What is a Value Proposition – and why you need one for your website

Generally speaking, people have ever decreasing attention spans. Meaningless content bores people; it’s dense, like a really rich and thick block of chocolate. Chocolate that’s like that can make you feel really sick. That’s why you need lightness, variation, and flavour on both your plate and your website.

It is the foundation for all of a company’s marketing and sales efforts, and it provides a clear and concise way for the company to communicate the value of its offering to potential customers. A value proposition also helps the company focus its product development efforts on creating value for the target customer, rather than on features that may not be relevant or important to the customer.

Let’s give you an example: Wikipedia. There’s a reason why there is a summary at the top of every wiki page as well as quick links to related topics. Typically, people don’t enjoy working for information, especially today when TikTok and Instagram reels reign over every person’s attention span.

So, how do businesses triumph over this mountain of disinterest? Value propositions.

What are value propositions and why does your business need one?

“A value proposition is a statement that defines the unique benefit a product, service, or brand delivers to its target customer.”

It is a promise of what the customer can expect to receive from the offering and how it solves a specific problem or meets a specific need better than the competition. Moreover, a well-crafted value proposition can serve as a roadmap for a company’s product development, marketing and sales efforts, and help ensure the company stays focused on creating value for its target customer.

A good value proposition should be concise, clear, and easily understood by the target customer.

Why does your company need a value proposition?

Well, if you want to reach out to new clients and customers, you’ve got to interest them. Doing this is actually a lot easier than you might think. All you’ve got to do is work out your audience’s main problem, and then demonstrate how you can solve it.

Simply, they present the worth and usefulness of a product, usually through words. The aim is to force you to pause, hold your attention, and then make you want something or act on something.

Caring about your company’s own genuinely good value proposition is the difference between having a clear vision and excellent branding and being a ‘me too’ business with so-so branding.

It’s also the difference between selling a product/service, or not. Customers and clients have to feel like a company is selling something unique that they desperately need. When they do, they tend to invest.

Here’s what’s in it for you – an effective value proposition will:

• Present a needed solution to your audience
• Win you sales
• Represent your business ethos accurately
• Indicate to your audience that you care about their pain points
• Attract new business
• Engage with existing business and clients

So, how do you come up with a value proposition for your website?

Here are some effective tips:

1. In a nutshell: ‘You need this, and we have it / can help you with it‘
2. Make it about the customer; this isn’t the time to make it about you. Ask yourself the question, what does the customer want? Then, create a proposition that centres around them. Use the word ‘you’ a lot; we all love a bit of tender attention. No one loves ‘We, we’ – well, that’s another conversation we won’t cover here!
3. Don’t use buzzwords; they really don’t work. People can sniff out performative marketing almost instantly. If they’re seeing the same words on different websites, they’re not going to go with any of them. They’ll go with the company that presents an original and authentic experience on their website. The best way to avoid this is to really sit down and identify who your customers are and what they want. Yes, you may be offering a product or service that somebody else does, but you’ll know how to attract your customers well. A value proposition that sounds identical to another’s will make yours look weak and manufactured.
4. Don’t try and cram it all in. Oftentimes, under a value proposition, there’s a subheading. This expands on the feeling of said proposition and gets a little bit more specific. It’ll display examples of how the product works or who it’s for. It’s usually only a couple of sentences long. Short and sweet.
5. The proposition has to reveal itself clearly. It needs to be front and centre on your company website, ideally on a landing page. It also needs to be slotted in and repeated, in different forms, across the website.
6. Place it well. Think headlines, headers, and titles. Don’t hide the proposition in the corner of a page like it is dirty laundry. Proclaim it boldly through words and design. Don’t make it messy, though. A clean look is what customers stick around for. People can get confused and click off when things get unclear or too loud. We’re sure you’ve experienced this yourself. Keep the proposition to one or two memorable sentences and remember to hold your audience’s attention. Put yourself in their shoes.

Don’t lose out on customers because you don’t have an effective value proposition.

When you have a compelling value proposition, you’re saying ‘Hey, customer! You have this need, and this is why, and how, our company will fix this particular issue for you!’.

Hopefully, the service or product that you’re selling is something they’ll want to get their hands (or mouse) on, and you’ll win that lead.

Remember to be authentic, honest, and innovative with your proposition.

Leave those who visit your website curious, intrigued, and wanting to find out more.

One more thing—make that an easy process for them. If they’ve been won over by the proposition, don’t make it feel like a hike to contact you or purchase something. Otherwise, you’ll risk destroying all the work your proposition did. Make the contact button very clear; make products easy to add to a basket.

Ultimately, when you invest your time and create a value proposition that best fits your company, you’re capturing new clients/customers and making sales. They’ll want to stick around and find out more; trust us, you’ll see the benefits on your computer screen and inside your company inbox.

Here’s some great examples to get you thinking: