Value Propositions and Branding: What’s the Link?
In this Mashable article, Dani Fankhauser asks the one question most small business owners forget to ask themselves:
“Does MY brand offer a Value Proposition?”
I really love the term Value Proposition for marketing, sales process and really all things digital marketing.
The reason is simple: it proposes something.
We waste a lot of time in our business talking about the nuts and bolts of what makes it work, why it works and why it’s so great. But until we start talking about the customer, there is no proposition.
How Do You Build a Successful Value Proposition?
How can you and your brand get a Value Proposition?
Well, it’s both simple and the hardest thing you’ll ever do as a business owner. Start with the words “I propose that…” and complete the sentence with the problem you solve and how you solve it.
If you don’t know what problem you solve (most business owners solve more than one for their clients), there’s where the road gets rocky.
Understand Your Customer, Then You’ll Understand Your Value Proposition
It’s not a degree of difficulty situation, but rather a time investment.
You must make it your mission to understand your customers to the point that you can predict how they will feel in different phases of experiencing the problem you solve.
Because all of us are motivated by the same core fears and desires, it’s not hard to start that journey.
Why do so many business owners allow their brand to develop without a value proposition?
It’s pretty simple, really. We get so busy doing the busy work that it takes to make our business run that we forget to make sure that the value of what we do is presented clearly to the client.
Even with that said, we forget to ensure that we’re doing it from their perspective.
Always remember that a prospect or client will never think of our business the way we do. Because of this, we MUST talk in the language of our prospects, because without that language, you don’t have a real value proposition.
In short, your Brand MUST have a Value Proposition. If you don’t know what it is, you probably don’t have one.
If this is true, your first job is to work that out as soon as possible, then begin to test it. That’s your journey.
Happy Marketing!
