One of my managers is struggling. She’s in charge of marketing for a series of products and events, but in many cases she has no idea what she’s selling.
I don’t mean she doesn’t know the details. This event is happening in this place over these dates. Registration costs this much. She knows that stuff. What she doesn’t know is why anyone would buy it and who those people might be.
Shorthand for this bit of knowledge is “value proposition.” It gets talked about a lot. So much that it gets mystified, the way any term of art we discuss at length does.
But at its heart the value proposition isn’t calculus.
Who is this product for?
What will they get if they buy it/attend it/participate?
These two questions are all you need. Who + What = Why. You can tell any story that needs to be told in marketing with those two variables.
It’s for financial advisors.
They’ll get knowledge about new products that they can use to improve the service they offer their clients.
From this starting point you can be as simple or as artful as you want in your messaging — those are creative choices, and there is a universe of possibilities available to you.
If you can’t answer those two questions you need to talk to your clients until you can. If you can’t work out who your product is for or what they’ll get if they invest their time and money in it, there’s a very good chance you’re selling snake oil. Which, with a good hustle, you might be able to make work once in a while, but it’s no way to make a living. Not a lot of people buy snake oil twice, or recommend it to their friends and colleagues.
Who + What = Why. Go forth and do likewise.