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As a marketer, your job is to tell folks what makes your product or service the best out there. But that’s easier said than done, right?
It’s one thing to understand your brand’s overall value to your customers. It’s another to craft a clear message that works in multiple contexts.
Once you learn how to break a value proposition down, though, you’ll be able to optimize messaging across your landing pages and other customer touch-points to make sure you’re making the best impression possible.
So, let’s dive right in and make sure your value prop is top-notch.
We’ll explain what it is, how you can create one for your brand, and how it can lift your landing page conversions.
What Is a Value Proposition?
As CXL puts it, a value prop is a clear message that shows the primary value you provide to your customers. When you see a value prop out in the wild, it might be presented as a single statement, or it could be carefully sprinkled throughout a larger piece of copy.
A value prop has three main parts:
- Your solution to your customers’ problem
- The specific benefits you offer
- The strengths that set you apart from your competition
Plenty of marketing resources touch on these factors, so let’s cover what isn’t a value proposition.
A good value prop isn’t:
- A jargon party that doesn’t explain the benefits of your product or service
- A positioning statement (although this would cover the third part of a value prop, it misses the first two)
- A catchphrase or slogan
Your value prop should offer clear-cut benefits convincing the audience to choose you. Your value prop should be clear rather than clever. Leave the fuzzier stuff for higher-level messaging.
MECLABS points out that value propositions come in four varieties:
- Primary value propositions communicate a brand’s overall value. The other types cascade down from this primary value prop.
- Prospect-level value props are customized for a specific prospect, target, or segment of your audience.
- Product-level value props show off a single product’s value vs. trying to address the benefits of a broader portfolio of products or offerings.
- Process-level value props explain why your customer should take a specific action (e.g., sign up for your email list).
The Role of Value Propositions on Your Landing Pages
Value props work magic on landing pages—if you know how to use them.
Your value prop should give the reader a reason to keep scrolling or click your call-to-action. You’ll need to answer the question, “Why should my visitor care about my landing page?”
Every landing page you make should have a unique value proposition. When you have different value props on your landing pages, you can test their performance against each other to refine your brand’s main value prop.
Plus, as you learned from the different types of value props in the last section, you have plenty of angles to share your value props from. When you have so many opportunities to draw in customers, you don’t want to waste them, do you? (Hint: No, you don’t.)
Once you’ve got a variety of landing pages running with unique value props, you can use technology like Smart Traffic to send customers to the versions that are likely to resonate most with them. (For example, a results-focused visitor would be more likely to convert on a landing page with a value prop that mentions your performance numbers.)
How to Create Your Value Props
Now that you know what a value prop is and how it’ll supercharge your landing pages, you’re probably wondering how to make one. Just like most things in marketing, there’s no single answer. (Go ahead and mark off “it depends” on your marketing-jargon bingo card.)
Some companies create their value prop using a chart, while others use a different kind of template. No matter which method you go with, you’ll want to start by answering these three questions to cover the core elements of a value prop:
- How does your brand or product solve your customers’ top problem?
- What tangible benefits do you offer? (e.g., “free shipping” instead of “convenience”)
- What does your brand do that others don’t?
We’ll pause a moment here for you to answer those questions.
No, seriously. The rest of this will be WAY more useful if you actually answer those questions.
OK. Now that you have those answers let’s combine them into a few sentences explaining your main selling points. As you make your value prop, Shopify recommends writing in your customers’ voice, putting clarity before creativity, and emphasizing benefits instead of hype.
While you ultimately want a concise value prop, don’t be afraid to give it the room it needs to communicate your value. Let that thing breathe!
When MECLABS tested a landing page for an online high school with a more detailed value prop than the original, the new landing page had 32% more conversions.
Now let’s see how you can tailor your value prop for some of the specific industries that use landing pages most often.
Value props for SaaS
The software as a service (SaaS) world is all about solving problems. Customers looking for this tech want to make their life or work easier.
If you want to create a powerful SaaS value prop, you’ll need to ask yourself: What pain point can I solve that my competitors can’t?
The payment platform Deel nails their differentiation on this landing page.
In a market filled with established competitors—‘sup, Paypal?—Deel embraces its unique take on the market: international payments for remote teams. They solve customers’ problems with simplified compliance and onboarding.
Wondering which of your solutions will wow visitors the most? Try creating different landing pages that emphasize distinct features or solutions, and compare the results with A/B testing.
Value props for ecommerce
The novelty of buying something online has long worn off. According to Statista, there are 2.14 billion online shoppers across the globe in 2021. Your ecommerce company’s value isn’t that you sell things online; it’s all about how you make the online shopping experience feel new or easy.
So, when you craft an ecommerce value prop, you’ll need to ask this question: What does my store offer beyond products?
Online pet retailer Chewy thrives on delivering a top-notch customer experience—so much so that Forbes wrote about it. Chewy showcases this primary value prop on the landing page for its mobile app.
Why should you download the Chewy app, according to this value prop? It makes Chewy, well, Chewy-er. The value prop argues that the app expands Chewy’s convenience through a mobile experience.
Of course, if you’re gonna go the customer experience route, remember that different customers value different experiences. Develop a few value propositions about various customer experiences, then use a tool like Smart Traffic to automatically route visitors to the one that’s most relevant.
Value props for professional services
Professional services are a little more abstract than a physical product or software. You’re gonna need to make your benefits as concrete as possible to communicate your value.
One way to optimize your professional services’ value prop is by answering this question: How does your service make life or work easier?
Border Buddy frames its benefits as solutions to pain points on this landing page (made with Unbounce—woot!):
In the “Who Are We” section’s value prop, Border Buddy addresses the biggest customer pain point: They’re sick of paperwork. The benefits of “online importing and exporting solutions” become clearer after you hear why someone might need them.
Editor’s Note: This value prop technique works great if you’re trying to snag more leads for your business. Try sealing the deal with an Unbounce lead-gen form like Border Buddy did here.
Show Your Stuff With a Killer Value Prop
Now that you have the tools you need to make a value proposition, you’re one step closer to increasing your conversions. But—you’ve still gotta work hard to create a good one. It’ll take careful research, testing, and self-reflection to nail it. And landing pages can help you a lot during the process.
