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You’d think it’d be simple for companies to explain what they do — and yet, it’s surprisingly tricky! From my experience working with plenty of startups, I’ve noticed that many struggle to communicate their value. It’s not that they don’t have something great to offer; it’s just a matter of making it resonate.
Often, what seems like a marketing or sales challenge comes down to something deeper: an unclear value proposition. While it won’t magically solve every marketing or sales hurdle, a strong value proposition is a great starting point. It will help you distill your unique strengths into a statement that answers the essential question: “Why should customers care?”
Related: Your Value Proposition Is Crucial. Here Are 5 Steps to Ensure It Resonates.
What is a unique value proposition?
A unique value proposition (UVP) is a simple statement explaining how you provide customers with distinct value. As marketers, we tend to overcomplicate it, but it’s actually quite straightforward.
A unique value proposition is a way of describing why your company, product or service is better than the alternatives. UVPs are inherently comparative because the concept of “uniqueness” requires a comparison to something else.
Unique value propositions come into play during strategic positioning. Strategic positioning is the act of defining where an offering should sit in the minds of consumers. It is also inherently comparative because your “position” is also relative to your competitors and alternatives.
Types of unique value propositions
Again, think of UVPs as the unique value you can deliver. It’s obvious that this can happen at the brand, product and even feature levels.
- Brand Level: What makes your entire company unique?
- Product Level: What sets a specific product apart from competitors?
- Feature Level: What makes your products’ features unique?
You’ll use each value proposition differently. For example, Hubspot leads with its brand-level UVP on the homepage: “Software that’s powerful, not overpowering.”
This broadly describes the value of the entire Hubspot suite of tools. Unlike other software companies (cough, cough, Salesforce), Hubspot is effective but not as difficult to use. When you dig deeper into one of its product pages, you’ll find that the messaging is more product-centric. It’s more about feature comparisons and why Hubspot is the best choice for specific use cases.
Related: 5 Tips For Creating Your Own Strong Brand
Unique value proposition template
First, let’s examine the standard unique value proposition template. Later, we’ll review the steps to writing a UVP.
The template:
[What you offer] that [solves their problem] for [target customer] better than [competitors].
Example Format:
“Our [business offering] helps [target audience] solve [problem] by [what makes it unique], resulting in [benefit].”
For example, at Sharpstance, we help B2B tech companies simplify their positioning with a battle-tested process so that they can scale better. (It’s kind of meta, I know.)
Related: How to Make Your Venture Recession-Proof
Unique value proposition vs. positioning statement
Now, it’s worth clarifying an important distinction. Unique value propositions and positioning statements are often confused, even though they are very (very) similar.
So, what makes them different? Positioning statements involve adding even more context in an effort to trigger a set of assumptions. That’s why a positioning statement will always include the market category as an important reference point.
A positioning statement goes like this:
“For [target audience], [product/service] is a false that [solves a problem]. Unlike [competitor/alternative], [product/service] [unique capability].”
Going back to our Hubspot example:
For less technical marketing teams, Hubspot is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that simplifies complicated marketing tasks. Unlike other CRMs, teams can easily manage contacts, campaigns and workflows without getting overwhelmed.
Positioning statements are more about carving out the specific place an offering should occupy in a customer’s mind. The idea is to clearly explain the value so customers immediately “get it.”
You can craft UVPs and positioning statements for different scenarios. Consider different product or service offers, target markets, and ideal customer profiles (ICPs).
Here are some examples of unique value propositions:
-
Slack: “Slack helps startup teams be more productive at work by bringing communication together in one place, making work life simpler.”
- Shopify: “Shopify helps small ecommerce retailers get their business off the ground with a simple online storefront that will grow with them.
- Freshbooks: “Freshbooks helps small business owners spend more time building their businesses and less time on accounting work with easy-to-use software.
Related: How Setting Clear Financial Goals Can Transform Your Business and Personal Success
How to write a unique value proposition
Here’s how to write a compelling value proposition in four simple steps.
1. Define the target audience — First, you’ll want to get clear on who you’re speaking to and where you’re meeting them. For example, the audience you speak to on your homepage will be broader than the one you speak to on a specific landing page.
Maybe you’re going to a trade show and want to communicate your value to a more technical audience. Context matters.
2. Define the problem you solve — Next, think about the problem you solve for those customers. Almost all good offerings focus on solving a pain point. What are your customers doing today that they could be doing better with your help?
3. List the alternatives — What would your customers do if you didn’t exist? While the answer is often, “they’d go with competitor A or B” they might also do nothing at all. Consider what’s wrong with the status quo.
4. Explain why you’re better — It’s time to articulate what sets you apart. Highlight your unique selling points — the features or benefits that your competitors can’t match.
Ask yourself:
- What do you offer that no one else does?
- How do you solve the problem better or differently?
- What unique experience or outcome can customers expect?
Be specific and focus on the elements that make your offering uniquely valuable. This could be superior technology, exceptional customer service, a special process or any other distinguishing factor.
Remember, a well-crafted, unique value proposition is more than a few lines of text — it helps set the foundation for all your marketing and positioning efforts.
