Do you want to instantly show potential leads your worth and encourage them to buy from you? The answer lies in a great value proposition.
Regardless of your product or service, you almost certainly have competition. So what makes a customer choose you over another company?
Customers choose you when they see your product offers the greatest value.
Your website homepage, landing pages, email campaigns, and sales pitches should clearly communicate why your product is special. They should also illustrate how you can alleviate the pain points of your target audience.
Then, you’ll see your conversion rates, lead generates, and sales start to soar.
That’s why, in today’s post, we’re going to provide you with a guide to creating an effective value proposition. We’ll also share 9 of the best value propositions we’ve found to provide inspiration. Plus a special bonus example!
After reading, you’ll know exactly how to create a value proposition that will give you a competitive advantage.
Let’s get started!
What Is a Value Proposition?
How to Write a Value Proposition
9+ Value Proposition Examples
4 Value Proposition Templates
A value proposition is a message that shows people the unique benefits of your product or service. This is a critical component that you NEED to nail.
That way, when your customers are “shopping around,” your company’s value proposition will set you apart from the competition.
Creating a rock-solid value proposition will help your business grow by:
Encouraging repeat customers
Improving your brand’s word-of-mouth marketing
Increasing customer’s average order value (AOV)
Reducing churn from your current customer base
And more…
Keep in mind that your value proposition needs to outweigh the price of your product. That’s the only way to make sure new leads choose your company over the competition.
Let’s say someone’s shopping around and finds two similar products whose features are identical. One costs $50 and the other $100. Which one will they choose?
Whichever product they believe offers the most value for their money.
While pricing is always a factor, many consumers are happy to pay more for a product if it’s the best solution to the problem they’re facing. They may be looking for things outside of cost, such as:
Quality of the product
Speed of results
Duration of results
Efficiency in solving their problem
Reliability of your brand’s reputation
In other words, a value proposition should be strong enough that people believe they’re getting more than what they pay for with your company (and that they WON’T find with your competition). Customers also want the product that will most precisely solve whatever problem they’re trying to solve.
Before you start crafting your copywriting, images, and design of your value proposition, you must gather some information first. Essentially, you’ll need to write down a list of your product’s benefits and your potential customers’ needs.
There are many different charts, worksheets, and canvases available online to help guide you. Most of them look something like this:
In order to gather this information, you’ll have to have a firm grasp of your brand. You’ll also need to have done some market research to understand your buyer persona.
To create a truly good value proposition, you’ll need to first answer these questions:
Product
What does your product do?
What does it feel like to use your product? For instance, is it easy, exciting, enlightening, relaxing?
How does your product work?
What features does it have?
Customer
What are the emotional drivers of purchasing?
What are your potential customers’ needs? What problems or pain points do they need solutions for?
What are the rational drivers of purchasing? What will convert them from browsing to deciding to buy?
What are the risks of switching to your product?
What do people currently do instead?
Once you have a strong vision of what your customers need and how you can fulfill those needs, you can get started with your value proposition.
Your company’s value proposition needs to impress your target audience quickly. Consumers see dozens of marketing pitches every day. If you don’t grab their attention, they’ll bounce off your page without taking any action.
That’s why you should your proposition short but impactful.
Here are the 3 main elements of a value proposition:
Headline: A phrase or short sentence that quickly communicates the value of your product. Your headline should be different from your company’s tagline, slogan, or catchphrase. Instead, it should offer a bit more detail and be more concrete in explaining your product’s benefits. This message will be in large, bold text. It’s often the most visible element of your proposition, so be creative!
Paragraph Text or Subheadline: Now that you’ve caught your reader’s attention, it’s time to tell them a bit more. This smaller text can provide more detail, show a testimonial, or explain the next steps that visitors can take.
Visual Element: To really make your proposition pop, you’ll need an eye-catching visual. Visuals can be photos, illustrations, background videos, or infographics. They help set the tone for your product or even provide more information. Using photos of people can also put a face to the benefits you’re offering.
Of course, reading descriptions of these 3 elements can only help so much. Next, we’ll share some examples to give you a better grasp of how to use these elements.
