Quick tips: How to craft a great value proposition

A value proposition is a key element of a company or product’s message. A value prop is a brief statement that concisely and powerfully communicates a company or product’s benefit to its customers/users in a broad, holistic manner.

A quick google will bring up a number of examples of great value propositions, although I sometimes think value propositions get confused with taglines. They’re definitely related, but I like to think of a tagline as the beautiful child of a great value proposition.

Here are a few tips on writing a powerful value proposition:

A good value prop SHOULD:

• Resonate and be easily remembered
• Poignantly explain how the company or product addresses the key pain point(s)
• Speak to the broad audience (customers, press, vendors, employees, etc.) versus a particular segment or customer group (there can be subsets or versions that speak to specific markets)
• Stay concise. Long enough to cover the essentials, short enough to be powerful.

Should NOT:

• List features and benefits (think “aha!” not bells and whistles)
• Attempt to speak to each customer segment
• Mimic a slogan or tagline – those should emanate from the value proposition

How to write a good one:

• Define each audience and customer segment and their pains, wants, needs, concerns, and fears
• Map the company or product to each of those segments, candidly and honestly detailing how it does (and does not) meet the afore-defined customer pains
  • Think through linguistic or verbiage nuances (ex: what does a b2b user want to hear versus a b2c)
• Identify the solutions and benefits that resonate to all of the customer groups, segregate those that are segment specific
• Brainstorm by writing multiple iterations of draft value props that explain how the pain is addressed
• Whittle down the iterations and create the best one or two (or four)
• Test a few of your favorite value propositions with other people in the company
  • Survey opinions across the organization: Tenured and new employees, execs and front-line folks

IF possible:

•  Add a trusted group of customers (a customer advisory board for example) to the test audience

Finally, be wary of changing the value proposition. Do so only if the company’s direction has materially changed. It takes time and a lot of iteration to ingrain a message into a customer’s head, and changes reset the clock. Don’t fear changing messaging (including the value proposition), but do so carefully and only when needed.