What's your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?

When someone first asks you what the product/service is that your company sells, you are ready to explain it to them. But is your website? No matter how great your product or service is, nobody will be willing to buy it unless you give them a  good reason. The first look an online customer gets at how you can add value to their lives is your Unique Value Proposition. This post will cover what they are, why you need one, as well as giving you a guide and a set of tools to help you make your own.  

WHAT IS UVP Marketing? 

A Unique Value Proposition or UVP is a key marketing tool that explains relevancy, specific value, and unique differentiation of your company’s product or service. It is often times the first thing a potential customer or client reads when they arrive at your website. UVPs are not slogans or catch-phrases.

More-so, they are a way to communicate the specific value of your service/product in a concise and effective manner to a potential customer when they are in the process of deciding whether to work with your company or a competitor.

WHY DO YOU NEED A UVP? 

Unique Value Propositions are crucial to sealing a potential client’s decision. UVPs aren’t on every landing page, by they must be represented throughout the website. In addition to demonstrating the value that your product provides to its customers, a strong UVP will intrigue your potential customers enough to bring them further into your site. Having a strong UVP that is well represented throughout your site will allow potential customers to have a good first impression of your company. If they can connect with your UVP they are far more likely to pick you over your competitors.   

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN UVP 

 STEP 1: Research  

 It is important to start off by examining your buyers. First, generate a buyer persona. According to HubSpot, Personas are fictional, generalized characters that encompass the various needs, goals, and observed behavior among your real and potential customers. This workbook walks through the steps of creating your buyer persona: Research, Demographics, A day in the life, Challenges, Channels, and Common complaints. 

STEP 2: Draft 

Once you’ve examined your potential customers and created a buyer persona, you can get to work on writing a rough draft of your Unique Value Proposition. Your UVP should answer these four questions: 

1. What is the product or service? 

When talking about your product or service, use concise, descriptive language. Remember: word count is huge here. The majority of value propositions are 10-30 words, so focus on giving a blanket statement that covers your product, and leave the text-heavy descriptions for elsewhere on your site.  

2. What is the end benefit for the customer? Common customer end-benefit phrases include: 

• Lowest price 
• Best selection 
• Convenient location 
• Product quality 
• Delivery speed 
• Special services 
• Strong guarantee 

Touch on the strongest aspects of your product or service in relation to these points. 

3. Who is your target customer? 

4. How are you different from your competition?

STEP 3: Revise 

Loosely following this format gives you a great place to start. Next it’s time to edit. To start, make sure that your Unique Value Proposition: 

• Does not talk just about your company. By stating things from the “you-view” or customer perspective, it gives them subtle psychological ownership of the content of your message, and shows a higher level personal connection and care for the customer. 

• Does not use unnecessary business jargon. Think about the average education of your buyer persona, and write with language relevant to that demographic. If you are an accounting firm, it is reasonable to use specific business language, because you are a B to B company. But if you run a taco truck, your target demographic is large, so use language that everyone can understand.  

• Uses clear, concise language. Nobody wants to spend 5 minutes reading about a company that they aren’t even sure they want to use. Once the customer has moved past your landing pages, you will go into more depth about how your products fulfill the things you said in your Unique Value Proposition, so keep it short and sweet in the UVP.  

STEP 4: Tweak and Tune 

Next, find a small group of people as close to your buyer persona as possible that know little to nothing about what your company/ product does. Have them read your Unique Value Proposition and reflect back to you what they think they your product is/ why its better. This will be an honest mirror for you to gauge both how well your UVP is written, as well as potential customer interest levels before and after reading your UVP.  

Lastly, continue to tweak and tune your UVP as you grow and differentiate your products or services. There are tons of additional tricks out there such as starting with a catchy slogan, then writing your proposition out underneath it. Check out this list of excellent value propositions. Continue to test things you like until you have a UVP that works best for you. Once you’ve built the perfect UVP, be sure to put it on important landing pages for potential customers! 

CONCLUSION 

We have established what a UVP is, why we need one, and the tools and steps necessary to make your own. Now its time to get out there and write and/or edit your company’s UVP! First impressions are such a large portion of client relations both in person and online. Let your own unique value proposition introduce your product or service in a clean and fascinating way to all your potential customers.  

Before you create your UVP, it is important to know who your buyer personas are. Download the Buyer Persona Workbook to create, or refine, your buyer personas.