How are you exceptional? 6 tips for creating a great value proposition

creating a great value proposition

Creating a statement for your website that clearly explains why a customer should buy from you can be harder than it sounds.

An effective customer value proposition (also known as a unique selling point or USP) should neatly condense the top benefit you provide, how you’re unique, how you’re better than the competition, who you’re targeting and what problem(s) you’re solving. And it should do that in an easy 10 words, as time-starved customers will use it to quickly vet your company (and hopefully convert).

That said, few companies seem to nail the USP concept.

“When managers construct a customer value proposition, they often simply list all the benefits their offering might deliver,” writes James C. Anderson in Harvard Business Review. “(But) managers may claim advantages for features their customers don’t care about in the least.”

Companies that maximize use of memorable 1-800 numbers often feature that as their major competitive advantage when crafting USPs. The favorable statistics gleaned through call tracking can go a long way toward attracting new customers.

Consider these tips for creating a stellar USP that will draw new customers to your business.

  1. Start by listing everything you believe to be exceptional about your offerings, meaning benefits that go above and beyond and really make you stand out among your competition. If everyone else is already doing something, it doesn’t belong in your USP statement. If you can’t think of anything exceptional, it’s possible that you may still be building your business, or you may need to allocate more resources toward developing a competitive asset.
  2. Narrow down the one item on your list that positions you as an authority in your field. If nothing meets that description, choose your greatest strength among your regular lineup. You could also ask customers why they’re drawn to you through use of a brief survey.
  3. Craft three possible versions of your USP, limiting your descriptions to 10 words or fewer. Improve your credibility by including favorable numbers or metrics, considering revenues, market share, costs and/or figures representing your operational efficiency. You might also favorably compare your offering to those of other well-known organizations, but make sure to use facts rather than general or unsubstantiated claims.
  4. Check your final three choices for clarity and effectiveness. Do they eliminate unnecessary words? Sound exaggerated? Include too much jargon? Most importantly, do they make your value to customers crystal clear in the first reading, answering the question “What’s in it for me?”
  5. Conduct A/B testing to determine which of those preliminary value statements is best received by your customer base.
  6. Prominently place your vetted USP on your web page, choosing a spot that’s highly visible. You don’t want your carefully crafted new statement to go to waste in a world of short attention spans.

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