How to Find Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

A first impression. It’s important. You only get one chance at a first impression, so it needs to be a strong one. That’s why your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) should be prominent and memorable. It should also be visible throughout your entire content marketing strategy – your website, social media, blog, email. Your unique value proposition is the core of your competitive advantage. It clearly articulates why someone would want to buy from your company instead of a competitor. It’s also why it’s super important to figure out how to find your unique value proposition.

What exactly is a unique value proposition?

Your UVP, or unique value proposition, can be considered your business’s unique selling point. Or, put another way, the something you offer that your audience wants and that your competitors are not giving them.

It’s a statement that explicitly clarifies:

What you do (specifically)
Who you do it for
And how you do it differently than anyone else (in a way that is most important to your target market)

Why does your UVP Matter?

Arguably, the unique value proposition of a business or brand is one of the most important elements of your overall marketing message. It tells potential customers exactly why they should be buying from you instead of your competitors. It’s explicitly telling someone the clear benefits of your business.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the statement can be a daunting task for many small businesses. They fail to figure out their UVP or hide their real value in kitschy slogans or meaningless buzzwords.

Need help organizing your thoughts, brainstorming ideas, and generally getting over the blogging hurdle of figuring out your content? Download the free worksheet that helps you streamline the process, save reference articles, keywords, and plan your content – all in one easy-to-use worksheet.

How to write your unique value proposition.

Get back to the basics and build on a strong foundation.

Think about how your product or service solves a problem or improves a situation.
What specific benefits can a customer expect to get from your business?
Why should customers buy from you instead of your competitor? What makes you better?

Remember that a UVP is NOT a slogan, and it is NOT a positioning statement. It’s a proposition to potential customers. Think of it as your elevator pitch.

Start by making a list of all the benefits of your product or service that you offer to customers. Next, identify what value you’re providing them by using your product or service. Then make it clear who your target consumer is and how you’re different (presumably better) than your competition.

You want your unique value proposition to be clear and easy to understand. You want it to communicate effectively, and you want it to be digested (understood) in 5 seconds or less.

So… Let’s try it. We’ll use a fictional “Local Bakery” as an example.

Example 1: Local Bakery

Step 1: What does your business do (specifically)?
- Make custom, fresh, made-to-order baked goods.
Step 2: Who do you do it for?
- Local community members
Step 3: How do you do it differently than your competitors?
- We use local ingredients from local sources to stimulate our community, are custom made-to-order, so they are always fresh, and we’re always available (even on tight deadlines!).
Step 4: Let’s put it together…
- Providing fresh, custom, made-to-order baked goods for the local community with local ingredients, superior taste, and superior customer service.

Example 2: JW Creative

Step 1: What does your business do (specifically)?
- Providing quality, agency-level marketing & design services that help unify brand messaging, implement strategic tactics, and drive brand awareness and growth.
Step 2: Who do you do it for?
- Small and medium-sized businesses can’t justify the cost of a large marketing and design agency but still, recognize they need strategic guidance to grow.
Step 3: How do you do it differently than your competitors?
- I step in where I’m needed and step out where I’m not. Without a large agency overhead, I can meet small businesses’ needs more affordably, more consistently, while being more accessible.
Step 4: Let’s put it together…
- Provides agency-level marketing & design services for the small business owner who needs strategically aligned guidance to help drive business growth, emphasizing partnership, affordability, consistency, accessibility, and, most of all, quality.

Need more? Check out some more value proposition examples here.

Summary: Make your UVP clear, unique, and useful.

Now that we’ve been through a step-by-step process on how to find your unique value proposition (UVP), it’s essential and critical to make sure that it resonates with your target audience. You’ve discovered why and how you’re unique, but be sure that your unique selling point is also useful.

If your business is the only one that washes clothes the old-fashioned way in a world where most homes have automatic washers and dryers, well… you might not be as useful as you think you are. This UVP might not get your phones ringing off the hook.

A successful UVP will only be achieved by knowing and understanding who your target audience really is. Once you dial into that buyer persona, then you’ll be able to connect the dots and craft a truly successful unique value proposition that hits them right in the gut and makes them crave your product or service, even if they don’t really need it.

Did you figure out how to find your unique value proposition? I hope so! If you need some more help, get ahold of me. You know where to find me!

Need help managing your social media, developing content, or just need a solid strategy that you can follow? I’ve got you. Hit me up!

Fair warning, some of the links provided in this article may be affiliate links. Most of them will give you a great deal if you use them, but it will also give me a great deal too. Basically, it’s a win-win situation.

How to Find Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)