You’re probably familiar with the idea of a business value proposition, but what about a content value proposition? A business value proposition captures how your product or service helps your users and explains why it’s better than the competition. It’s a useful idea to borrow and translate to content if you want to pin down the value it’s bringing to your organisation.
In this article I’ll explain more about what a content value proposition is, why you need one, and how to write a good one.
To start, we’ll look at what a business value proposition is. At its most simple, it’s an articulation of three things:
Here are some examples:
This idea neatly ladders down to content. It’s about understanding the role that content plays in your overall user experience:
It’s a pledge for how you will make the best content possible, to deliver on user needs and meet business goals. You could have an overarching one for all your content, or different ones for different kinds of content or audiences if you’re working across a diverse portfolio.
If you have a content strategy, you might wonder why you need a content proposition too. And the answer might be ‘You don’t’. If your content strategy works, covers everything you do, and everyone across the whole organisation knows and understands it, you can stop reading here.
But, if:
... then a content proposition could be a useful tool to have in your back pocket.
A content proposition is a brilliant way to communicate the value of content and your ambition for what it can do for your organisation. It should be a simple, snappy sentence or two that nails why investing in or cooperating with the content team is worth it, or how content supports a particular product or service. It’s an elevator pitch you can use if you’re lucky enough to get in a lift at the same time as that tricky stakeholder you’re trying to get on-side.
If you work across a diverse content portfolio, having a set of propositions can be helpful for breaking down your overarching strategy into audience or product-specific chunks.
Your goal should be to come up with something memorable and short that makes a lightbulb go on for the reader: ‘Ping! So that’s what content’s for!’
Getting to that takes some work. Start by going wide: gather your business value proposition, content strategy, mission, vision, values, user research, personas, and do some background reading in preparation.
Then have a go at answering these questions:
Once you’ve done that, try filling in the blanks in this sentence:
Our content helps ………(who)……… do ………(benefit)……….. by ………(differentiator)……………
That should give you the basis for your proposition. But don’t stop there. Put some time into making this a beautiful piece of copy that will stick in people’s minds.
Once you have your beautifully crafted content value proposition, use it. Use it in documents, in conversations, and any time you get a chance to talk about what you do.
It’s also a good idea to refresh it from time to time. If your product or service changes, or your approach to content develops, make sure you bring your proposition up to date too.
A value proposition captures how your content helps your users and explains why it’s better than that of the competition. It’s a brilliant tool to have if you need to sell people on investing in content, or if you want to help people understand what you do.
You’re probably familiar with the idea of a business value proposition, but what about a content value proposition? A business value proposition captures how your product or service helps your users and explains why it’s better than the competition. It’s a useful idea to borrow and translate to content if you want to pin down the value it’s bringing to your organisation.
In this article I’ll explain more about what a content value proposition is, why you need one, and how to write a good one.
To start, we’ll look at what a business value proposition is. At its most simple, it’s an articulation of three things:
Here are some examples:
This idea neatly ladders down to content. It’s about understanding the role that content plays in your overall user experience:
It’s a pledge for how you will make the best content possible, to deliver on user needs and meet business goals. You could have an overarching one for all your content, or different ones for different kinds of content or audiences if you’re working across a diverse portfolio.
If you have a content strategy, you might wonder why you need a content proposition too. And the answer might be ‘You don’t’. If your content strategy works, covers everything you do, and everyone across the whole organisation knows and understands it, you can stop reading here.
But, if:
... then a content proposition could be a useful tool to have in your back pocket.
A content proposition is a brilliant way to communicate the value of content and your ambition for what it can do for your organisation. It should be a simple, snappy sentence or two that nails why investing in or cooperating with the content team is worth it, or how content supports a particular product or service. It’s an elevator pitch you can use if you’re lucky enough to get in a lift at the same time as that tricky stakeholder you’re trying to get on-side.
If you work across a diverse content portfolio, having a set of propositions can be helpful for breaking down your overarching strategy into audience or product-specific chunks.
Your goal should be to come up with something memorable and short that makes a lightbulb go on for the reader: ‘Ping! So that’s what content’s for!’
Getting to that takes some work. Start by going wide: gather your business value proposition, content strategy, mission, vision, values, user research, personas, and do some background reading in preparation.
Then have a go at answering these questions:
Once you’ve done that, try filling in the blanks in this sentence:
Our content helps ………(who)……… do ………(benefit)……….. by ………(differentiator)……………
That should give you the basis for your proposition. But don’t stop there. Put some time into making this a beautiful piece of copy that will stick in people’s minds.
Once you have your beautifully crafted content value proposition, use it. Use it in documents, in conversations, and any time you get a chance to talk about what you do.
It’s also a good idea to refresh it from time to time. If your product or service changes, or your approach to content develops, make sure you bring your proposition up to date too.
A value proposition captures how your content helps your users and explains why it’s better than that of the competition. It’s a brilliant tool to have if you need to sell people on investing in content, or if you want to help people understand what you do.
Lauren is a freelance content strategy and digital transformation consultant, working with organisations that make the world a better, fairer, more beautiful place.
Lauren has been working in content and digital since way back in 2007 and since then has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including adidas, American Express, Microsoft and Tetra Pak.
She lives in Brighton, and loves the Downs, the sea, dystopian fiction and bold lipstick.