One of the easiest ways to increase conversions is to work on your value proposition. In its simplest form, your value proposition is basically why, in ten words or less, your customer or prospect should buy from you. The principle is simple enough, yet you might be surprised at how many businesses fail to use this marketing method. Not using it can become a lost opportunity, as the real secret to conversions is creating value for your customer or prospect.
The first step in creating a value proposition is to determine what value your product actually offers. Is it cheaper, better, faster or unique? How will it make your customers’ lives easier? Why are you the best choice over your competitors? What about your company or product makes you unique to the marketplace? Answer these types of questions and you’re one step closer.
Once you know what value your product or service brings to the table, you need to make sure you’re expressing it in a concise and credible sentence. There should be no doubts as to what you’re offering and why it would be of great benefit to your potential customers or prospects.
An effective tool for crafting your message is to use a model referred to as the Value Proposition Builder. It contains six stages of analysis to define and hone your message.
- 1. Market: For what market or target audience is your message intended?
- 2. Value Experience or Customer Experience: What benefit or experience does your market or target audience value the most?
- 3. The Offer: What product or service are you offering?
- 4. Benefits: What benefit or value does your product or service provide?
- 5. Alternatives and differentiation: What other alternatives or options are available to your target market?
- 6. Proof: What evidence do you have to support the claim of your product or offer?
Now your job is to take all this data and use it to craft your overall value proposition. Once you have that in place, everything else you use needs to support that position. For instance, if you are a college offering online classes, one value would be that students wouldn’t need to actually attend a physical college. Therefore, having an image of your university as the focal point of your marketing materials wouldn’t reinforce your value. However, pictures of students taking classes at home or on the go would properly reinforce that particular value.
This principle of focusing on the benefit to the customer or prospect throughout the entire selling process is where you can create extra conversions. Most companies just mention once or twice what the value is and then focus on the selling. However, if you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the value someone will receive from something, you won’t need to sell them. They will just want it. Then your job becomes how to lead them to the next stage of your sales funnel.
