Here at Azola Creative, we focus a lot of effort on things like e-commerce marketing and lead generation. We help customers position their products or services as sales engines. At the core of most of what we do is value proposition.
Not too long ago we published a blog post discussing how to find your value proposition. You should probably read it. It lays out the four-step process for coming up with an effective value proposition that connects with customers. Now we want to extend what was discussed in that post by talking about keeping value proposition short and sweet.
Not a Mission and Vision Rehash
It is pretty common for business owners and marketers to rehash the company mission and vision statement and call it a value proposition. Guess what? That’s not what a value proposition is. The value proposition should not explain:
- What you do
- How you do it
- Why you do it better than everyone else.
As we explained in the previous post, a value proposition offers an irresistible solution to your customer’s problem. When customers read, see, or hear your value proposition, they should instantly know that your product or service solves a specific problem for them.
The Digital World Moves Quickly
As for why your value proposition should be short and sweet, it boils down to one particular fact: the digital world moves quickly. The speed at which data flows has changed the way people respond to marketing. Therefore, you are competing with short attention spans if your value proposition is long and complicated.
As an e-commerce marketing agency, we have seen our fair share of companies whose value propositions were so convoluted that they were effectively meaningless. Product positioning became meaningless as well because many of these companies didn’t even understand what value they added to their customers’ lives.
You Need to Know You
Playing off of that thought, creating an effective value proposition requires that you first know you. It requires that you know what your business does and why it exists. We cover all of that in our previous post about value proposition.
If you don’t know you, as a company, how are you going to create a value proposition that resonates with customers? Without a value proposition that both you and your customers understand, no amount of web design or lead generation services is going to take your business to the next level.
What does any of this have to do with keeping things short and sweet? Everything. You should have the ability to encapsulate what your company does in as few words as possible. Here at Azola, we transform products into sales engines.
That single statement encapsulates who we are and why that matters to you. It is short and sweet. Not only does it resonate with customers, but it also reminds us of why we exist as a company. Our value proposition provides an easy-to-see target that we can constantly aim for.
You Need to Cut through the Noise
A clever and effective value proposition is capable of cutting through the noise. That’s so important in a digital world that tends to force people into information overload. But once again, cutting through the noise requires keeping things short and sweet. Verbosity in a value proposition only adds to the noise.
Whether you have made your way to our website because you need help with lead generation, website design, or product positioning, make sure your company’s value proposition is up to par. Keep it short and sweet. Make sure it convinces your customers that you can solve their problem.