uvp success

It's unfortunate that there are so many corporations, entrepreneurs, minipreneurs and internet marketers who are investing heavily to market and grow their businesses yet they don't stand a chance no matter what they do.

Wouldn't you want to know why you put so much effort into marketing your products, services or websites and continually seem to get far less return than you would expect is possible?

Certainly anyone going through this frustration would, and that's why it's so important to understand what a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is and how it applies to your business.

If you've ever chased venture capital financing for a business idea you or your team have had, you will understand what we mean by "your 30-second elevator pitch".

I recently attended a business ventures fair in our city. This is a twice yearly event where aspiring entrepreneurs get 30-seconds to pitch a roomful of venture capitals and angel investors on the merit of their idea.

It's tougher than most people could ever imagine, to organize all of these elements into a few sentences --

1. Your target market
2. The #1 benefit your product or service provides to your target market
3. A description of your product or service
4. What makes you unique in your marketplace

Of course, you cannot deal with each of these criteria alone, your Unique Value Proposition must be based on an idea that includes all of the criteria above before you can develop your UVP. In other words, as you invent or re-invent (in the case of an existing business) your business, you must base that business on your UVP rather that trying to cobble it together after you have already launched.

You can have the brightest minds in the world, the most savvy marketers and sales team, kick-butt products and services and even the hardest work ethic in your market, that all means NOTHING without a strong UVP.

Even more deceptive is the fact that internet marketers or entrepreneurs can achieve some early success without a strong UVP fooling them into a false sense of business success all the while teetering on the edge of ruin as the competition closes in around them.

In all of the economics, business and marketing training I've been exposed to over the last twenty or so years, there is frighteningly little emphasis placed on the importance of a strong UVP - and even less available to help you really understand what a unique value proposition is and how you can develop your own UVP for your business.

Your unique value proposition is a clear statement, in line with your market's challenges and desires, communicating the unique contribution your company, product and services provide to your market different than your competitors.

Here are a few good examples of unique value propositions:

John Reese: Master of online traffic generation Google: Find What You Want Quicker (in past, they are now expanding) Wordtracker: World's deepest, most thorough keyword research tool Amazon: Low price, wide selection with added convenience anytime, anywhere

Are there two things that immediately come to mind when you study these different UVP's?

First, each case proves that you create your product and services around your unique value proposition, not the other way around. It's no accident that John Reese came out with Traffic Secrets, or Google became the world's leading search engine. Through in-depth knowledge and market research the founders of these companies discovered wide gaps in their markets and capitalized with a business that presented clear value.

Second, it should already be apparent to you that most of these companies and individuals have (or currerntly are) re-creating their businesses around a new set of UVP's, in other words, your UVP will allow you to dominate your market for a time, but to stay at the top you must continually improve and change your UVP over time.

Here are some important points on developing your own unique value proposition:

1. Unique value propositions are created in two phases: Phase 1 is where you internally (yourself, or within your senior management team) decide what your unique differentiation is and Phase 2 is crafting that uniqueness into an outbound message to your market - a confident, assured benefit statement to your market.

2. Trust your market to tell you what they need and want. Finding your unique differentiation in your market is far more likely when you become involved and understand your customers, tune-in to their "opportunity triggers" where they literally tell you what they want or don't want, you are able to obtain feedback on early concepts and ideas and have a good understanding of how competitors are positioning themselves in your market.

3. Look short-term and longer-term for opportunities. Your customers will often tell you what they want today or yesterday, but trends and patterns will tell you what they will want next year and the year after that. Mix short-term market research with longer term research.

4. Look outside your industry. Study successful companies of all types. Seek to understand their unique value proposition. How are they different in the market?

5. Improve your customer's life. Think big when you seek out your unique value proposition. Being the best in price, selection or shipping time is often not enough to separate you from your competition. What can you do with your idea, knowledge of your market to really improve their lives, health, financial situation, status, prestige, etc...?

6. Know your strengths. Make sure you are in a good position to deliver on your unique value proposition. It's not enough to create the best UVP statement only to give way to someone else who could execute better. Know your strengths and build your UVP out from there.

Your unique value proposition is an absolute mandatory prerequisite to achieving amazing success with your internet marketing, online business or offline business.

Your market research, idea generation and strategic planning should lead to your UVP. All aspects of building, selling, marketing, delivering and supporting your products and services need to fulfill your UVP. It really is the missing piece to the 90% of small businesses that fail in the first 5-years. Don't let it happen to your business.

Watch this 20-minute video as we walk you through a 5-step process for creating your own power-packed, effecitve unique value proposition --