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For many customers, purchasing a product from a brand isn’t a random choice. Many customers conduct research on a brand’s offering, how they’re different from competitors, and thoroughly understand a product before adding it to their cart. One main reason why a customer completes a checkout? A brand’s value proposition.
Why customers want to buy from you, or why a customer is compelled to seek out your brand and make a purchase, is directly tied to the value proposition of your brand. You can’t just say your products or services are better than everyone else. You have to prove it to your customer. A strong value proposition is a powerful way to make that happen.
Understanding and explaining your brand’s value to a customer can yield more conversions and sales, but it can also help you better understand exactly what it is you want your brand to accomplish in the marketplace.
Ahead, we’ll dive deep into what a value proposition is, how it differs from a vision or a brand slogan, and the key elements you need to craft your own value proposition.
What is a brand value proposition?
A value proposition is a brief explainer or statement communicating to customers what your business offers. It should express the specific way a product or service provides more value or benefit.
For instance, a product description isn’t a value proposition. Rather, a brand value proposition is a specific message about how and why your product or service provides a solution your customer needs, and the results your customer can expect you’ll deliver.
A brand value proposition doesn’t necessarily or specifically pit your business against another. Instead, a value proposition will explain your product or service and how it solves a pain point or need, something competitors do as well.
For example, Squarespace’s value proposition is that we make it easy for anyone to build a beautifully designed, professional website and get their work or business into the world.
How a brand value proposition is different from a brand mission
It’s easy to confuse a brand value proposition and a brand mission or vision. Both are useful, brief statements that explain to customers what your brand is all about. However, a brand value proposition is more clear-cut about how a product or service impacts or improves a customer’s needs.
A brand’s mission asserts a company’s goals or objectives. For example, an ecommerce company may be selling bespoke soaps with natural ingredients that reduce waste and need to establish its online branding. The brand’s mission may be that it produces high-quality, naturally sourced ingredients for slow consumption. The brand’s value proposition, on the other hand, may be that because they are natural ingredients, these products are less likely to irritate skin, won’t need to be used as much to feel clean, and will therefore last longer, optimizing a customer’s dollars.
How is a brand value proposition different from a slogan?
Similar to a brand mission or vision, a slogan is a brief, catchy statement about a business’s offerings. Slogans are usually in advertisements, while a brand’s value proposition is an internal compass, guiding all of your marketing and advertising assets and goals. It may change over time, as businesses evolve and customer needs change.
Staying with the example of a bespoke natural soap company, an example slogan might be: Clean body, clean climate.
The slogan gestures to the brand’s value proposition while providing something memorable to the customer.
What are the key elements of a value proposition?
If you’ve never crafted a value proposition for your business before, it can seem intimidating—a task that asks you to clarify the abundance of work, thought, and execution you’ve put into your business all in a few sentences.
Think back to writing an essay in high school: The thesis you’d write clearly lays out, in brief, the arguments in the piece, with the following paragraphs expanding on that. But the thesis is the strongest, most essential part of the essay. A value proposition is a lot like this, containing a few essential pieces that inform broader business decisions.
When thinking about crafting your brand’s own value proposition, consider incorporating the following essential elements.
Customer focus: Who is your business’ audience? Keep customer needs, such as pain points or solutions, top of mind.
Uniqueness: What makes your product or service unique? The answer may actually be in how you position its value. If you’re in a crowded marketplace, how you speak to and engage with your customer may be a key differentiator.
Simplification: Is this easy to understand? Keep your messaging simple. Less can be more when creating and leveraging a value proposition.
Create your value proposition in 5 steps
Now that we’ve covered what needs to be included in a value proposition, let’s take a step-by-step look at creating one, with an example to follow the necessary steps.
1. Conduct research on customers
You’re not likely to know how your product or service will improve a customer’s life or experience if you don’t know what it’s meant to improve. Get to know your customers through surveys, social media engagement, emails, or even customer service representatives if you have them at your business. Solicit feedback, ask them to let you know what they find useful or not, and what their pain points are.
