Your value proposition is what makes your website visitors keep reading from above the fold to below the fold. In 50 characters or less it should attribute value to your product and/or service, and in the first few seconds after arriving.
The secret to creating the very best value proposition for your home page is to target the widely experienced pain point, so ask yourself the following question.
“What are the most common pain points for all of your customers, what do they have in common”?
The future of conversion rate optimization is about personalizing value propositions and content to match your customers needs.
How to Write Value Propositions
When writing value propositions for your product or service the most important piece of advice I can give is to understand your customer’s motivation for visiting your website. You need to understand WHY they need your product or service, what is it about your product that caught their eye, and what pain point it solves?
This may sound pretty obvious and yet marketers frequently confuse their product function, or the service carried out, with what customer is really buying.
Confused? Let me explain.
Every product or service provides a solution to one or more problems for the customer, and so what you should be selling is the emotional outcome and wellbeing that your product or service provides, rather than the product or service itself. Your features need to be presented in the context of a journey from where they are at the beginning, acknowledging their current discomfort, reassuring them that they are not alone, to the eventual freedom from the pain to the joy, exhilaration they will feel from overcoming the problem when using your product or service.
For each and every user group or persona, you need content (and a Value Proposition) that identifies the pain point, providing empathy with the “patient” and then walks them through treatment, essentially rehabilitating them. From when the moment they enter until they leave cured, you need to walk them through the journey. Don’t forget to sell them on future checkups as a part of a service level agreement!
Great, Disruptive Value Propositions are Timeless
Big brands recruit marketing agencies to dream up great value propositions, and although you probably don’t have their budget, you can still benefit from their inspiration. Let’s look at one of the most disruptive, iconic companies out there for some inspiration.
Apple Inc
Perhaps one of the most iconic and disruptive comeback campaigns of all time was a result of Steve Jobs and Lee Chow reuniting for Apple in 1997.
Apple no longer made machines but rather tools for creative minds. In order to get this message across the duo decided to celebrate creativity itself.
The campaign was a challenge to all, to be more creative. Hence the “Think Different” campaign was born.
The “Think Different” value proposition is one designed for print, in conjunction with big billboards campaigns and associated imagery, so it is perhaps not the best example for digital in 2019.
More recently, Apple iPhone Value proposition created a long-lasting impression, a brand experience eliciting a feeling of design quality which is still present, years after the campaign began. From the Experience is the product to ‘New Experiences in Apple stores”, in 2017 years after the Experience is the product campaigns were launched, Apple is still leveraging the this Value Proposition.
Ok, so you are not Apple and you don’t have Apple’s budget perhaps, or perhaps you don’t have a physical product. Let’s look at another example, the below is what OptiMonk came up with for its Conversion Rate Optimization tool.
OptiMonk
It’s a painful topic for any business marketing team, the question as to why the business website is not generating more business leads from website traffic. It is, therefore, a pain point of broad appeal. In addition, this is what the product does, it does turn traffic into sales by simplifying conversion rate optimization and enabling highly focused targeting and messaging it does increase sales. Just “traffic” is the before, “sales” is the after, and this success feeling is what is being sold.
It is perfectly situated, just above the fold adjacent to their iconic, animated, zen happy Monk, is just genius. A sense of urgency is automatically present because every minute that goes by is traffic not converted that could be converted. The Monk makes it feel easy and elicits trust. I really like the use of black and orange, in effect extending the value proposition. The short description beneath is just not necessary, however, is in small font size and therefore does not distract from the message. The CTA also is spot-on, using the power word FREE.
In addition to this great value proposition, additional sections below the fold have their own value propositions as section titles.
“A more polite way to Increase Revenue”
“Treat your visitors as humans”
Each one deals with valid potential customers concerns, an important message post GDPR.
Moving on from the examples lets look at a step by step model of Value Proposition creation.
How to Create an Optimal Value Proposition
The below guide is designed to target users based on the content interaction, which is in itself an indication of what their interest is in your product.
The first step is to test and confirm their interest.
Part 1.
- For every type of buyer (persona) you have, list the pain points your website visitor is likely to have. These can be AB tested and will be used to define imagery and craft Value Proposition. Find images that reflect their particular pain point, in order to communicate empathy.
- Create product/service value propositions based upon those pain points, these should intensify their emotion on the topic.
- Add a Yes/No button. Here you want them to declare their interest, and since you are personalizing messages for every persona, your message conversion should be great at this ending of part one point.
Part 2
- Create a second page to each one of your popups
- Find images that reflect the joy of using your product, relevant to their pain point if possible. The emotional outcome of overcoming their prior pain/discomfort, this emotional mix is what you are trying to sell.
- Create a value proposition relating to overcoming the challenge by also buying the service or product.
For each persona and identified pain point create several variations in order to carry out A/B testing.
Value Proposition Check List
In order to create the best value proposition possible for your product or service be sure to leverage consumer psychology and complete the checklist below.
Does your Value Proposition Explain the following in 50 characters or less?
- Explain what your product or service does
- Answer the question of why they should use your product over your competitors, what value does it pose.
- Infer that many people are using it.
- Communicate a sense of urgency
- Communicates the emotion of making life easier, the joy of successful users?
If the answer is no to the above, then there is a good chance yours could be improved.
Written by