For our list of value proposition examples, we’re going to look at the homepages of a few popular websites. Not every website features its value proposition on its front page. However, it’s an excellent way to showcase your value for every new website visitor, as these examples show.
We’ll look at the heading, text, and visual element of each example and discuss why they work. Since these propositions are all on website homepages, we’ll also look at each example’s call to action (CTA). After all, once you’ve convinced a website visitor of your value, you want them to be able to easily take the next step.
Let’s dive in!
About Uber:
Product: Well-known ride-share service.
Target market: People who need low-cost, on-demand transportation.
Primary benefit: Eliminates the frustrations of travel.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Go anywhere with Uber.”
Description Text: “Request a ride, hop in, and go.”
Visual Element: A colorful illustration of a professional woman getting out of a car in a city.
CTA: Text fields to enter your pick-up and destination locations and a button that says “See prices.”
What makes this value proposition work? Uber emphasizes the ubiquity of their service by saying they can take you anywhere. They also focus on the ease of using Uber with their “Request a ride, hop in, and go” text. They double-down on that ease by letting you start your ride request right there on the homepage.
Because Uber is such a well-known company, they don’t need to explain who they are. Therefore, they can keep their text extremely short.
About Skillshare:
Product: Online classes and lessons.
Target market: Artists, entrepreneurs, and creative minds.
Primary benefit: The ability to learn via bite-sized lessons.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Explore your creativity with thousands of hands‑on classes.”
Description Text: A subheading that says “Get 7 free days of Skillshare.”
Visual Element: A collage of colorful photos showing people cooking, drawing, knitting, taking photos, and more.
CTA: Skillshare offers multiple ways to create an account and begin a free trial. There are buttons for logging in through Facebook, Google, and Apple accounts. There’s also an option to sign up with an email address.
What makes this value proposition work? This homepage focuses completely on highlighting their free trial. If you are extremely confident in the quality of your product, this strategy is very smart! Skillshare obviously believes that once a visitor tries their classes, they’ll want to subscribe.
Skillshare also shows value through their visual element. Look how much fun those folks are having! And look how great their projects look. Skillshare is showing visitors that they can have the same experience by taking their classes.
Note: Want to make your own online course? Check out this article on the best learning management system (LMS) plugins to build a virtual class. Then follow that up with our 12 ways to promote your online course.
About LegalShield:
Product: Affordable, prepaid monthly plans for legal services such as estate planning, family law, and small business plans.
Target market: Individuals, small businesses, and entrepreneurs.
Primary benefit: Prepaid legal protection you can trust to be there whenever you need it.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Affordable Legal Help Does Exist.”
Description Text: “Hire a lawyer the smart way, not the hard way.”
Visual Element: A photo of a smiling woman with a cell phone at her ear.
CTA: A bold button that says “Get started”.
What makes this value proposition work? Every part of this proposition is designed to give visitors a feeling of relief. LegalShield emphasizes that their services are affordable and easy to use. The photo of the woman on the phone implies that legal help will always be just a call away with one of their plans.
About Tortuga:
Product: Travel backpacks and accessories
Target market: Young travelers and weekend road trippers.
Primary benefit: The ability to travel light.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Pack everything you need without checking a bag.”
Description Text: The preheader text says, “Over 3,000 5-star reviews.”
Visual Element: A photo of a man wearing a backpack while exploring a city.
CTA: A bright green button that says “Take the Bag Quiz.”
What makes this value proposition work? In that one-sentence heading, Tortuga communicates that their backpacks will save you money and hassle on every trip. They also leverage the power of social proof by pointing out that they have 3,000 5-star reviews.
About Dollar Shave Club:
Product: Subscription-based razors and shaving products. They also offer one-time bundle purchases.
Target market: Cost-conscious millennial males who want to look great with less hassle. And in this instance, anyone who’s doing holiday shopping for that target market.
Primary benefit: A high-quality shave that’s convenient and low-priced.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “If Santa Shaved He’d Probably Use One of These”
Description Text: “Shop our holiday gifts, including new handles and new additions to our electric line!” At the bottom, they give more important information:
“Free shipping for orders $18+”
“30-day money back guarantee”
“Order for 12/15 for holiday delivery”
Visual Element: A slideshow of illustrations depicting their products in the North Pole.
