Introduction
In short- a value proposition is a promise of a certain value to be delivered. Also known as a unique value proposition (UVP), it represents a clear statement that describes the benefits of your offer to customers. Furthermore, it explains how your services will address their needs and solve their problems. Finally, it communicates what distinguishes your law firm from the competition.
UVP is a form of brand messaging that gives your potential customers a reason to choose you over your competitors. Moreover, the less known your law company is, the better your value proposition needs to be.
Strong UVP should offer:
- Relevancy: Demonstrate how your services solve customers’ problems or improve their situation
- Quantified value: Describe how your company will deliver specific benefits
- Differentiation: Give your ideal customer a reason to choose your company
Your unique value proposition should appear on your landing page and in every marketing campaign. It should tell your potential customers everything you offer in a short form, while you have their attention.
Crafting effective value propositions can be challenging because they need to be distinct, concise, and interesting. They also need to be user-centric, which means focusing on what users need as opposed to what you offer.
How to discover your UVP
A unique value proposition is a great way to stand out from your competition. Furthermore, it should aim to attract high-quality customers who truly identify with your business and brand. However, creating UVP takes research and a clear understanding of your brand and what you can provide to your audience.
In its most basic form, a value proposition is a summary of how your product or service benefits your customers. Typically, it answers the question: “What does your company do?”
Your unique value proposition is also a display of your law firm and what you stand as a company. Furthermore, it should be an explanation of what you offer, who do you serve and what makes you different from your competitors.
WHAT YOU OFFER
To begin with, make a list of all the features of the services you offer and create a specific explanation. Keep the focus on your audience benefits by demonstrating how your services will benefit them.
Make sure your value proposition addresses their needs as closely as possible. Take into account what your customers are looking for and how they phrase their needs and incorporate this phrasing into your proposition.
Think about the presentation of your services from the customer point of view. Note the key attributes that are important to your customers. Find out why they would buy products and services from you and not from other competitors.
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WHO YOU SERVE
Before you start writing your value proposition you should define your target audience. Do your research to understand who they are and what they look for in services like yours:
- Who is your audience?
- What are their interests?
- Which values do they nurture?
- What are their needs or pain points?
- What motivated them to search for what you offer?
- How can you help them?
After gathering data, use this information to develop an ideal customer persona that you can tailor your value proposition to. Afterward, review each company feature from your ideal client’s point of view.
Identify and meet the unsatisfied needs that your target market has. Once you have recognized their pain points, define how your services can help solve them. Furthermore, develop your value proposition around them. Your unique value proposition should help you connect with your target market.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOU FROM THE COMPETITORS
Start by conducting competitor research– check out their websites and examine their marketing campaigns. This way you can understand how customers think of your business vs. your competitors. Besides that, you can learn from the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and use them to your advantage.
It’s essential that your value proposition includes a unique selling point or feature that sets your company apart. This is an important step in order to convince your potential customer you are a better option for them.
How to define your UVP
Once you have clearly identified the benefits you want to use, start writing your unique value proposition. Write down what your business is all about and point out the features and benefits. Write several variants until you find a suitable formula.
Have in mind that you have less than 10 seconds to capture the visitors’ attention span. If they can’t immediately find out how you can help them, they will leave your website. The value proposition is usually a block of text (a headline, sub-headline and one paragraph of text) with a visual (photo, hero image, graphics).
UVP headline should consist of the benefit you’re offering in one short sentence. It can mention your service or customer review but make sure to make it an attention grabber. Sub-headline is a 2–3 sentence paragraph. A specific explanation of what you do/offer, for whom and why it’s useful. Next, list the key benefits or features through 3 bullet points. Finally, show the product image, the hero shot or an image reinforcing your main message.
HERE ARE SOME TIPS FOR DEFINING YOUR UVP
- Aim for simplicity
- Make it memorable
- Focus on value
- Use the proper language
- Try to capture readers’ attention
- Eliminate generalities, repetitive words
- Exclude ambiguous, unclear sentences
- Focus only on the promises you can keep
- Formulate uniquely to avoid plagiarism
- Finally, review everything you’ve written and write the final form of the proposal
Evaluate your current value proposition by checking whether it answers the questions below:
- Which services is your company selling?
- What is the end-benefit of using it?
- Who is your target customer for this service?
- What makes your offering unique and different?
Use the headline/ paragraph/ bullets/ visual formula to structure the answers.
Furthermore, ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your competitors lacking?
- What do you do better?
- Why do these differences matter to your customers?
Once you have clear answers to these questions, you can begin to write a more effective value proposition. Summarize what your company does in one sentence in order to make it clear and instantly recognizable.
A strong unique value proposition comes with specificity. It needs to be as specific as possible about the benefits your services provide to your customers. It needs to be clear on what problem or need you are addressing and demonstrate how you solve this problem. Furthermore, it should explain why customers choose you over your competitors.
How to communicate your UVP
Once you’ve got a compelling unique value proposition, include it in all your advertising. Consider your UVP as a core around which to build your entire business plans and success. Place it on your website’s homepage to make it clear how you can improve your customer’s situation.
A strong UVP can ease your marketing activity because it gives you a dominant position in a target market niche. Therefore, the key to success is to offer as many benefits as possible to counter the competitors’ offers.
Benefits refer first of all to how the product brings more significant value in the eyes of the target customer. Moreover, they communicate the features that refer to the characteristics of the service. For example, they can include factors such as a more extensive product range, customer service, high quality, best prices, etc. In other words, you should make your business special in the eyes of your customers.
Offering small advantages can distinguish your company from the competition:
- Free bonus with a purchase
- No long-term contract, cancel any time
- Money-back guarantee
- A discounted price
Finally, make sure these values are visible with the rest of the value proposition.
How to test your UVP
After you have completed the previous steps, don’t forget to test your UVP. Make sure it meets a few basic criteria:
- It should clearly state what your service is
- Your UVP should define who can benefit from using it
- It should set you apart from the competition
TEST IT WITH UNBIASED READER
When you test out your value proposition, include unbiased readers. Besides people who are already familiar with your business, it’s important to include the ones who are not. The first ones have likely already formulated their opinions on your brand, which makes them biased readers.
Instead of relying on people who are already aware of your business, ask people who are unfamiliar with your brand. Ask them if they are clear on what your service is and what the benefits are to the ideal customer.
CONSIDER RUNNING A/B TESTS
A/B testing is another way to test out the effectiveness of your value proposition. Ideally, it is a way of comparing two web pages to see which one performs better. These tests allows you to make changes to your web pages while gathering data on how they perform. In the case of value propositions, run tests on your homepage or landing page so you can see which version generates the most engagement and conversions.
Conclusion
Your UVP has enormous potential to help your business attract customers and give you a huge advantage over your competitors when written effectively. As a part of your brand messaging, it represents a value that makes buyers connect to your brand by motivating them, persuading them, and ultimately making them want to purchase your service.
An effective value proposition clearly articulates why a prospective customer should buy from your company instead of a competitor. In other words, it provides your company with a unique differentiation. Therefore, keep your language concise, target your ideal customer and make it clear what sets you apart from the competition. Finally, make sure your unique value proposition fits the image you’ve created for your brand.
If you want to learn more, check out Branding for Lawyers: Ultimate Guide and Key Branding Terms You Should Know About.