The market for L&D training solutions is saturated and can be overwhelming to customers who are searching for the right services to fit their specific needs. To stand out as a corporate training provider, marketers must differentiate themselves from their competitors, clearly stating the unique value they create for their customers in a value proposition.
What is a Value Proposition for Corporate Training Providers?
A value proposition is a written statement explaining why a buyer should choose your product or service and the unique value it provides.
Your training company might have an overarching value proposition stating the value customers can expect from working with you as well as a value proposition for each solution you sell –helping customers understand the unique business problem the product solves.
Why is a Value Proposition Important in L&D Marketing?
When marketing your corporate training solution, it is crucial to understand what value you provide and what gap that closes within the L&D industry. It is important for you to share your value with your audience to ensure that they fully understand the role you play in the cluttered L&D landscape and how you are the best option for their corporate training needs.
Your value proposition should not only be shared with your customers, but also your marketing and sales teams so they can understand how to correctly market and sell the unique value your solution provides. Your unique value proposition shapes how people will view your solution, both internally and externally, so it is a crucial step in creating your marketing strategy and should not be overlooked.
What Makes a Good Value Proposition?
When creating a value proposition for an L&D company, make sure it clearly and concisely outlines three unique factors about your company’s solution:
- What challenge your solution solves.
- Your solution’s benefit to your audience.
- Your solution’s advantage over your competitors’ solutions.
It is crucial to focus your training company’s value proposition around what distinguishes your solution from other corporate training solutions.
Driving home the distinctive features of your solution and how it effectively addresses your audiences’ needs will differentiate you from other solutions. Articulating why your solution is uniquely positioned to address the challenges of buyers will ensure that your brand remains top of mind as they seek learning and development solutions.
What do good value propositions have in common?
The most impactful value propositions for an L&D company are often one or two sentence statements that use specific language to draw in the audience. A value proposition is often written as part of a broader marketing strategy. Writing your value proposition should happen after you’ve identified your target audience but before you’ve decided what channels to market to.
The best value propositions have 2-3 of the following characteristics:
- Is easy to understand and uses clear language.
- Clearly states the benefits and specific outcomes of your solution.
- Uses data to back up claims.
- Includes visuals.
- Speaks directly to your audience.
Following these guidelines will help keep your value proposition concise, unique, accurate and targeted. In corporate training, a value proposition may focus on how your solution fills a void in training, resolves a need of training managers, and/or is trusted by hundreds of learners. Finding the right balance of complex and accurate as well as clear and concise can help reinforce to your audience that your solution is the best fit for them.
What’s Working: Value Proposition Examples
The goal of your value proposition is to build credibility in the eyes of your buyer. Below are strong product and brand value propositions from companies that are leaders in their industries:
1. Lyft.
“DRIVE WITH LYFT: Set your own hours. Earn on your own terms.”
This ad about becoming a Lyft driver will resonate well with their target audience. A value proposition that uses words like “your” speaks directly to the audience. Lyft makes a short and meaningful statement telling their audience that you can have freedom if you drive with Lyft.
2. Stripe.
“Financial infrastructure for the internet.”
This value proposition for Stripe inspires confidence in the technology. By boasting that their services are “for the internet””, Stripe is using social proof to show that its product is approved by a large number of users.
3. Mastercard.
“Unlocking potential. We reshape the digital economy so everyone — individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses — can realize their ambitions.”
This strong value proposition clearly explains Mastercard’s goal for its customers: realize their ambitions. It states who would make an ideal customer: individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses. They are insinuating that their competition is unable to help you unlock your potential by saying Mastercard has “reshaped the digital economy” to be more inclusive.
I’ve Written a Value Proposition Statement, Now What?
Once you’ve crafted your value proposition, you’re ready to use it to drive the messaging on your website and the content you create.
Effective locations for your value proposition.
There are several places you can place your value proposition to maximize its impact. These locations can include:
- Homepage of your website.
- Your “About Us” page.
- Your individual product pages.
- Your social media bio or header image.
- “Thank you” content after your solution is delivered.
Having a consistent value proposition across different marketing channels can help build brand awareness and cement your brand as the solution to your customer’s needs.
If your marketing team can identify customers’ main problem, identify how you solve that problem, and identify how your solution is different from competitors, you have a solid outline for your value proposition. Not only will stating your value proposition help you better position your business as the ideal solution for the L&D buyer, but it will also help you better understand your training solution’s unique value for your audience.
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