Have you ever sat through a presentation or sales pitch and had no idea what the speaker was actually talking about? It’s painful and ineffective (for all parties involved).
Too often, we see this happen on websites as well. You land on the site and quickly get confused because you are unable to decipher:
- What the business actually does
- Why you should care
- … and what action they want you to take
This results in a really subpar website, a bad first impression, and quite possibly a missed sales opportunity.
The secret to successful websites is a great value proposition. When clearly displayed on your website, a value proposition could be the difference between losing a sale — and closing it.
First things first, what is a value proposition?
Your value proposition is the statement that tells the world what you do and why anyone should care. It clearly articulates why someone would want to buy from your company instead of a competitor.
It’s more than just a business, product or service description — it’s the specific solution that your business provides and the promise of value that a customer can expect to receive by engaging with your business.
Ok, so how do I write a value proposition for my business?
Well-written value propositions are customer-centric, meaning they don’t focus on what you offer, but on the customer’s needs and the problem you are solving. Great value propositions are also clear, concise, specific, and relevant.
Therefore, creating a good value proposition usually consists of:
- Knowing exactly who your target audience is and speaking directly to them
- Understanding the problems they are facing
- Explaining how your product/service solves that problem
- Being persuasive and telling them what they need to do to solve their problem
- … and a lot of trimming down or cutting out unnecessary words and information to keep the messaging as short, sharp and clear as possible
Common mistakes we see when it comes to value propositions
There are a couple of things you should absolutely avoid when writing a value proposition. These are:
- Embellished language: Fancy words and phrases do not belong in value propositions. We want to keep them as short and sharp as possible.
- Jargon: A value proposition should be easy for your target audience to understand, so leave out industry-specific jargon. Keep it in layman’s terms.
- Unproven statements: Don’t use unproven terms like “best” or “most popular” in your value proposition.
- Buzzwords: Marketing jargon and empty statements that don’t convey anything specific or add any value. Example: “Innovative solutions for improving ROI”.
What elements should I include in my value proposition?
The best place for your value proposition to live is on your website. While you can include it in marketing campaigns and brochures, the most visible place is your homepage.
There are three main elements of a value proposition we recommend including a headline, a subheading and a call-to-action.
Headline
The headline of your value proposition describes the benefit the customer will receive or what problem will be solved as a result of engaging with your business. The headline can be creative and catchy, but it should be short, clear and concise, first and foremost.
Subheading
The subheading should explain in detail what your company offers, who it serves, and why.
Call-to-action
The call-to-action should explain what steps the customer needs to take.
Let’s look at some examples
If we look at Canva’s website (a favourite design tool we use all the time here at Method+Marketing), we can see how they utilise a great value proposition.
Headline – Design made easy, and free.
Here, they are understanding who their audience is: marketers or business professionals who may need to create a social media post or report (as outlined in the images to the right) but who may not have access to a graphic designer or the time (easy) or money to hire one (free). We love how short and simple this headline is as well… just 5 words!
Subheading – Create amazing visual content with no design experience.
This subheading explains in detail how their tool works. You can create amazing content with no graphic design experience.
Call-to-action – Start Designing or Browse Templates
Here they offer two enticing next steps to get the user to sign up.
We can also look at our own website as an example.
Headline – your outsourced marketing dept.
Here we want to explain exactly what the customer receives when doing business with us – a marketing department.
Subheading – We created a flexible, frustration-free way to outsource your marketing needs. We’ll provide strategic direction, fill resource gaps and help you kick goals.
This subheading is where we explain the benefits (flexible and frustration-free) and what value we will bring (strategic direction, fill resource gaps, growth).
Call-to-action – Let’s discuss your marketing goals
We make it clear that we want them to schedule a meeting with us so we can discuss how we can best work together to achieve their marketing goals.
Now it’s your website’s turn…
CHALLENGE: Ask a few individuals that are unfamiliar with your business to visit your website for 10 seconds. When the 10 seconds is up, ask them what they gleaned (i.e. what key message or trait did they learn about your business)? If they are unsure or you are getting a variety of different answers, this most likely means that your value proposition is not clear.
If that’s the case and you’d like some help developing a great value proposition for your business that will help increase leads and sales conversion – get in touch!
Just tell us a little about your business below and we’ll get back to you soon!
