How to Draft a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for Your Business
UVP is a clear statement that describes the promise of value your product delivers. It defines your unique position within the marketplace and gives you an edge over competitors.
What is a unique value proposition (UVP)
Your UVP is a primary reason why the customer should buy from you. It is a precise statement that explains how the product solves your customer’s problems (relevancy), outlines specific benefits (quantified value), and tells what makes your product better than the competitors’ one (unique differentiation).
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Though UVP is not meant to appeal to everyone, it should attract your niche audience, being prominent on your homepage and in all your marketing campaigns’ messaging.
When to use UVP
It may seem very basic – to explain what you do and what makes your product stand out. However, many find it hard – to tell the story in a curt and clear manner. Formulating a UVP helps you distill the value of your offering to the customers into just one sentence, to help you advertise and market your business alongside the competition, while carving out your own market share.
A UVP is a powerful tool that helps you focus on the marketing goals and make sure that any marketing collateral piece you have sets you apart from the competitors. It makes your business memorable and messaging consistent, providing a basis for writing your website content, drafting an elevator pitch, preparing an executive summary or brochure on your business, as well as for creating a tagline or copy for your ads.
How to use UVP
Drafting a precise and clear UVP is a serious job that can be done in a few steps that we suggest below.
1. Review your business strategy and goals
Drafting a UVP requires you to take a step back and review your business plan and goals, market analysis, and mission statement. Ask yourself a few simple questions on your business, like the below ones, and nail down the answers.
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What products/services are you selling?
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Who are you selling to (what’s your target audience/target market)?
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What does your business do better than the competition?
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What’s your key business goal focused on customer pain points that you intend to solve?
2. List the problems you solve best
The next step is to define the key problems your customers face that you can successfully solve, ideally, much better than the competitors, and to explain how your product does that.
For example, in the e-commerce industry, you can think about the speed of delivery, cost of shipping, return policies, low price guarantees, transaction security, in-stock status, etc. Actually, any benefits you offer that increase customers’ trust and lead website visitors to a sale without leaving for comparison shopping elsewhere, are of value.
3. Explain what makes you different
For your product or service, you need to be creative in defining what makes you better or even win over your competitors. Is it your resources? Location? Experience? Quality/cost ratio? Customer care?
The value you identify here will be the key reason for potential customers to choose you instead of your competitor. With the e-commerce example in mind, potential differentiators can also be: less expensive packaging, faster delivery or exemplar customer service.
4. Define the promise
Now the challenge is to effectively combine the key elements of the previous steps into a concise statement that reflects the value your business or product offers. Don’t forget that your UVP should essentially embody a promise or a pledge you are making to your customers.
A simple example: an e-commerce service can utilize a UVP that says “Delivery within 24 hours and free return” aimed towards the customers who want to get things fast and remain flexible in sending the items they don’t like back without extra pay. Be creative and focus on what matters to your customers most, while formulating the UVP.
Once you’ve nailed it down, it makes sense to sleep on it, run it by your team members or even test in focus groups, to measure the impact. Take a few tries and once you hit your perfect UVP, it will become a powerful element of your marketing communications.
