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A Powerful Value Proposition Shows You’re Unique. Here’s How to Write One

When a visitor lands on your website, they need to be able to “get it” straight away. If they don’t, they leave.

They need to understand what you’re on about and what sets you apart from your competitors.

A powerful value proposition shows you’re unique. It tells your potential customers what makes you unique and why they should do business with you.

Exactly what is a value proposition?

A value proposition is a concise, memorable statement that describes what’s unique and highly desirable about your company or solution. It can be a headline. Or a headline and subhead. Or a headline, subhead, and bullet points.

Positioned on your home page, it tells potential customers why they should do business with you rather than your competitors.

For a powerful value proposition to work, it needs to include one highly desirable benefit that is uniquely exclusive to you. In other words, what is it that you’re doing that your competitors aren’t?

What do you have to offer that’s better than or different from your competitors?

This differentiation is the foundation of your value proposition. It’s the one thing that everyone can instantly recognize about your product, service, or business.

Considered another way, what would your customer miss if you didn’t exist?

It should also be memorable or sticky. Your customers need to remember that you’re the only one to go to if they want what you offer.

A great value proposition should have these 5 characteristics

What is unique or different about you.
The thing that’s unique or different is desirable.
It is succinct and to the point.
It is memorable or sticky and won’t be forgotten
It is specific and to the point

Now let’s go through each point:

Unique
This is what differentiates you from your competitors. Either your competitors can’t say this, or if they could, they don’t.
Desirable
Your customers want what’s unique to your solution or what you’re offering. It’s what your customer would miss if your solution didn’t exist.

Succinct
To the point, and it’s certainly not a wordy mission statement or ultra-short tagline.

Memorable
Memorability is perhaps the hardest of the 5 characteristics. A great value proposition is often one that people can connect with emotionally. It’s sticky, hence memorable enough that people remember the gist of your value proposition.

Specific
It lacks ambiguity and is something graspable. A person is left in no doubt about the solution being offered.

Make no mistake, value propositions aren’t easy to write, and it’s almost impossible to nail all of the desired characteristics. And optimizing one aspect can often be to the detriment of another.

Two of the most powerful value propositions ever

These two value propositions are close to perfect:

1. M&M’s timeless value proposition

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands

M&M’s originated in the United States in 1941 after one of the founders, Forrest Mars (son of the founder of the Mars Company, Frank C. Mars), patented a process that stops the chocolate candy from melting in your hand. In 1954 Peanut M&M’s were introduced and “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands” made its debut.

Although considered at the time a tagline with an obvious benefit, it’s also a very strong value proposition, based on a patent.

Value proposition for M&M Melts in your mouth not in your hands — M&M’s Value Preposition

2. FedEx (used from 1978-1983)

When it Absolutely, Positively has to be there overnight

This FedEx value proposition is succinct and memorable. There’s also an obvious benefit to the customer.

Other examples of value propositions

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Final thoughts

A powerful value proposition instantly tells your potential customer the benefit from using your product or service, and why it’s unique from your competitors. It’s the reason why they should do business with you.

Also, the customer experience is spot-on. A potential customer lands on your site, sees the value proposition and understands what you’re on about straight away.

No need to think or try and work it out for themselves. Perfect!

How to get Powerful Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials work. Why? Because they give credibility and confidence to the service or product you’re offering.

Think of it as a recommendation by someone who’s experienced the same anxieties your potential customer is now facing.

When a customer’s made a purchase they’re happy with, they want to recommend it to others. A recommendation is a testimonial, and they can give it because there’s no buyer’s remorse – only satisfaction they made the right decision.

When that extra bit of assurance is needed, we ask people we know who’ve made that purchase what they think. This gives comfort. It also provides credibility.

The same principle works online. Potential customers read testimonials to feel assured. The only difference is, we don’t know the people giving the testimonials online.

Your potential customer has all sorts of anxieties, and that’s normal. If they’re unable to ask one or two people they trust for opinions, they’ll rely on the testimonials the website is displaying to help make their purchasing decision.

What does a great testimonial look like?

Well, they’re not flowery sentences filled with unbelievably positive, sugar-coated words.

The best testimonials assure a potential customer that what they’re about to purchase works well. It fixes the problem. It solves the issue. Indeed, it’s the perfect solution to what they’re looking for.

A solid testimonial helps dispel any doubts a potential buyer has.

And a great testimonial will show the benefit of using the product by painting a “before” and “after” scenario.

How to get customer testimonials

Only your customer can give you a testimonial.

After all, it’s the customer who tells the world how great your product or service is, and how it gave them the results they’re wanting.

So, to get a testimonial, you need to ask for one. And preferably straight after the buyer has experienced what you’re offering.

But here’s the problem. Although your customer is likely to give you one, they have no idea how to create the kind of testimonial that will have a meaningful impact.

Basically, they don’t know what to write.

This is where they’ll need help, or more specifically, some coaching.

For customers to give you a vibrant, powerful testimonial that shows how they overcame their concerns, you need to ask them to consider five questions.

These questions will give structure to the testimonial and make it easy for your customer to break down their thoughts in a way that will benefit you the most.

