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 brings to your organization.

n this article I’ll explain more about what a content value proposition is, why you need one, and how to write a good one.

What is a unique value proposition?

A unique value proposition (UVP) is a short and straightforward statement about the value your brand offers customers.

At its most simple, it’s an articulation of three things:

• The problem or need your users have and how you help
• The value your product or service brings to users
• Why your way of helping is unique or better than the competition

Here are some examples of compelling value propositions from popular brands:

• Slack: One platform for your team and your work. All the features of Slack work together so you can, too.
• Monzo: Banking made easy: Spend, save, and manage your money, all in one place. Open a full UK bank account from your phone, for free.
• Notion: Too many tools? Too much chaos? With Notion, all your work is in one place. Three tools in one. No more messy tabs, folders, and apps.
• GatherContent: Docs, spreadsheets, shared drives, email—your existing tools aren’t designed to manage content operations. Use GatherContent to save time, improve content quality and move on from the old way.

From these examples, we can see that a good value proposition makes it clear what the unique selling point is for the brand and the value they bring their target customer.

The messaging also communicates the differentiation between the brand and others on the market.

What is a content value proposition?

A content value proposition is a way to communicate the value of your content and what it does for your organization. Much like the unique value proposition, which focuses on unique value, the content value proposition also communicates what sets your content apart from others in your industry.

Creating the positioning statement for your content is about understanding the role that content plays in your overall user experience:

• How does content help your users with a problem or a need?
• What value does your content deliver for users?
• What makes your content unique or better than the competition?

The content value proposition is a pledge for how you will make the best content possible, deliver on user needs, and meet business goals. You could have an overarching statement for all your content or different ones for different kinds of content or audiences if you’re working across a diverse portfolio.

Do I need a content value proposition if I have a content strategy?

If you have a solid content strategy, you might wonder why you need a great value proposition, too. And the answer might be ‘You don’t’.

If your content strategy works, covers everything you do, and everyone across the whole organization knows and understands it, you can stop reading here.

But, if...

• Other teams in your organization don’t ‘get’ content
• Senior stakeholders can’t see the value of your content
• You work across lots of products or types of content

... then a content value 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.

The statement 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.

Just like the best value propositions, the best content value propositions make it clear to any stakeholders why your content is important and what it does. It’s essentially an elevator pitch you can use to quickly break down the value of what your team of content professionals or marketers do to move the needle in the business.

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.

How to write a content value proposition

The approach to writing an effective value proposition is very similar to the approach you would take to write a content value proposition. In both cases, your goal is to write something memorable and attention-grabbing that gets the reader to understand the value of what you’re discussing—whether that’s your business or offer as a whole or your content.

How to write a content value proposition

When you start writing your content value prop, your goal should be to come up with something memorable and short that makes a lightbulb go on for the reader: ‘Ah! So, that’s what content’s for!’

Getting to that point 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, answer these questions:

• What’s the problem or need that your product or service helps users with?
• How does content help your users with that problem or a need?
• What role does content play in the overall user experience your organization delivers?
• What value does your content deliver for users?
• What makes your content unique or better than the competition?

Once you’ve done that, use this content value proposition template as a guide for creating your own statement:

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 copywriting that will stick in people’s minds.

Using your content value proposition

Once you have your beautifully crafted content value proposition, it’s time to put it to use. Use it in documents, in conversations, and any time you get a chance to talk about what you do and the content you create.

It’s also a good idea to refresh your content value proposition from time to time. If your product or service changes or your approach to content develops over time, make sure you bring your propositions up to date, too.  

With your content value proposition, you’re able to capture how your content helps your users and explain 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.

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