Your business’s best examples of values are the most important elements of your overall marketing messaging.
Creative value proposition ideas tell prospects why they should do business with you. That is opposed to doing business with your competitors.
They make the benefits of your products or services crystal clear from the outset.
Unfortunately, many businesses bury their value proposition in buzzwords. Or they send trite messages, meaningless slogans, or nothing at all.
They don’t include them in their marketing campaigns often because they don’t know how to build them.
Here is a short video that explains their importance.
When prospects arrive on your website, you have to tell them everything you offer quickly while you have their attention. If you don’t, the bell will ring, and they’ll be off to the next option before you get the chance.
The most effective way of doing this is a skillfully written value proposition.
Writing a powerful value proposition is a skill you can learn. But like any other skill, it helps to see examples from those that did it right.
In today’s post, we’ll be looking at 17 of the best unique value proposition ideas and examples we’ve come across. We’ll go over what makes them so compelling, and some ideas for developing or refining your value proposition.
We’ll also tell you what you should bear in mind when incorporating your value proposition into your website and marketing materials.
Here is a 3-minute video to refresh on this subject:
How to write a value proposition? Defining 6 core elements of Value Propositions
There’s a fair bit to cover, so let’s dive right in.
Examples of values … message simplicity
State your message as simply as you can. Explicitly point out how your product or service is superior to the competition. And highlight everything that sucks about your competitor.
Let’s use Uber as an example. It’s simple, yet highly effective copy taken from the Uber homepage. It excellently conveys the simplicity and ease that lies at the heart of what makes it a tempting service:
One tap and a car comes directly to you
Your driver knows exactly where to go
Payment is completely cashless
Everything about this directly contrasts the typical experience of getting a taxi.
This includes no phone calls to disinterested dispatchers. No painful conversations trying to explain to a stressed-out cabbie about where you need to be. And no fumbling for change or worrying you’ve got enough bills in your wallet.
Product design aesthetic
If you are in the product business, consider the design aesthetic of your products.
In this regard, consider Apple products as an example. As you’d probably expect from Apple, it is renowned for its commitment to sleek, elegant product design. Apple firmly reiterates its value proposition in the copy about its iPhone range of products.
Specifically, this includes the design of the device itself. It also includes the ease of use that has been a cornerstone of Apple’s design aesthetic. And finally, it includes the aspirational qualities that an iPhone offers the user.
This aspirational messaging is Apple’s value proposition.
Apple states that it believes a phone “should be more than a collection of features”. Exactly what a smartphone is.
It’s a remarkably effective approach. It has helped Apple remain at the forefront of a brutally competitive market for almost a decade.
User experience
In considering your product or service, think about your user experience.
Let’s continue with the Apple example. Apple knows how crowded and competitive the smart device market is.
Rather than focusing on a specific feature, the company instead opts to focus on the experience of using an iPhone.
Most companies couldn’t pull off using words such as “magical” to describe using a smartphone, but Apple can.
Apple understands that even focusing on the unique features of iPhone wouldn’t be enough to distinguish the device. This is especially true in such a crowded market.
By emphasizing the overall experience of using the device, however, Apple’s value proposition is as unique as its approach to product aesthetics.
Subtle and yet robust
Subtle but robust refers to an ability to be deceptively simple to use but with robust functionality.
Consider the example of the Slack product. The world seems to be divided into two types of people; those who love Slack, and those who haven’t tried it yet.
For the uninitiated, Slack is a workplace productivity and messaging app. It’s deceptively simple to use, yet robust enough for large teams working on complex projects.
So what sets Slack apart from the thousands of other messaging and productivity apps? Essentially, Slack distils its value proposition in the example above. That is it makes users’ “working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.”
The NASA JPL example is also very clever. It implies that if it’s good enough for large teams of scientists at NASA, then it’s good enough for anyone.
Slack’s mantra of “Be Less Busy” isn’t just a catchy slogan. It’s the company’s value proposition neatly summarized into three simple words.
Personal finance
The world of personal finance is another ruthlessly competitive space. There are tens of thousands of apps designed to help people manage their money more effectively.
However, few have as good a value proposition as Digit. Digit is a relatively new service that helps users “save money, without thinking about it.”
It allows users to securely connect their bank accounts to the Digit service. This service then algorithmically examines users’ spending habits and regular expenses.
Digit then begins to “optimize” users’ accounts to tuck money away into a savings account.
The key differentiator of Digit from other savings apps is that the process is entirely automated. Users don’t have to do a thing for Digit to start putting money into a saving account. It’s a real value.
Highlight value and benefits
By now, we all know and love Dollar Shave Club’s marketing and its value proposition.
Rarely is there an exception. In this example, the cheeky brand does an impressive job of highlighting value and benefits instead of features.
