Your Customer Value Proposition (CVP) is what makes your business, and your products and services stand out. It’s what you offer that no one else does. As the cornerstone of your brand strategy, your CVP is critical to attracting and retaining paying customers.
So here’s the bad news. Establishing your CVP can be really hard! You’re close – perhaps too close – to your own business and your own brand. So much so that you often can’t see the forest for the trees. You’ll find yourself in one of two camps. The “I want to tell you everything” camp where you’re reluctant to leave out a single detail, or the “there is nothing unique about me” camp where you’re just…stumped.
Time for the good news (it comes in two parts):
- Your CVP doesn’t need to be elaborate (or flashy or creative). It just needs to be real. The best CVP’s are simple, straightforward and easy to remember.
- Your CVP doesn’t need to capture ALL the good stuff. It’s your best foot forward; the “hook” that will entice the fish. Once they bite, you can tell ‘em more.
Still stumped? Here’s what you’re going to do.
Get to know your audience
Start with your ideal customer. What do they want? What problem does your product or service solve? The trick here is to keep asking “why” – peel back the onion until you get to the real stuff. For Ekho & Co, our ideal customer wants an extra pair of hands to support the marketing team. What they really want though is…time.
Take a long, hard look at yourself
Assess your business with a kind, but critical lens. There will be lots of things you’re good at, but where do you truly excel? Ask your existing customers; what benefit do you provide that they haven’t found elsewhere? At Ekho & Co, our best asset is our project management skills – it’s the stand-out value that underpins everything we do.
Check out the competition
How will you know what sets you apart, if you don’t know the competition? Steer clear of overused promises (e.g. “cheapest price”) and claims you can’t prove (e.g. “best service”). Instead, consider where you might be spearheading a trend or filling a gap. Ekho & Co is a brand and content agency, totally unique in our positioning as a plug-and-play brand manager.
Think you have it all figured out? Great! Take your new CVP for a spin; test it on existing and potential customers. Do they get it? Does it ring true? Refine it based on what you learn, and refine it again. The trick is to keep it fresh! While you don’t want to change your CVP too often, or too drastically, it’s vital it evolves with your business over time. After all, your CVP is your business…is it not?
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