How to Develop a Value Proposition to Differentiate your B2B brand
All too often, we see B2B companies adopt a simple narrative: finding a solution to a customer problem. Seemingly, every company in a similar B2B industry boasts that it holds the key to answering the exact same issue, making differentiation between brands nearly impossible.
How are B2B buyers supposed to confidently know which brand will solve their problems?
It’s difficult for B2B buyers to navigate through the clutter of countless businesses vying for their attention, and the bombardment of sales outreach results in many brands getting lost in the noise.
B2B buyers gravitate toward companies with strong brand reputations, which provide clarity, trust, and value. These businesses focus on the challenges facing their customers and potential customers and highlight how they are unique in helping solve those challenges.
All in all, brands win big when they position themselves correctly.
Successful companies gain a competitive advantage by differentiating themselves in the crowded B2B market.
Why Brand Positioning Matters
Brand positioning is the unique space your brand occupies in both the minds of your target audience and within its market. It defines how your customers – and potential customers – perceive your brand relative to your competitors while shaping their buying decisions. Many B2B industries are packed with buyers facing similar challenges and brands offering similar solutions. Effective brand positioning can be the difference between your brand’s success and obscurity in these markets.
Defining Your Unique Value Proposition
Differentiating in a crowded market means clearly articulating your brand’s unique value proposition (UVP). Your UVP sets you apart from competitors and communicates your product or service's specific benefits and advantages to customers. It provides clarity about what makes your brand unique, ensures your messaging is relevant and resonates with potential buyers. Let’s also be clear that this is not a B2B brands’ tagline.
A company’s unique value proposition can change over time as a business grows, the market evolves, and customers’ needs change. It’s important to regularly evaluate your UVP and adapt it as necessary to stay competitive within your industry. To redefine your UVP, consider the following:
Understand Your Target Audience
Understand your ideal customers and their specific needs, pain points, and challenges. Conduct market research and gather customer feedback to understand if you are effectively aligning with your audience and their needs. Many B2B industries have problems that are continually changing, so be sure to acknowledge these new issues customers are facing to inform your positioning.
What marketplace gaps does your brand uniquely fill?
What do you offer that your competitors don't? What does your company do/offer/solve that others cannot? Analyze your competitors to understand what they’re offering and how you are different. Identify gaps in the market, areas where competitors fall short, and opportunities to position your brand more credibly. Take this time to highlight why your brand is best suited to solve potential customer’s challenges.
Highlight Your Benefits
Once you understand your audience and differentiators, focus on identifying the specific benefits and advantages your product or service offers. What new problems does it solve? What pain points does it address? Focus on tangible results or outcomes that customers can expect from using your product or service and how it is more effective than alternatives.
Transparency is key when highlighting your benefits. Be sure to showcase the value that your brand can provide. Positioning your brand in a positive light while maintaining authenticity is key.
Strategies for Successful Brand Positioning
Your UVP lays the groundwork for successful brand positioning. Your brand's value is essential to all interactions between you and your target audiences.
Conveying your UVP to your stakeholders in highly saturated B2B industries can be difficult because of a market’s high commoditization.
Buyers prioritize factors such as price or convenience, making it challenging for brands to differentiate themselves based on value or features alone.
Successful brand messaging and positioning drive business outcomes and create demand for your products or services.
Want to learn how to use your value proposition to position and differentiate your B2B brand? Give us a Chirp and see how we can help!