. You don’t want to shoo your audience away.
Think about your dining experience when you ordered the dish looking at the picture but it didn’t come out to be as good as anticipated.
Your prospects will feel the same way if your unique value proposition narrates more than you can actually deliver. So, it’s important to deliver what you promised.
According to a study conducted by Anchovy.PLC, 92% of consumers chose brand ads that told a story, while 55% of consumers preferred buying the products that had a great narrative.
For example, Skillshare is selling the story of convenience. It offers all of its courses online which allows people to learn from anywhere, anytime. It also works towards a practical approach, which makes the sessions more interactive.
Map With Competitive Differentiator
The next step is to identify what separates your value proposition statement from your competitors. What makes you stand out?
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In his blog post on brand differentiation, Mitch Duckler Archives, a brand manager and consultant, says:
“Brand differentiation has far-reaching broader business implications. Simply put, differentiation directly affects a brand’s short-term profitability and long-term viability.”
Your unique selling point can not be as simple as offering ‘free delivery’ because anyone can copy it pretty easily. Customers compare the same product at multiple stores. You need to make them land at your store and stay there.
Laura Click, brand strategist and founder of Bluekite, says:
“Only 50 percent of businesses make it past the first five years and one-third make it past the 10-year mark.”
One prominent reason for that is the lack of differentiation.
Research and find out what you can offer that’s different and better than your competitors.
For example, Skillshare offers unlimited access to its creative courses with a basic monthly or yearly subscription, unlike similar platforms where you have to pay for a specific course separately.
Put It All Together
Now that we have all the pieces in place, you can join them together to shape your unique selling proposition. For example, the final value proposition statement for Skillshare looks something like:
“Skillshare provides a clean online platform for people to learn hundreds of creative skills, anytime, anywhere as per their convenience, at a small monthly fee.”
5 Great Value Proposition Examples
Writing a unique selling proposition is conveying the biggest benefit in the smallest words. Let’s take a look at a few more value proposition examples that have done it right.
Glo’s Unique Selling Proposition
Glo’s value proposition goes like:
“Thousands of classes at our customers’ fingertips. World-class teachers. A subscription that costs less than one class a month. Anytime, anywhere…”
Glo understood that expertise and convenience are big benefits for busy, health-conscious consumers.
Taking that into perspective and converting it into a unique selling point, Glo started a venture providing unlimited online fitness sessions.
It offers unlimited virtual classes at the cost of one studio session and makes yoga, meditation, and pilates accessible to all.
Glo’s value proposition statement is short yet concise. They have kept it catchy enough to attract customer’s attention and powerful enough to set themselves apart from their counterparts.
Slack’s Unique Selling Proposition
Slack is a unique selling proposition example that strives towards making the user’s work-life-
“Simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.”
Slack’s unique value proposition reflects that it can handle remote team collaborations easily, “no matter where you are working from.”
The essence of Slack’s value proposition statement is making collaboration simpler and there are many factors that support it.
One of them is its easy-to-use yet powerful interface that can manage even the most complex projects smoothly (including NASA).
Another factor is the ability to adapt the existing communication workflow of any company, which is a plus point in bringing “the team together.”
Unlike many other similar apps, it offers what it promises in a better way. It is because of a powerful value proposition that Slack has become one of the fastest-growing SaaS start-ups with 77% of Fortune 500 companies using it.
Shopify’s Unique Selling Point
Shopify is another great value proposition example that has developed a proposition claiming that it is:
“One platform with all the e-commerce and point of sale features you need to start, run, and grow your business.”
Shopify’s unique selling point aims to deliver everything you need to “build your business” at a single destination.
Its value proposition has highlighted the pain point of its target audience and has provided a platform for them to establish their own e-commerce store.
Shopify has a dedicated section to help you start, sell, market, and manage your business, which supports the core of its value proposition that states “with you from first sale to full scale.”
The selling proposition developed by Shopify has effectively helped in doubling its revenue in the second quarter of 2020, with 97% growth in sales year-on-year.
Uber’s Unique Selling Proposition
Uber is one of the best unique selling proposition examples out there. The uber focus of the value proposition built by the brand is using the word “you”, which works two ways.
For customers, it’s the liberty to get the ride of their choice and by their convenience. For drivers, it’s the freedom to set their own hours of accepting a rider.
Uber promises to deliver everything that a usual taxi can not, which includes services like contactless bookings and single click rides.
Apart from convenience, Uber’s value proposition statement sheds light on one more point- affordability. It supports its statement by offering cost-effective economical rides.
Evernote’s Unique Selling Point
One unique selling proposition example worth noticing is Evernote. Evernote’s unique value proposition is “remember everything.” It focuses on a group of customers who want to “feel organized without any effort.”
Evernote’s noteworthy features lie in its selling proposition.
“It helps you capture and prioritize ideas, projects, and to-do lists, so nothing falls through the cracks.”
The idea behind building Evernote’s selling proposition is providing a single platform for organizing and managing all your data and notes.
Not just that. Evernote’s unique selling point also addresses other desires of its audience, such as taking notes and sharing them with people.
All these factors support the primary benefit Evernote intends to provide: to make task management easier.
Conclusion
Now that you have seen how to write a value proposition and some of the best value proposition examples, it’s time to write your own.
The whole point of creating a unique value proposition is to make new prospects notice you in an array of competition.
It’s a way to turn your future customers to present customers. Even if you already have a value proposition, upgrade it every once in a while. Customers always look for something fresh in the market and you must provide that freshness to them.
So, think hard and research harder. A little time investment can offer you long-time returns.
Did I miss anything? Did you try these steps? Do you have any questions or comments? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.