What’s Your Unique Value Proposition?

The business landscape today is highly competitive. While every business should be able to clearly articulate what makes them better than their competitors, this is especially important for small businesses. Small businesses need to know what their “UVP” or unique value proposition is. What makes them different than their competitors?  Why would a prospect choose to do business with them over their competitor?  It’s important as small business owners begin to craft their marketing strategy to understand their UVP. What’s your unique value proposition?

What is a unique value proposition?

Your UVP is a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer, how you solve your customer’s needs and what distinguishes you from the competition. Also known as a unique selling proposition (USP), your UVP should appear prominently on your website’s home page and in every marketing campaign your small business undertakes. This is critical to help your business stand out from the rest.

How to identify your small business UVP

While the above definition seems fairly straightforward, this is not as easy to identify as one might think, yet it’s extremely important to get right. Start with the fundamentals to clearly identify your UVP as offered by ConversionXL:

• Headline. What is the end-benefit you’re offering, in 1 short sentence. Can mention the product and/or the customer. Attention grabber.
• Sub-headline or a 2-3 sentence paragraph. A specific explanation of what you do/offer, for whom and why is it useful.
• 3 bullet points. List the key benefits or features.
• Visual. Images communicate much faster than words. Show the product, the hero shot or an image reinforcing your main message.

Go through the exercise with a core team from your company; you may even want to engage the feedback of a few strong clients to get their input. Before you move forward with what you think is your UVP, ask your current clients or customers! You may be surprised that it’s not what you actually believe it to be.

Once completed, take a look at it:  does it really SAY something, or is it a bunch of buzzwords?  Remember, a UVP should articulate the benefit you offer to a customer. It needs to be clear and understandable.  It’s why someone should by from you. If it doesn’t clearly say that, go back to the drawing board and redefine your UVP.

Looking at it from the customer’s point of view

Your company or service should solve a client’s problem. Do you really understand the problems your typical clients have? Does your UVP show how you can help them solve that problem?

Think you have your UVP?  One last test

Here are three quick points to consider as you finalize your UVP:

• It must capture the visitor’s attention.
• It must be easy to understand.
• It must differentiate you from your competitors

A side note here as you finalize your statement. Being “the best” isn’t enough. People need to believe you’re the best solution for their problem. It’s YOUR job to help them believe that. And your UVP can’t be simply some kind of claim; you need to be able to back up what you’re saying in your UVP.

If your UVP checks off all the boxes, and you feel confident that it truly represents your small business and what you have to offer, you have yourself a clear, powerful UVP. Now, put that UVP everywhere on your site. You need to let people know how you are different, and you need to tell them more than once. When people understand why they should buy your product or service instead of any other, they’ll do it.

Still struggling? Ask a small business marketing expert for help

Creating a unique value proposition for your small business isn’t easy. If you need help crafting a message for your small business, engage a small business marketing strategist to help clarify your message.