How to Engage and Impress Prospects with a Killer Value Proposition

Regardless of the industry you’re in, you only have a few seconds to engage them and capture their attention before it’s taken away by another sales pitch, notification, or task. This is why having a great value proposition is the key to engaging your audience and getting them interested in your product.

What is a value proposition?

Your value proposition is a short statement that tells your target audience, in one or two sentences, what your product or service does and how it can benefit them. It can also explain who the product is for and how your company is different from your competitors.

How to create a value proposition

Let’s take a look at what you can do to create a killer value proposition that will engage your visitors. We’ll also include some practical examples that can be super-useful.

1. Know your customer

Before putting together your value proposition, you need to research your target audience. Apart from their demographics, you need to know:

• What they’re in the market for
• What their major pain points are
• What sort of solutions are being offered to them
• What you can do to make your company and product stand out

Have your customer service reps and your marketing team run focus groups and send out questionnaires in order to obtain some real data instead of guessing and making assumptions.

Once you have a clear idea about what your audience needs, address one or two of their biggest pain points in your value proposition to keep your message clear. 

2. Keep it (extremely) simple

As we have already pointed out, your message needs to be simple and concise. You want it to make a big impact using only a few words.

To keep your audience engaged and informed about what it is that you do, make sure that your value proposition is easy to understand and process and that it addresses your audience directly. Finally, it should always tell them what it is they’re going to get from your company if they choose to go with you.

Kuru Footwear, which sells shoes for heel pain, did a really great job of crafting a punchy and clear value proposition. Their “Best shoes for heel pain” message grabs your attention right away and lets you know what they have to offer and what pain point it (literally) addresses. The second sentence goes into a bit more detail and reveals that the company offers a patented solution for heel pain. Sometimes, the most obvious and straightforward message is the best choice.

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3. Don’t take yourself too seriously

A little humor in your value proposition can go a long way, especially if your company is selling a product that helps people deal with an issue that is intimate or makes them feel self-conscious. Humor will help diffuse the tension around a particularly sensitive problem.

Of course, once you’ve broken the ice with your witty proposal, make sure that the following copy is written using a professional tone so that your audience doesn’t think you aren’t taking their issues seriously.

A great example of this delicate balance between funny and serious is Somnifix, which sells mouth strips that prevent snoring, promote nose breathing, and improve sleep quality. Their value proposition — “Don’t be a mouth breather” — will cause you to chuckle, especially if you’ve seen Stranger Things. After the lighthearted intro, they follow it up with details on what their product does and how it can benefit the customer. 

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Poo~Pourri, a company that sells toilet sprays, also tackled a sensitive problem in a humorous way with “Tell Bathroom Odor to Buzz Off!” Not only is their message simple and funny, but it instantly lets you know the benefit you get if you choose their product.

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4. Make your core differentiator obvious

If you’re operating in a crowded market, there’s a high probability that your competitors will offer products or services that are similar to yours. Because of that, you need to make sure that you stand out from the crowd.

Think about what it is that makes your product unique. Is it a feature that none of the competing products have, ease of use, and/or a particular price point? If the answer is yes to any of those, make sure to include that differentiator in your value proposition. Sometimes, you can even get ahead by simply writing copy that highlights the same features everyone has in a more appealing manner.

Amerisleep, a company that sells plant-based memory foam mattresses, understands this well. That’s why they focus not only on the fact that their products provide both comfort and support regardless of how you sleep but also that they’re plant-based. This is definitely a big selling point among eco-conscious customers.

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Another example of a product that offers something unique is HubSpot, which is probably the most popular CRM platform out there. They make it clear right off the bat that Hubspot offers something for everyone on your team, from sales leaders and marketers to operations staff.

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5. Lead with customer benefits

While your product may be packed with impressive features, your target audience isn’t going to care about them unless they happen to be industry experts. They’re not interested in your product as such, but rather in something that is going to help them solve a particular pain point. In most cases, they just want it done, and how you get it done can be in distant second place. This is why you should always focus on the customer benefits instead of product features in your value proposition.

Scott’s Cheap Flights, which provides alerts for cheap plane tickets for the world’s best destinations, focuses on the ability for customers to save up to 90%. Customers instantly know what they’ll be getting and how much money they’ll save in the process. Quite simply, it’s all about the customer.

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Final thoughts

Now that you know what you need to do to create a compelling and effective value proposition, you can start implementing these tips on your landing pages. Always keep in mind that it’s all about the customer benefits first and your product second.