Should marketers be using a business model canvas?
Marketing tools for generating business insights are a dime a dozen, but some of them are a little too … well let’s just say they’re needlessly complex and leave it at that.
So what if there was a tool that a marketer could use to whip up valuable, usable business intelligence in less than an afternoon?
That’s where the business model canvas comes in.
What is a business model canvas?
Imagine a single sheet of paper that describes, in short, all of the most important aspects of your business – every detail you could hope to learn at a glance that would help you understand your product, who it’s for, and how to sell it.
That’s what a business model canvas is for.
First developed by Strategyzer co-founder Alex Osterwalder, the business model canvas is a nine-step exercise to help you communicate, on one page, a simple story of your business model. It covers:
1. Customer Segments
2. Value Propositions
3. Customer Relationships
4. Channels
5. Revenue Streams
6. Key Activities
7. Key Resources
8. Key Partners
9. Cost Structure
Download a template: Strategyzer Business Model Canvas
Why marketers should use this exercise
1. It gives you everything you need to advertise effectively
This nine-block canvas covers all of the critical details a marketer would need to know about their brand and how to use it. If you can articulate the information that goes in each block, you can articulate the who, what, where, when, why and how of your business.
Strategy, user personas, customer journey maps, advertising, copywriting – every single marketing activity can be improved with this knowledge.
2. It helps you analyse your value proposition
Is your brand actually providing the value you think it is? Or are you targeting the wrong people with the wrong message?
Good marketing is empathetic, getting the right message in the right place at the right time. But it can be hard to know if you’re hitting all those points if you’re too close to the product.
Going through the business model canvas exercise forces you to, essentially, perform a SWOT analysis on your value proposition. Where are your strengths and opportunities? Equally, where are your weak points and potential threats? It will help you take a step back and sense-check your own work.
3. It’s actually quite quick
Writing out a full business model document can take days, if not weeks or months. But marketers don’t need an 80-page document on every little detail about the business if they can gain this information much faster, on one page.
Some people find they can whip up a quick business model canvas in as little as 15 to 30 minutes on a whiteboard. Theoretically, any marketer and their team could plot out a detailed canvas in a one to two-hour workshop and gain an immediate better understanding of the brand.
Key tips on getting the most out of a canvas
1. Make it a team exercise
Someone with sufficient knowledge of the business could create a business model canvas by themselves, but this may not produce the best end-result.
Bringing a collection of people to a workshop can help you collect a variety of thoughts and ideas, hunt for hidden opportunities, and debate the finer points until you’re happy. Plus, it ensures that a wider selection of people have a more detailed knowledge of the brand – so it doubles as a little training session!
2. Focus on the now – not the tomorrow
This exercise works best, and quickest, when it focuses on the here and now. That is, where your brand is today, what it’s doing, who it’s serving.
If you get bogged down thinking about what you want to become tomorrow, the exercise can quickly bloat and defeat the point in doing it at all. Set aside a separate time slot to focus on future goals and ideas, so you can dedicate your full attention to both exercises.
3. When finished, step beck and check everything lines up
It’s critical for a successful canvas that your customer segments are linked to value propositions and revenue streams. You should be able to clearly follow a customer segment through their relationship with your business to a value proposition that would interest them, which itself then leads to a clearly articulated revenue stream.
If there is any disconnect in this journey, your marketing activities may not lead to actual revenue for the business.
Read next: “COVID-19 changed content: Marketers must change too”