The act of translating a prospect into a loyal customer is a transaction between them and you. You are promising them something with your brand, or your product. You are promising them to provide something beneficial in exchange for their purchase and loyalty. This is your Value Proposition.

A Value Proposition can be defined as;

“A value proposition refers to the value a company promises to deliver to customers should they choose to buy their product. A value proposition is part of a company’s overall marketing strategy.” – Investopedia

Hubspot also defines a value proposition as such;

“Your company’s value proposition is the core of your competitive advantage. It clearly articulates why someone would want to buy from your company instead of a competitor.”

So now we can gain some key information from these 2 definitions. A value proposition explains what a customer will receive if they work with your brand, as well as why they should work with you and not others. The value proposition is also related to your marketing and branding. So what do we do with this statement?

Write your Value Proposition on a piece of paper…

The value proposition is beneficial in 2 key ways. The first way is that it forces you, the business owner, to think critically about your own business model. Have you ever thought about who would benefit from your product or services? Did you ever think about the problems in the world (big or small) and how you can address any of them?

Critical thinking is a vital part of running a business. We need to analyse all the possibilities associated with the particular pathway we have chosen. We have to look at all the options and pathways, analyse them all first, before actually making a decision. This can be a long and difficult process, especially if you haven’t don’t so before, but without this step we can end up making the wrong decisions.

This is an issue I have noticed with many novice and beginner business owners. They are not willing to be uncomfortable and think critically about the important stuff. If you would like to learn more about thinking critically and how it affects your business, check out this video on my YouTube channel.

Now write your Value Proposition into the core of your business

The second benefit of the Value Proposition is related to your business; how it runs and how people interact with it.

The Value Proposition is not just for you to internalize in your own business. It should be on public display for others to see as well. This way potential customers will know straight away; what your business is trying to accomplish, what they will get from you and your business, and importantly whether or not it’s worth it for them to interact with you.

Your value proposition should go on the main marketing pages that your customers will see; for example the front of your website or any brochures.

“Your value proposition will most often appear on your website. While you can include it on marketing campaigns and brochures, the most visible place is your home page and, if you’d like, your product pages.” – Hubspot

From there you can embody the promise you’ve made to your audience through your branding; such as choice of colour scheme and website theme, the style of your content, and your tone of communication.

So why is the Value Proposition important?

As we mentioned, the importance of the value proposition is giving your business and brand a clear direction and purpose in a crowded space.

If you want your potential audience to know that you are here to help them with their beauty needs, you must make some choices for your branding and online presence. There are specific colour themes that convey beauty, health, or makeup better than others.

Likewise, you may not want pictures of gardening or extreme sports on your website; unless you’ve found an incredibly rare niche. You should present your brand in a way that is unambiguous to your audience. You want to say, I am here for you, and you need me.

Know your customer to generate more sales

Having a clearly defined Value Proposition ultimately leads to more sales… and here’s how!

Your business, and therefore Value Proposition, needs to get to the pain point of your target audience. You really need to understand a specific subset of people; what they want, what they need, and what could make their lives a whole lot easier.

In this way you are making it easier for customers to find you too. Using online marketing and good branding you can put your products right in front of the people that need them. You want people who need your coaching services to find your page and say; this is exactly what I want!

Having a good Value Proposition means that you will have a consistent and targeted branding strategy.

All this means that when your ideal customer comes across your brand they will already have that feeling inside them that this is something they need. This will fast tract the conversion of a cold lead to someone that loves your brand and products.

To know your customer is to know their problems

But to get to the stage where your Value Proposition is working for you, you need to work hard to know your ideal customer. You need to make sure you are targeting them correctly with your products, marketing, and branding.

If you’d like to read more about how to find your ideal client; follow the link to an article I wrote earlier.

Your business should do one of two things; alleviate the pains of your customer or make them happy. Your Value Proposition needs to communicate that.

You can alleviate a customer’s pains by;

• Speeding up something in their life; maybe cooking time, with a new cooking product?

• Streamlining their life; we see this in CRS and work management systems.

• Making something difficult in their lives easy; apps or products that break down big, hard tasks into easier ones.

You can also simply provide your customer with joy and make them happy. You might do this by creating new ways of escapism for them, or by contributing to the hobby or lifestyle sector.

To decide which of these ways, or any other way, you want to go you need to do a lot of research on the market you want to be a part of. It often helps if you yourself have been affected by these same issues.

A quick look at The Sneaker Laundry

This is the story we see behind The Sneaker Laundry.

The Sneaker Laundry provides safe and efficient cleaning products for sneakers and running shoes. The founder of The Sneaker Laundry, faced his own difficulties with keeping his sneakers clean. So he was perfectly positioned within the community to find something that would address this issue. If you would like to read more about his journey, you can follow the link here.

To provide a solution to a problem you need to understand the needs of your audience as well as how your niche works. You have to present yourself as unique within this niche and most importantly you need to show people they can trust you.

How will people know if your word is good? Or if you have the experience to solve their issues? Through good branding and an effective Value Proposition.

So, are you ready to provide value to an underserved community? Do you want to start making more sales through targeted branding?

Dr Raja Yasmin is the founder of the EQBIZ Academy. She has both real life experience running businesses as well as 20 years of teaching experience. Now Dr Raja Yasmin is ready to help women become empowered through business. If you would like to receive a free marketing resource for your business, sign up here.