The Value Proposition

When we present the price for a product or service prior to demonstrating that the product offers a benefit or solves a problem, we’ve chosen price as the primary discussion point.

Do you want your relationship with customers to be based on your selling price? Is it your goal to be the low-cost provider in your category? Do you want your referral to others to sound like this: “You should read Pastor Bill’s book on teen-age rebellion. It’s the lowest priced book in the bookstore!”

Does that sound ridiculous to you? It happens all day, every day in the market place. “But if I don’t lower my price, they won’t buy from me.”

Yes, people will buy from you at a fair price based on how you have established your value proposition. How often have you bought products or services and felt that you have gladly paid more because of how well the product met your needs?

The marketing path must establish value for the product or service early and often. I hope to keep price out of the conversation as long as possible.

During the drip process—let’s call it the value drip—I don’t ever want to speak of price. Our copy must establish how it solves problems that WE KNOW our audience has identified. A close alternative is to discuss benefits our service delivers. Our content could be filled with benefit statements and stories.

Let’s return to the parent with a rebellious teenager. Assume that you have written a how-to book to help parents lead their child through their “eye-rolling-talk-to-the-hand” phase(s).

Is it really that hard to imagine how the author’s value-drip campaign can work?

If I was assigned the task to write a 10-email campaign to help this author, I could start by writing 10 subject lines to help organize my writing:

1. How to turn your teenager’s rebellion into revelation
2. 3 ways to move a rebellious teen closer to what they really want
3. The one not-so-secret phrase to deflate a teen temper tantrum
4. These 7 highly successful CEOs terrorized their parents during their rebellious years
5. How parents can distribute hope to their teen rebels
6. 5 best practices to discipline a teenage rebellion
7. When that brat-teenager next door is your son or daughter
8. Why parenting a terrible teen should make you smile
9. How to respond with love to the mean things teenagers say
10. Page 17 of this book is fresh air to parents of troubled teens

Now, the following subject line is one I would never consider for an email subject line:

50% Off My Book on Parenting the Rebellious Teenager

Your email drip campaign must ooze value. Demonstrate value in every message you send.

Value rests in a need well met.

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