Today’s consumer wants quick satisfaction and constant connectedness, which is making it increasingly difficult to hold their attention. So, like you, we’re always looking at better ways to get our value proposition message across to our customers. This blog contains tips we’re currently implementing into our business and we hope they can help inspire you too.
What are the benefits of having an effective value proposition?
Your value proposition is the answer to the customer question: “what’s in it for me?”. It’s your unique identifier – without it, customers don’t have a reason to choose your business over one of your rivals.
But what role does a value proposition play in the food industry? When you create a clear, compelling value proposition for your brand, you’ll gain the following benefits:
1. Potential customers can quickly understand what your business is offering
Most customers already know what they’re searching for when they research online. So, if you don’t make it immediately clear your company can meet their needs, they’ll likely look elsewhere.
For example, if you’re a manufacturer who specialises in plant-based/meat alternative products, make your values clear on your website. Summarising your value prop in a couple of sentences will help potential customers quickly understand whether your products fit their search criteria.
You can do this by:
- Putting it above the fold on your homepage
- Ensuring your site’s navigation bar is clear and simple
- Making your ‘about us’ page easy to find
2. You can attract the right prospects
Your value proposition targets your ideal customer and explains why your solution/product is the best choice. For example, if you’re a distributor who needs new supply chain software, you’ll want any solutions provider’s website or sales/marketing collateral to clearly explain how their software can benefit your business.
So, an effective value prop increases your chances of attracting the right prospects and finding better quality leads which are more likely to convert to customers.
3. Improve your customer understanding and engagement
A clear value proposition makes it easy for your customers to fully understand the value of your products/services. Your ideal customers will also be able to see how your products/services benefit them and why they’re the best available option. As a result of this increased understanding, your customers are likelier to be more engaged with the products/services you’re offering.
Some engagement tactics you could use include:
- Creating videos that explain each step of your manufacturing process which can show how your products are 100% eco-friendly/organic etc
- Establishing yourself as a thought leader through quality content which informs, educates and entertains professionals in the industry
- Hiring a professional photographer to take mouth-watering pictures of your food products which you can share online to get customers craving what you’re offering
- Producing personalised videos created specifically for a prospective customer like a demo or sales pitch
4. Boost your brand consistency
A clear value proposition ensures you can create maintain brand consistency on all your channels (e.g. website, social media, etc). Symmetry helps establish your brand and once your brand becomes recognisable, it’ll make it easier for your customers to know who you are and what you offer.
How to craft an effective value proposition
As we’ve mentioned earlier, a compelling value proposition can be the difference between losing a sale or closing it. Here are some tips to help you create an effective value proposition.
- Keep it clear and simple – your value proposition should be fairly short (two or three sentences max), with every word used to improve clarity or to make your main selling point more convincing
- Understand your target audience – find out who they are, what they value, their needs/pain points, etc. Use this data to create an ideal customer persona you can tailor your value proposition to (e.g. psychographic, decision makers, behavioural)
- Focus on the benefits, not the hype – avoid hyperbolic claims like “world’s best” as potential customers haven’t got the time/patience to work out what value you can offer them. Instead, make it clear how your potential buyer will benefit from your product/service (whether that value is financial or non-financial)
- Find out your customer's perception – this is normally formed during the full customer experience. So, ask for customer’s perception on your value proposition as part of a survey or during the customer engagement experience. Also ask former customers/unconverted prospects their views and to find out why they decided not to buy from you or to stop buying from you
The importance of putting value first during a transformation project
Value propositions have huge potential to help your company attract customers, but only when they’re written effectively. Every business believes their products or services are valuable – that’s why it’s easy to skip over how that value is communicated to strangers.
At Columbus, we can help guide and support you through your change and transformation initiatives. In our value first framework brochure, we explain the five steps to ensuring successful value management.
Download it below.
