If you’ve ever bought a product since, well, ever, you already understand the importance of value. When you spend your money on something, you expect to get something out of it. Your life might not be completely changed (though we sometimes like to feel as if it is) but maybe your everyday life gets a little bit easier or you end up avoiding a little bit of stress.
Now it’s time to switch from your consumer mindset to your business owner mindset. It’s time to show other consumers what your product has to offer them. When you present what’s known as a “value proposition” to your potential customers, you’re proposing to them what kind of value they will get. You’re showing them why it’s worth it for them to spend their money.
You always want your product or service to have as much value for the price your customer is paying, but all that added value won’t make a difference unless you can communicate it to your customers.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at 10 steps you can take to make your offer more compelling to your customers.
What Makes a Compelling Offer?
Here’s the thing about improving the offer you make to your customers: It doesn’t necessarily have to be about a huge discount or added bonus. Last week, we talked about making an unbeatable offer for your audience, and we emphasized that there are many ways you can improve what you’re offering to your customers without pricing your product at less than what it’s worth.
When it comes to a compelling offer, it’s less about how much they’re saving and more about how much they’re getting. Let’s express that idea a different way: Instead of lowering your price with a discount, focus on emphasizing to your customer how great your product is. It’s worth it, whether they’re paying full price or a discount price.
Your presentation of why your customers need or want your product is called your value proposition. The strongest value propositions are those that are tailored as specifically to your product and to your customer as possible. Think about all the times you hear “This saves you time” or “this makes you more attractive,” and you just roll your eyes. It’s not that those promises are cliched (they are!) but instead that they are so generic!
A strong value proposition will tell customers not only what your product does but also how it’s different from similar products on the market. You should demonstrate how it’s going to make your customer’s life better, either by resolving a fear or by fulfilling a want.
To drive this value home, your proposition will usually include some sort of play into a customer’s emotions. If it’s not emotional, it will at least cite facts or evidence to back up the promises about your product.
Finally, don’t forget a call to action. A good value proposition doesn’t just leave its audience sitting there feeling all excited about the product—it will give them a specific direction as to what step they need to take next to get the product and start enjoying what it has to offer.
So, if you want to create a strong value proposition—and we know you do—we recommend these 10 tips:
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Before you can even address your audience’s needs, wants, problems, desires…whatever it is you’re trying to address, you need to understand them. You need to have an idea of who your audience is so you can tailor your message directly to them.
Not only does this help you figure out what problems of theirs your product solves, but also it helps you develop the way you deliver your message. What’s your demographic in terms of age, gender, income, and interests. If you want to meet your audience where they are, you’re likely going to communicate with a 40-year-old man a lot differently than you would a 20-year-old woman.
2. Research Your Competitors
Do you ever feel tempted to just bury your head in the sand and pretend that your competitors don’t exist? Your product is great, so you’re not going to worry about them. Forget about them. Ignore them.
Except don’t do that. Instead of trying to ignore your competitors, you should be paying close attention to them. Pay attention to how you’re different, and figure out how you’re serving your customers in a way your competitor isn’t. You might even see something that they are doing well—but it might be something you could do better.
By researching and analyzing the way your competitors are communicating with your shared audience, you figure out how you can improve your own message.
3. Conduct Content Marketing Audits
We often talk about the value of content marketing: the method of using entertaining, engaging, often educational content online (videos, blog posts, newsletters, etc.) to get your audience’s attention. Once you have their attention, you can build that know-like-trust factor that will turn them into customers for life.
If you’re already using content marketing—great! Take the opportunity to audit your content and the amount of interaction it’s getting. Pay attention to what content is most successful not only in building your audience but also (and more importantly) in converting customers.
Only by auditing your content marketing will you be able to figure out what’s working and improve what isn’t.
4. Collaborate with Course Creators
There’s power in numbers, so it’s always a good idea to collaborate with others who might share an audience with you. Course creators, who lead webinars or similar online learning opportunities, are often looking for recommendations they can give their audience once they have gotten everything they can from a course.
Recommending your product or service is another layer of value for that course, so the creator will likely be happy to give a plug for your brand. This sets you up to be introduced to many potential customers who are interested in what you do. It’s a win for both you and the course creator.
5. Offer Exclusive Insights
You have insight into your field or industry that the layman in your audience probably doesn’t. So, why not give them some exclusive information that they can use? This will make your audience feel special, and it will set you up to be perceived as a trustworthy expert.
So if you’re a wedding photographer, share your thoughts about some of the latest wedding trends. If you’re a dietitian, discuss the next hyped-up food craze you expect people to be talking about. These tidbits of information are free, but they’re so valuable to your audience.
6. Create High-Value Content
Remember how we talked about doing a content marketing audit? Well, if your content isn’t performing the way you want it to, it might be time to shift your focus to something a little more high-value. Remember your three E’s: entertaining, educational, and engaging. Is your content something that will get your audience’s attention? Will they learn something from it? Will they want to interact with it in the form of comments or shares?
Creating valuable content that resonates with your audience will help you build a valuable relationship with them. When that relationship exists, your audience feels more compelled to invest their dollars in what you have to offer.
7. Optimize Lead Conversions
We often talk about converting a lead—the process of turning a member of your online audience into a paying customer. Not everyone’s path to conversion looks the same, however, and by understanding what compels certain leads, you can improve your chances of getting them to say yes.
When you optimize your leads, you are setting them up to convert. It starts with determining how strong your lead’s interest is in what you do—and whether they need a lot (or just a little) convincing. From there, maybe you need to segment your audience based on their interests. You might need to nurture their interests over the course of an email sequence or with a special discount.
By giving each customer specifically what they need to be converted, instead of treating all your potential customers the same, you are setting yourself up for more sales success.
8. Collect and Use Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is valuable! It lets you know what your customers like about your product as well as what they don’t like. What they like is what you should be emphasizing in your marketing efforts. (What they don’t like is what you should be aiming to improve.)
By collecting customer feedback, you are communicating that you value your customers and want them to be satisfied. This is important if you want those customers to return for future purchases. By implementing changes they suggest or addressing problems they point out, you’re making your brand more appealing to future customers.
9. Showcase Testimonials and Case Studies
How great is your product? Of course, you are going to say it’s great. As the business owner or the marketer, that’s nowhere near as meaningful as one of your customers saying how great it is. When your customers talk about how your product solved their problem or was well worth the money they spent, others are more likely to take notice.
Don’t be afraid to ask customers to provide testimonials or leave a review. Then use those positive remarks in your marketing efforts. Highlight them and show them off, because those compelling endorsements will get other people to spend money.
10. Stay Agile and Adapt
Don’t expect to have your compelling offer to be its very best from the get-go. Even if it’s great, there’s probably going to need to be evolution or development. This will help you meet the needs of a changing audience. It will also help you make your messaging better.
Staying flexible and adapting is one of the best moves you can make. Some methods you try won’t work, so you’ll need to find something else. The market will change, and you’ll need to change with it. By sticking with the same approach, you’ll end up stuck in a rut.
Remember to think of your compelling offer as something fluid—it’s always going to be changing, and it’s going to need to uniquely fit as much of your audience as it can. By being observant, adaptable, and creative, you’ll be able to meet your customers where they are and show them exactly why your product is one that’s worth their investment.
Give these 10 tips a chance, and remember that if you ever want to assess your marketing approach, we offer a free marketing audit, so you can get our professional input on where your approach is falling short—and what you can do to improve it.
