We talk about our value proposition. What it is that our business stands for and how our products are utilised. It’s the promise we make to our customers.
Understanding your own value proposition is critical. The key? It’s not knowing what you create, it’s knowing how what you create is consumed. A vital difference.
You’re busy creating new content. How much of that content reflects your own value proposition?
More appropriately, from the eyes of our audience, what is the speed of value recognition? When I land on your website, how quickly do I understand what you stand for?
Data validates whether what we’re doing (as marketers) is being done well. The ‘speed of value recognition’? Unfortunately, there’s no displayed metric that informs you whether your audience ‘gets’ what you do and what it means to them.
Your value proposition has to be recognised. It has to be clear. It has to be mean something.
There’s a tendency, as our time becomes more and more consumed by the action of content creation, that we veer away from business objectives. We find ourselves in conversations that are far away from the home territory of our business proposition. The marketers that talk design. The designers that talk marketing.
When we shift into new territory, often by accident, we add to the noise. I’m not saying it’s wrong to ask questions of areas that influence our thinking. That’s great. That’s where we need to be. My belief is that we dilute our proposition when conversation stumbles away from our core value proposition.
When this happens we lose focus. When we do this our audience’s speed of value recognition slows. They know longer ‘get’ what we offer.
Veer of the track. Share your ideas and your opinion. Just make sure you do this with intent and within context. Bring those conversations home to your proposition. Only then will I quickly recognise what your business could mean to me.
ACTION POINT
Take a sampling from your website. The latest blog you published. How does this content sit within the context of your business offering? Are you attempting to expand reach (increase visitors) without considering the clarity of context? Read your latest blog article again. Will your audience recognise the value you provide? How quickly? Quickly enough to stick around and listen?
Marketers are artists. We’re creators. We’re creating something of value. Let’s not get too wrapped up in the notion of being smart with our art to the stage that the meaning becomes lost. Like it or not, we are also salespeople. Not simply selling products, but selling ideas. Selling vision. Selling value. Let me recognise the value you provide.
Even the largest brands become so consumed with ‘words’ that they forget to attach meaning.
Sometimes we spend so much time driving home the benefits of our products we come unstuck when matching those benefits to consumer’s needs.
Colgate. Do you really offer plaque, tartar and bad breath? Do you know that to the untrained eye your product (used by millions) offers a check-box list of negatives? Maybe sometimes, just like Colgate, we share words without attaching a meaning.
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