When you are online, you see advertisements for dozens of products and services every day. When shopping online, you can even discover hundreds of products. Most of them you ignore and never buy. But with a small selection, you will take the next step and make a purchase.
What distinguishes the products you buy from those you ignore? Often it is the unique selling point or Unique Value Proposition (UVP).
As an entrepreneur, having a clearly defined UVP can be the key to success in competition.
What is a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?
At its core, a unique value proposition, sweden email list sometimes called a unique selling proposition (USP) , explains to your target audience why they should buy a service from you rather than your competitors.
However, this seemingly simple idea is easily misunderstood.
A UVP is aimed at customers, but it is not an advertising slogan or a catchy phrase. Nor is it an internal document, track the success of your email campaigns with kpis like a mission or a positioning statement. The goal is to give your ideal customers a clear understanding of three aspects: what your product/service offers, why customers need it, and why yours is different from the competition.
What is the purpose of a Unique Value Proposition?
Consumers are faced with a multitude of options. Let’s say you’re looking for a new pair of headphones. There are hundreds of brands and models to choose from, as well as many websites that rate and review them.
The MSRP helps customers understand why the option you offer is the right one for them. When you include it in marketing materials and integrate it into the customer experience, it helps customers make a decision and sometimes explain that decision to others. A well-crafted rationale can give them confidence in their purchase—and even turn them into brand advocates.
Ultimately, cyprus business directory your UVP is what differentiates your company’s offering from others.
How to develop a Unique Value Proposition
- List the benefits of your product or service
- Research your customers
- Research your competitors
- Formulate it and test it
To figure out your unique selling proposition, you need to understand what you do well, what your customers want/need, and how you stand out. The following four-step process will guide you through these considerations and help you translate them into drafts of your UVP.
1. List the benefits of your product or service
Make sure you understand what you do well. A “FAB statement” exercise will help you do this. It summarizes features, advantages, and benefits. List the features of your product or service, then for each feature, describe what it does (advantage) and why potential customers would value it (benefit).
An example of a FAB statement from a headphone brand could be:
- Feature: padded ear pads
- Advantage: more comfortable to wear
- Benefit: longer, more pleasant listening sessions
2. Research your customers
Customer research helps you understand what your customers want and need. Start with market research on your target audience. If you already have customers, conduct interviews to find out why they bought from you and what pain points they had. This can be done in the form of a buyer persona.
Make sure you understand their true needs. Often, customers will initially say they bought something for practical reasons (“I needed headphones to listen to music while working”), but their real motivations are more emotional and based on goals or fears (“If I can block out the distractions in my noisy office, I can work better” or “I was worried that cheap headphones would break quickly”).
Also ask them about the alternative products/services they have considered – this will inform the next step.
3. Research your competitors
Researching your competitors is an important part of creating your UVP—it informs how your product can stand out. You may have discovered an incredible customer need and a great product to fulfill it, but if another product’s benefits already meet that need in the same way, it’s going to be difficult to succeed.
For example, if you’re a new entrant into the headphone market, you might find that customers want seamless Bluetooth connectivity to their phones. However, if your customers are Apple users, it will be difficult to gain a foothold alongside Apple’s AirPods, which is a core part of Apple’s MSRP.
When doing your research, look at at least three known competitors that your customers would consider. For each, list the features and how they are communicated. Once you’ve done that, look for gaps: What advantage does your product/service have that your competitors’ products/services don’t? This is your starting point for the next step.
If you’re having trouble identifying unique benefits, you may need to rethink how you think about “benefits.” Maybe your product’s practical benefits are the same as your competitors’, but what about the less tangible benefits, like brand image? If your product’s brand experience makes customers feel a certain way that other products can’t, that’s a strong UVP.