“Just like my ex-wife … my audience doesn’t understand me!”

Let’s keep this one really short!

When you are marketing your service or product it is rarely (hopefully) to your friends and family. Therefore, if there is nothing in it for the individual in an audience, they really are not going to respond to you, your expensive ad or your Facebook post. i.e. they need to understand, very quickly, the value that you are proposing or offering to them … your Value Proposition.

It seems a simple concept but it is often botched and fudged by the less experienced marketer. However, if you have a Customer Persona (see my previous post entitled 'My Imaginary Friends'), with that person in mind, ask yourself four simple questions on a piece of paper:

1. What do I do for this person?

2. What are their alternatives to me?

3. What’s the primary Value Point to them? i.e. why should they pay attention to me?

4. What proof do I have?

Now, in one sentence of less than 15 words, sum up all of the above. That’s a Value Proposition!

Remember, you should really have a Value Proposition for each of your customer persona’s and every broadcast communication item should have some relation to that statement. You can combine and precis them into a single one for your brand at a later date.

There are various exercises you can do to hone this process. If you want to know more, feel free to get in touch directly.