Your website says a lot about your business, but solely building a good site isn’t enough. What you need is a message that highlights how your brand is different. In other words, you need to craft your unique value proposition and communicate it effectively.
As a marketer you need to tell people what makes your product/service the best alternative out there. Your brand’s value proposition is an important conversion factor. It can make all the difference between closing a sale and losing it. So it’s important that you write a strong message that communicates it to your prospects successfully.
When you set your unique value proposition and learn how to deliver it, you’ll be able to optimize the customer across all touchpoints. From your landing, home and product pages to your online and traditional media platforms, knowing what makes your product one of its kind can help you feel confident that you’re making the best impression possible.
In this article, we’ll define what a value proposition is, and why you need to include it on your website, and we’ll share some tactics to help you create one yourself. Sounds good? Let’s get to it then.
The Role of Value Proposition
A business value proposition is a statement that incorporates three key things: relevance – how your product/service can solve a customer’s problem, quantified value – the specific benefits of your solution, and differentiation – why people would pick you over your competitors.
Your value proposition message should encourage your audience to keep scrolling down your landing page, to continue browsing your site, or to click on your call-to-action buttons. According to MECLABS, to communicate your business’ unique value successfully, you need to answer one fundamental question:
“If I am [a specific prospect] why should I choose [this particular product] rather than [this/these other product(s)]?”
What Does a Unique Value Proposition Consist of?
Your brand’s unique value proposition (UVP) should be the very first thing people see when they land on your homepage, and it should also be at all main customer touchpoints on your site.
A good UVP is more than just a bold headline. It’s not a catchphrase or a slogan, it’s the key message you want your prospects to remember about your brand. As such it should be easy to read, understand, and identify with, written in the language your customers understand, excluding jargon or buzzwords.
In most cases, the unique value proposition on a website is presented as a block of text that includes a headline, sub-headline, a paragraph, and a visual. The headline should grab the user’s attention. The sub-headline should briefly and specifically state your offer. The small paragraph should explain your offer’s key benefits (use bullet points for better readability). And the visual should be a hero image, photo, and graphics that reinforce your message.
Example:
Read also: Mastering the Art of Consumer Education: 5 Ways to Help Leads Convert
Now that we’ve covered the main elements of the unique value proposition, let’s discuss how you can develop one yourself.
1. Be Clear and Specific
Your value proposition should not only grab your prospect’s attention, but it should first and foremost be clear and easy-to-understand. As they say, specificity converts and clarity persuades. If your UVP makes people wonder what you were trying to say, you’re doing it wrong. And if they have to read a lot to understand it, you’re doing it wrong again.
While a sufficient amount of detail is needed to convert someone, a clear value proposition message is necessary to draw them in first. The best way to craft a strong statement is to be as specific as possible about what your brand and products can do for your customers. This means that you should include accurate numerical data wherever possible, avoid hype like “Never before seen” and do the 5-second test, where you check if visitors can read and understand the statement in roughly five seconds.
Read also: 5 Winning Branding Initiatives on a WordPress Site
Additionally, make sure your value proposition message answers the following questions:
- What product/service are we selling?
- Who would buy them?
- How will buying them improve the customer’s life?
- Why should people buy from us?
- When will buyers receive value from our product/service?
TIP: There is a difference between the value proposition of your product/service and that of your company. You have to address both of them in your messaging – i.e. you need to specify what makes your product stand out from similar products on the market, and why your company has more expertise in developing them compared to others.
2. Leverage the Voice of the Customer
At the core of a winning value proposition is knowing what your prospects want, when they want it, and how they like it served. To find all this important information and know how to use it strategically, is where the voice of the customer comes in.
According to CXL, once you understand the driving motivations of your current and prospective customers, you can use that to reflect their feelings back at them. This way, you’ll be much more successful in convincing them that buying from you is the right decision.
Here are 3 steps to use customer feedback to develop a persuasive value proposition.
- Ask the right questions – Try to learn how your audience feels about your product/service: did it solve their problems, did they have any concerns before choosing, did they encounter any issues along the way, etc.
- Analyze the answers – You need to go through each response, pick the recurring messages and rate them in their order of importance.
- Check if you missed out on anything – Pinpoint the main customer concerns, then examine your copy to ensure you’ve addressed them properly.
TIP: Make use of various methods to get meaningful customer insights – interviews, surveys, reviews and comments, and ensure that you gather enough data.
3. Put the Spotlight on the Benefits
The benefits are what make a product/service unique, and are also the reasons why people buy it. Customers purchase products because they want to solve a problem or satisfy a need. According to Entrepreneurship.org, consciously or unconsciously buyers always ask “What’s in it for me?”. Hence, it’s important that you understand what your product/service can provide and emphasize what those are in your UVP.
Here are a few ways to present product/service benefits:
- Describe a problem that a large part of your target market has.
- Bring attention to it.
- Reveal how you would solve this problem.
- Make your audience feel good about using your solution.
