How To Write Value Propositions That Make Your Prospects Say Yes To You

Premature positioning without translatable proof crashes your credibility.

The job of a value proposition is to gravitate your prospects toward saying yes to you.

Humans are constantly looking to benefit. Use this behavior to your advantage.

Let’s look at the value propositions of various websites and audit the copy for conversions.

Example 1:

Stop defining your company with a weak adjective

The above value prop is – braggy.

Also, I had never heard of Cypher learning until now. Adjectives like best, world-class, and high-quality mean nothing. They’re just filler copy.

“High-quality” just means “high quality”.

There’s no other way to measure it. Because it’s subjective.

Therefore, your value propositions should never depend on adjectives to define them.

Adjectives can never communicate the real value of your business offers. Behead the adjectives out of your value prop and focus on bringing the outcomes to the forefront.

Why your value prop is not your USP

A few days back, Peep Laja, the founder of ConversionXL tweeted about why the concept of USP is obsolete.

And I agree with him.

Because in 2023, it’s impossible to be running an extremely unique business.

Especially, if you’re in the SaaS market – you know how crowded this industry is. So describing your brand as unique is not a good idea at all.

What does the absence of a value proposition do?

My first thought goes – how do you make your results colorful? Colorful pie chart? Colored graphs? Rainbow data?

I feel confused and I start wondering what the product actually is.

Unfortunately, it’s a web development company.

Solution: They could have spoken about the approach they mention in the CTA and position their brand with a clarified message.

Why it’s important to state the biggest benefit – FIRST

Nobody actually needs more data in this data-saturated world. But everyone wants to be able to manage data well.

So saying “Need more data” is not only useless but also intimidating.

And having data is not a benefit. It’s actually a liability to deal with if you don’t know how to tackle the data overflow problem every company faces today.

So if you’re a company offering a solution to analyze, organize, optimize and monetize your data, you should as well state this fact in your value prop and lead with it to bring in conversions.

Otherwise, you confuse your readers. And confused readers get off the wagon ASAP.

Lesson: Lead your value prop with your biggest benefit

Keep your first screen clean

Again, here’s another value prop starting with an adjective. We know what the problem is. So let’s talk about the UX here.

The goal of a business website is to make your reader’s job easy.

You start with clean websites. The screenshot of a login portal to the left is confusing and meaningless. It doesn’t add any value to the message.

The objective of your message is to take your reader from one awareness stage to a deeper, better understanding of your brand.

When you add screenshots like the one shown above, it makes the reader think hard, they panic and quit the page. 

Conclusion: The reader cannot grasp what this company is about until they read the tiny text that uses two keywords (AI and data analytics) in an unnatural sentence. 

Solution: A hero section with no image is better than having a confusing, deviating image with an unclear value proposition.

Avoid writing unprofitable value propositions

Stating your own name in the value prop has zero benefits.

This isn’t telling me what kind of digital work you do.

The words “more and beyond” denote uncertainty. If the reader senses uncertainty, they’ll have a hard time trusting your brand.

So, use your online real estate wisely. Own your message, connect with your audience and bring them closer to your brand.

But how?

3 simple ways to make your brand more approachable

• Write a benefit-packed value prop with a meaningful call to action
  Look at the example below. Appsumo doesn’t waste a second in addressing its readers. They identify the software buyers immediately. They know exactly what the software buyers come to them for. They make them feel exclusive instantly. This is a 10/10.

• Connect with a belief your audience stands for
  Meetup does this really well.
  Their value prop says – “The real world is calling”, which connects with most of us on so many levels because we’re all fighting digital screen toxicity.
  We’re all striving to make our lives a little bit more outdoor-ish. The gist is – to find out how you can match your audience’s mindset and convey that.

• State your why loud and clear just like 450GSM
  They’re not afraid to break the rules. The moment you land on their homepage, it’s clear.
  There are no clever tactics, no desperate messaging to sound badass – only clear messaging that gets the job done.
  

Action steps to writing a clear value proposition

1. Avoid adjectives – because adjectives repel clarity and are subjective
2. Highlight the biggest benefit
3. Use social proof to write your value proposition if you can
4. Connect with the values and beliefs of your audience
5. Connect with your reader’s mindset and intent
6. Clean UX around your value prop means higher conversions
7. Stop trying to be unique and focus on being useful to your readers

Questions? Ask me in the comments.