CTA: A “Get Gifting” button, which leads to a list of their top gift recommendations.
What makes this value proposition work? This proposition has 2 huge things going for it: its humor and its focus on holiday shopping. Dollar Shave Club also immediately answers the most important questions for holiday shoppers: shipping cost, return policy, and shipping time.
Behind the silly joke about Santa shaving, they present real value here: When you shop with us, you can quickly order high-quality gifts, without hassle or worry.
About Constant Contact:
Product: An email service provider (ESP) focused on email marketing.
Target market: Business owners and digital marketers.
Primary benefit: Provides an email marketing solution to grow your business.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Take your marketing from meh to marvelous.”
Description Text: “Give your email and digital marketing a glow up with our easy-to-use tools.”
Visual Element: A photo of a woman using a laptop. Colorful graphics are added to indicate that she is sending marketing emails and monitoring their success.
CTA: An email optin field with a button that says “Sign up free.”
What makes this value proposition work? This proposition promises to transform your marketing, and it does so in casual, approachable language. Constant Contact makes success feel even more attainable by mentioning that their tools are easy to use. They also offer a no-risk free trial that doesn’t require entering a credit card.
Every aspect of their value proposition and CTA is designed to remove any barrier to giving Constant Contact a try.
About WPForms:
Product: A WordPress plugin for building forms on your website.
Target market: Owners of WordPress websites.
Primary benefit: Builds online forms to capture leads, take orders, receive payments, get feedback, and much more.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Drag & Drop WordPress Form Builder”
Description Text: “Join 6,000,000+ Professionals Who Build Smarter Forms and Surveys with WPForms”
Visual Element: The visual element here is a row of labeled icons listing WPForms’ top uses and features:
Contact Forms
Payment Forms
Survey Forms
Newsletter Forms
Registration Forms
Over 1,200 Templates
CTA: A large button that says “Get WPForms Now.”
What makes this value proposition work? Every aspect of this proposition showcases the versatility and ease of use of WPForms. Website owners know that “drag & drop” and “over 1200 templates” mean they can create forms without any coding or advanced design skills. The text uses social proof by stating that over 6 million professionals already use the plugin. And the labeled icons give a quick preview of the many uses of the software. Icons like these are common in SaaS value propositions.
About Ooma:
Product: VoIP phone service.
Target market: Business owners and residential users.
Primary benefit: Provides internet-based phone service for businesses of all sizes. They also offer home phone and security systems.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Sophisticated Communication Solutions Made Simple”
Description Text: The text under “Business” reads “Phone, video, and messaging solutions customizable for any size business.” The text under “Residential” reads “Home phone service and smart security solutions that keep you connected from anywhere.”
Visual Element: Side-by-side photographs. The 1st is a person using Ooma phone services at a work desk. The 2nd is a couple lounging on a couch, with an Ooma phone system near them
CTA: Visitors can click to get more information about Ooma’s products for Business or Residential. There is also a footer floating bar with links and phone numbers for customer support, for sales reps, and to request a quote. There’s even a chat box to get quick answers.
What makes this value proposition work? Ooma’s proposition offers high-tech communications products that are easy to use. They also make it very clear that they have products for both businesses and individuals. That’s a lot of information in just a few words! Plus, they offer multiple easy ways for interested users to contact them.
About Shopify:
Product: An eCommerce website builder.
Target market: Business owners and entrepreneurs.
Primary benefit: Allows people to build eCommerce websites to sell their products online.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Making Commerce Better for Everyone”
Description Text: “Shopify is supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, the world’s biggest brands, and everyone in between.”
Visual Element: A people-heavy background video, which is a preview for a longer video.
CTA: This proposition offers 2 CTAS. The “Start Free Trial” button is perfect for visitors who are ready to get started. The “Watch the Shopify story” button helps move new visitors further along the sales funnel.
What makes this value proposition work? The emphasis here is that anyone can create a website to start selling online.
This is very appealing to non-technical business owners who want a simple solution for selling online FAST.
