It's not about you. It's about what your customers need.

The importance of a clear value prop that connects with your audience

When you have something unique whether it be a product, a service, or even a novel way of looking at things, you want everyone to know – right? Of course you do.

And truthfully your target audience wants to hear about it – even if they don’t realize that yet. The challenge is making sure what you say and how you say it resonates with the customers you’re targeting.

Where many companies make a mistake is talking all about what their newest product or service does, instead of focusing on the benefits that it provides to the customer. This shift from “I want that that new shiny object” to “what will this new shiny object do for me” is real. Even in a B2B environment, you need to keep in mind that a person is still making that final decision to buy. However, rather than buying a “thing,” that person is essentially hiring solutions to get an array of jobs done.

Even service-oriented companies can fall into the trap of focusing on themselves, what is so great about them, their approach, and their processes. While you certainly need to qualify your capability and help prospects understand what is unique about you, which often includes your expertise, background, and past experience, what they really want to hear is how you’re going to help them.

Herein lies the importance of your high-level messaging. It’s not just your tagline or brief description of your product or service. Think of it as a messaging platform of sorts, that can be of variable length depending on your focus which could be your entire company or a single service. It should include who you are (or your company or your product or service) and what you do, as well as how it helps your target audience and why they should care. The latter two items being of specific importance and carrying the most weight in the minds of your prospects.

Understanding your prospective customers and their challenges is the first step to creating a message that resonates with them.

What if you have more than one target audience? It’s perfectly fine to have multiple messages that are tailored to connect with a specific group of customers. That said, all of the messages should fit underneath the core tenets of your offering – your company, a specific product, or a specific service.

One last consideration that most successful brands keep in mind is recognizing that messaging should be treated as a living thing that changes over time. Always be open to feedback and stay attuned to changes that impact your prospective customer base, whether economic, regulatory, or even social-based. Updating your messaging to resonate with the current marketplace will help you to remain relevant to your customers year-after-year.