If you’re just starting out and don’t have customers yet, this is still a useful step. Consider conducting broader market research and investigate your competitors and their customers to get insights into what they like or need, or where they feel a brand is failing them, to help you understand what your business can do for them.
Learn about creating buyer personas for your brand
2. Identify a gap or problem to solve
Once you know what your customers want or need, whether you’re a new entrepreneur or a seasoned pro launching a new product, you can begin to see and formulate an idea of what gap there is and what needs to be solved.
Clearly lay out the problem and make sure you understand its practical and emotional impacts before attempting the next step.
3. Establish your solution
This is the part of a value proposition where your product or service can shine. Explain what you’re offering and how it addresses the problem you’re solving for a customer. This is an opportunity to tap into someone’s emotions—they should hear your solution and feel relief or excitement.
4. Demonstrate your business’s uniqueness
This may seem like a tricky element, particularly if your business is in competition with a lot of other businesses. For example, a clothing company that offers natural cotton t-shirts may be in competition with another apparel brand that does something similar.
It’s important to differentiate your brand from competitors. It may not be about product or materials—the difference, or uniqueness, could be in customer support experience, shipping and logistics, or community engagement.
5. Clarify into a single message
Once all of these steps have been completed, put everything into one brief statement or message. Try to keep your brand value proposition to a paragraph or two. It should contain all of these elements and steps, but be easy to understand. That will make it easier to apply to marketing and strategy efforts, and effectively reach customers.
Value proposition template
Consider using the following simple template to help generate your own value proposition.
My customers are currently making purchases from_________ and _______because ___________. My customers' needs are: _________________. [YOUR BRAND NAME] offers the following products and/or services___________________. They offer the following: __________________. What makes [YOUR BRAND NAME] different from competitors is______________. Our business focuses on_________ [enhancing, improving, solving for] with [outcome, impact] for the customer.
You can distill this further as needed, like in the Squarespace example above. If you’re feeling stuck, it’s useful to consult an AI tool like Squarespace AI to help you generate some value proposition text. Or use it to brainstorm ways to better optimize or improve your brand’s value proposition.
Tips and best practices for value propositions
Creating a brand value proposition has so many benefits, not just for your customers, but for you. It’ll help keep you and your brand grounded and focused, helping inform goals, marketing work, and anything else tethered to your brand. Let’s explore some tips and best practices to optimize your value proposition.
Keep it simple
It can’t be overstated enough that simplifying your message is best for you and your customer. Focus on generating a message that stays within a paragraph. It’s OK if it doesn’t fully explain, support, or exemplify what your business does. Treat it as a foundation to build upon.
Focus on impact, not hype
It can seem easy to lean into the trendy or potential virality of what your business offers, but those are fleeting at best, and forgettable at worst. Customers spend money on products or services because they feel whatever they’re buying creates value in their life. It’s up to you to ensure that’s true. Rely on quantifiable results with qualitative support (e.g. explaining how fast you can ship a product based on positive customer feedback.)
A key aspect of a value proposition is showing that you understand customer needs and can fill that gap. While trends can help you promote your product, the impact of the solution itself will get potential customers to convert far better than the temporary value of satisfying a trend.
Ask for feedback
Don’t create your value proposition in a silo. Consult trusted advisors or family and friends. Or consider reaching out to customers yourself, which can establish a crucial trust connection between you and them.
Whomever it is that’s providing feedback, ask them if you’ve hit all of the necessary points and steps, and if they clearly understand what your company and products are doing. In most cases, those outside it all will help you better clarify your messaging.
Adjust your value proposition as your company evolves
Businesses, like people, don’t remain static. There’s a chance your products, your brand’s mission, or even your customers will change. Have you seen your customers flock to a similar brand that better establishes its differentiation from competitors? It might be time to adjust your value proposition to understand where your uniqueness is now.
Consider looking at or updating your value proposition every year to see if it’s still accurate.