It’s value also incorporates its biggest selling point — price.
Ease of use
For most people (those who are not CPAs or accounting professionals), bookkeeping is a pain. It’s confusing, time-consuming, and an utterly miserable experience.
This is true, even if your business’ books are relatively simple. That’s what makes LessAccounting’s value proposition so compelling.
LessAccounting’s entire premise is built upon simplifying accounting and bookkeeping. Its value proposition is reinforced throughout the site.
Its tagline – “Make your life easier with our accounting software” – makes this immediately apparent. As you navigate through the site, you’re constantly reminded of the product’s value proposition.
Namely, that no other bookkeeping software makes accounting as simple and painless as LessAccounting.
Functionality and insight
Figuring out how people are using your website is a major challenge for many businesses. You might think you have a good idea about your users’ behavior.
But often, but without actionable data, you can’t know for certain. That’s where CrazyEgg comes in.
CrazyEgg is an analytical tool that allows users to view heat maps of how people are interacting with a website. Users can see cursor movements, scroll depth, and all sorts of other behavioral tracking features.
These features let them understand how people are interacting with their website.
So what’s the value proposition? That no other service provides more functionality and insight for a better price. And with as little hassle, as CrazyEgg.
CrazyEgg realizes that not everyone who visits their site will be familiar with the concept of heat maps or behavioral tracking.
To overcome this fact, they provide visitors with a friendly, accessible overview of CrazyEgg’s features. Their demo shows the simplification what the product does.
As you scroll beyond this overview, you get to the real meat of CrazyEgg’s value proposition.
Highlight reference customers
In its value proposition, Stripe makes it clear that its web and mobile payment products are specifically made for tech-savvy businesses. They know the importance of highlighting reference customers.
Its APIs and tools are comprehensive, state-of-the-art, and trustworthy for businesses. Businesses that demand nothing less.
This statement is also aided cleverly by the image of two cell phones. Each cell phone highlights a different, well-known Stripe customer.
Describe the brand
Three little words… send better email. That’s all that MailChimp needs to tell you what its brand is all about.
It’s simple, direct, and bold. Use its service, and you will send better email — no ifs or buts.
Show an effective example
A great first example is one that reaches to a very large audience. As you can see Intuit offer services like Turbo Tax, QuickBooks, Quicken, and Mint.
Their value proposition is stated under the logo in the top right-hand corner: “simplifying the business of life.”
While it isn’t the first thing you see upon arrival, it quickly conveys how you benefit using their service.
The main page scrolls between different services. Again, their showing how they benefit you with these services.
Limited technical overhead
The limited technical overhead value proposition ideas come from our friends at landing page optimization platform Unbounce.
As you might expect from a company specializing in conversion rate optimization, Unbounce’s value proposition is abundantly clear.
Namely, it is the ability to build, publish, and test landing pages without any I.T. support.
For many businesses, the perceived technical overhead of A/B testing is a major barrier to entry. This makes Unbounce’s value proposition particularly appealing.
Clarity
In its value proposition, Pagely addresses two of the biggest pain points of businesses with a WordPress website, scalability and security. At the same time, also enlisting social proof to give the company credibility right off the bat.
Though one of our longer value propositions, Pagely’s simplicity, and clarity helps prevent it from being overwhelming.
Easy to remember
Known for its link shortening, Bitly is all about removing clutter and being concise. It’s only natural then, that the company’s value proposition reflects these traits as well.
In these simple statements, Bitly summarizes its three major services that is easy to remember but also cannot be misinterpreted.
Show some wit
Apple has great value propositions for every product, but one that is particularly impressive is its statement for the MacBook.
In this witty example, Apple emphasizes how lightweight its product is (its biggest differentiator), while also speaking to how advanced its technology is.
That’s Apple, always “light years ahead” (even in marketing.)
Say what it doesn’t do
Though a bit hidden, DuckDuckGo has one of the most effective value propositions on our lis. Why you may ask? It is because it tells you what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t track or share your personal information.
Unlike bigger search engines, DuckDuckGo makes privacy a top priority It is its key differentiator, it wants you to know that as soon as you arrive on their site.
Grab attention
LegalShield’s value proposition is reaching to capture the attention of a large target audience. “Worry Less. Live More.” can speak to anyone and everyone. After all, who doesn’t want to to do just that?
They have integrated great differentiators on a scrolling slide. It shows more detail about how you might live more and worry less.
Be clever
Who doesn’t notice a value that shows how clever it can be. The Ladders is a career site specializing in high income ($100k+) job placement.
It’s value proposition, “Move up in your career” is a clever play on what they do (upping your salary and helping you advance in your career). The play also includes the desire of the visitor to do these things.
It takes great skill to capture both functional and emotional value in one short sentence. The Ladders does that flawlessly here.