Of course, we have to share our own homepage’s value proposition! At OptinMonster, we’re experts at lead generation, A/B testing, and revenue building. So you know that every aspect of our proposition has been thoroughly analyzed and optimized.
About OptinMonster:
Product: The world’s #1 lead generation software. We help you easily create website popups to grow your email list and improve conversion rates.
Target market: Business owners, digital marketers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and startups.
Primary benefit: Helps people grow their email list, boost conversions, and drive direct sales.
About the Value Proposition:
Heading: “Convert and Monetize Your Website Traffic.”
Description Text: “Instantly grow your email list, get more leads, and increase sales with the #1 most powerful conversion optimization toolkit in the world.”
Visual Element: A row of labeled icons highlighting various features:
Lightbox Popups
Floating Bars
Scroll Boxes
Gamified Wheels
Page Level Targeting
Exit Intent Detection
Geolocation Targeting
100+ Templates
CTA: A green button that says “Get OptinMonster Now“
What makes this value proposition unique? We pack a lot of information in our heading and description text. We focus on what our product can help you achieve: more conversions, more sales, and a bigger email list.
Whereas many lead generation tools focus on growing your list, OptinMonster’s strong value proposition goes one step further: converting and monetizing your site’s traffic.
This CAN be done through growing your list, but our tools can also be used to:
Reduce cart abandonment
Upsell/cross-sell products
Distribute coupon codes for more sales
Redirect users to popular posts (to boost SEO)
Increase webinar registrations
And so much more…
We also use power words such as “instantly” and “powerful.” These words are evocative, but they’re also accurate. Our software is easy and quick to set up, gets results quickly, and has more powerful features than our competitors.
Learn more about OptinMonster’s extensive features.
Now that we’ve seen some compelling value proposition examples, let’s take a look at some templates to help you entice potential customers with your company’s products.
What if you get stuck trying to write the copy for your value proposition? Don’t worry! Here are a few templates to help. You don’t have to use these templates word-for-word, but they are great starting points. Many of these have been around for a few years, but their lessons haven’t aged.
In Geoffrey Moore‘s seminal book, Crossing the Chasm, he suggests the following template for writing your value proposition.
For [target customer] who [statement of the need or opportunity], our [product/service name] is [product category] that [statement of benefit].
Example: “For busy parents who don’t have time for meal planning, [name of meal box company] is a meal delivery service that’s easy, affordable, and picky-eater-friendly.”
You would most likely use this template for your description text.
Here is perhaps the most straightforward value proposition template from Steve Blank.
We help [X] to [Y] by [Z].
Example: “We help small businesses succeed by saving them time and money.”
Depending on the length of your sentence, this template can help with your headline or description text.
Our next value proposition template is from Venture Hacks. It helps you leverage businesses that already exist in your industry to craft your unique value proposition.
[Proven industry example] for/of [new domain].
Examples:
“Netflix for video games.”
“The Amazon of Pet Supplies.”
“eBay for Glass Collectors”
This template can help you craft a short, simple, and effective headline for your value proposition.
Dave McClure’s has a frequently cited value proposition template that suggests a 3-step checklist for writing your unique value proposition.
Short, simple, memorable; what, how, why.
3 keywords or phrases
KISS. That means “keep it simple, stupid.” In other words, don’t use specialized jargon.
Example: “OptinMonster is the easy, effective way to get more subscribers and sales.”
Since the Elevator Ride is more of a checklist than a specific template, it can help you with all aspects of your value proposition.
That’s it! Now you can use these steps, examples, and templates to craft the perfect value proposition for your company.
Want to learn more ways to increase conversions and sales? Check out these articles:
18 Proven Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate Throughout Your Sales Funnel
Case Study: How Kennedy Blue Increased Sales by 50% by Overcoming Sales Objections With Popups
Once you have a value proposition that stands out from the competition, you need to optimize more of your website. As visitors browse your pages, show them your most enticing offers at just the right time.
OptinMonster is the perfect tool to build on your great value proposition. With our software, you can create beautiful and compelling popups in minutes. Our extensive targeting and triggering tools give you full control over who sees your offers and when.
Get Started With OptinMonster Today!
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