- Use visuals to ignite their curiosity.
Pay attention to the words you use in your value proposition. Be careful not to practise blandvertising – i.e. putting together words that are supposed to mean something but actually mean nothing. If you have to hype your products with too many superlatives like ‘best’, ‘top’, ‘never before seen’, that could be a sign that your value proposition isn’t well defined, and as such might not have a good impact.
Read also: How to Improve Customer Service Satisfaction for a Tech Business
4. Show What Makes Your Solution Unique
A key part in crafting a strong value proposition is showcasing why your product/service is so unique that it’s the perfect solution for your audience.
This means that you need to outline your competitive advantage, and nudge users to purchase your product above the alternatives available.
To achieve this, Forbes suggests including the 3Ds in your message:
- Discontinuous innovation – Present your company’s ability to look at the problems differently and break the status quo by offering innovative benefits.
- Defensible technology – Show the unique technology you used to develop your product/service.
- Disruptive business model – Offer more value by offering ‘boosters’ benefits like free shipping, no setup fee, a discounted price for a product, etc.By including these, you not only ensure that your product/service is compelling because it provides a great cost for quality ratio, but you instill a positive brand perception in your customers’ minds as a business with great expertise.
5. Use the Value Proposition Canvas
The value proposition canvas is a powerful tool that can help you organize all the information you wish to include in your value proposition. It ties together all the data you’ve collected from working out who your target audience is, what their needs are, and what makes your service unique, so you can create a compelling and coherent message.
Some key things to remember when constructing your canvas:
- Don’t try to fix every customer’s pain-point – Do your research, find a few common problems and work on those.
- Don’t mix ideas – Clearly distinguish present and future possibilities.
- Use one map per UVP – On a single map include one value proposition for a particular customer segment.
- Don’t forget to test things – The value proposition canvas is only a starting point to help you list your options. You need to be aware of what is important to your clients and which are the related pains and gains. Then, you can test if your ideas and assumptions are valid.
Using this framework you’ll be able to list all the details necessary for creating a starting value proposition, and you’ll be able to clearly see how they fit within the bigger picture.
Value Proposition Example to Get Inspired from
1. Deel
They offer: Hiring and payroll services for remote teams.
The benefits of using it are: Document collection and management in one place; assistance with full-time employment handlings; creating locally compliant contracts; fast, easy, and affordable worldwide payments.
The target customer is: Business owners looking to hire a remote international team.
What is the UVP: Help with international payroll, taxes, benefits and compliance through one powerful platform.
2. Klarna
They offer: Smooth, simple and safe online checkout process and payment method freedom.
The benefits of using it are: Deferred payment in partnership with retailers all over the world. Access to the latest price drops and deals. Ability to report returns, manage all your payments, and help if needed.
The target customer is: E-shoppers looking for a frictionless and stress-free shopping experience.
What is the UVP: Buy now, pay later.
3. WordPress
They offer: An open-source Content Management System (CMS) with which you can build and design an amazing blog, website or app.
The benefits of using it are: Custom designs, SEO friendly, responsive mobile sites, high performance, manage on the go, high security, media management, easy and accessible, strong community
The target customer is: Bloggers, SMEs, Enterprises
What is the UVP: Trusted by the Best, powering 41% of the web from blogs to the biggest news sites online.
4. Skillshare
They offer: Online courses.
The benefits of using it are: A large variety of online courses to improve your skill set. Opportunity to create real projects. Support by fellow creatives.
The target customer is: Anyone wanting to learn new skills, deepen existing passions or who want to simply explore their creativity.
What is the UVP: Exploring creativity. Finding what fascinates you.
Your Turn
Your unique value proposition acts as the ultimate promise to your customers. To win more clients and increase your conversions, you need to ensure that this promise is specific, focused on solving problems and exclusive to your target audience.
Creating a good UVP takes some time. You may believe that your company and products are valuable, yet the goal is to convince your prospects of that. You need to do your research well, test your assumptions and make any adjustments where needed.
Now that you know the different techniques and tools to use, it’s your turn to craft compelling messages that can successfully convert your leads into paying customers.
Share with us your experiences, and if you need any assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Team DevriX
This article is crafted by DevriX's seasoned marketing team, boasting over four decades of collective expertise in crafting sophisticated marketing funnels, devising comprehensive content frameworks and pillars, implementing engaging email campaigns, and creating impactful social media content designed for scalability.
Our marketing experts specialize in the complete spectrum of inbound marketing strategies. As an accredited HubSpot Agency Partner and a Semrush Partner, we engage in meticulous research, blending our extensive experience with the unique insights of our highly skilled team.
We set benchmarks in content creation by incorporating cutting-edge marketing trends, leveraging in-depth industry research, and utilizing state-of-the-art AI tools for data segmentation and captivating content hooks. Our proficiency extends across a diverse range of sectors, including working with SMEs, Fortune 1000 companies, global B2B brands, major publishing entities, WooCommerce platforms, business directories, and affiliate networks.