What to ask your customer to help them construct a testimonial

1. What was your main concern about buying this service?

There’s always a concern or obstacle to buying something. It could be money, relevance, time, or a whole host of other issues. However, what this question does is make your customer think of what could’ve been a deal-breaker. If your customer is thinking about it, so are others.

2. What did you find as a result of buying this service?

Despite the customer’s concerns, the answer to this question addresses why the purchase was worth it and how it delivered the desired outcome.

3. Which specific feature did you like most about this service?

There’s nothing worse than a vague answer. That’s why this question focuses on a specific feature (or benefit) the customer most liked. The response should ideally be explicit and rich in detail.

4. What are the other benefits of using this service?

This question allows the customer to talk about other benefits they found most useful.

5. Would you recommend this service? If so, why?

This is an essential question because no-one will recommend a product or service unless they feel strongly about it. Psychologically the customer’s integrity is at stake.

However, a recommendation needs context, and that’s why the second question, “if so, why?” needs to be asked.

Your customer has answered, now what?

The questions you’ve asked will provide valuable feedback, which may fit into three categories:

Some answers will be great as a stand-alone testimonial.
Others may not serve as a testimonial but will give indispensable insights into what your customers are thinking.
And unfortunately, some will be just sugar-coated blah, like “The service was very nice.”

It’s very rare to get a perfect testimonial. You can’t control the angle of the testimonial. All you can do is guide and help your customer construct the testimonial from the questions you ask.

The testimonial you receive from them, warts-and-all, is in their language. Authenticity will shine through.

If there are clear inaccuracies, such as misspelling your company’s name, reach out to your customer and request they change it.

Otherwise, your customer’s testimonial should never be altered. It’s ultimately up to you if you choose to use it.

Where to place customer testimonials on a website

Ask enough customers, and you’ll soon have a rich resource of valuable testimonials.

Not all are equal. Some testimonials can be used to support certain benefits of your product or service. Others can assure the customer that you provide outstanding after-sales service. The list goes on depending on your business.

As such, testimonials need to be placed alongside a particular point you’re trying to make. After all, it’s the job of a testimonial to dispel any apprehensions.

To move your potential customer to purchase what you’re offering, often all it takes is a bit of assurance, and a testimonial does that brilliantly.

Learn How to Write Bullet Points that Work

A surprising fact. People like reading bullet points.

That’s why they’re so common. Your reader is more likely to scan or read bullet points than a paragraph.

Your article has achieved a lot so far.

The headline has grabbed your readers attention, the opening first sentence has kept it, and the subheadings have pulled your reader up to take notice.

Now it’s time for bullet points to do their magic which is to keep people reading your article or post.

The three primary functions of bullet points are:

They’re short which makes them easy to read.
They break-up the text by highlighting specific aspects of your copy.
They slow scanners down to get them to read your article.

But bullet points can be so damn boring. Just think of those PowerPoint presentations you’ve had the privilege of viewing. People tune out if it’s not compelling.

The sad truth is most people don’t know how to write bullet points.

But that’s not you after reading this post. You’ll know how to write bullet points that captivate your reader to keep on reading.

The basics of writing bullet points

The hallmark of a great bullet point is brevity plus a promise.

Brevity means short bullets that can be read at a glance and keeps your reader moving through your article. A long bullet would defeat that purpose. So how short is short?

Obvious maybe, but it needs to be long enough to be readable and contain the promise. Ideally, it’s one sentence containing less than 10 words.

The promise in your bullet is the tease or hook. You’re making a promise to your reader that your product or service can benefit them. You must deliver, but not immediately – you tease your reader. Here’s an example:

Say you’re writing an article helping people deal with credit rating problems. You tell them you have a proven 10 step program over a four-week period that will substantially improve their credit rating, but you don’t tell them what those 10 steps are. Tease them, but don’t tell them the “how”.

Bullet point formatting and style

Bullets are essential for readability. They’re easy on the eye and get the reader to stop, and pay attention.

Brevity plus the promise of bullet points are essential, and so is their formatting and style.

Here’s what makes a great bullet:

A great bullet is simple and the bullet list is simple.
Bullets, like headlines, don’t need to be complete sentences. They can be fragmented.
Where possible, they should contain a reader orientated benefit. Consider them as mini-headlines. Give your reader a meaningful benefit.
Bullet points should be symmetrical meaning each bullet is one line or two lines. This makes for easier reading.
Avoid bullet clutter. What this means is having bullets, then sub-bullets, or worse, sub-titles. Bullets are designed for clarity of reading.
Each bullet should contain the same grammatical format.
Bullets should be uniform and you want to show content symmetry. For example, you don’t want a statistic for the first bullet, followed by a long explanation for the second, then a link for the third bullet.

When should you use a bullet list?

It goes without saying that bullet lists are a series of bullet points. The objective is to break up a paragraph or an idea into digestible bits.

There are different ways of doing this. By no means exhaustive, here are a few examples where bullet lists are very effective:

Cliffhangers that tease or foreshadow what’s coming up next.
Summarizing information or highlights.
Breaking down complex sentences (known as Bullet Chunking).
Citing data or proof to back up a claim (these are called Authority Bullets).
External fascinations. These type of bullet points are usually found in sales copy and are designed to create curiosity to prompt a purchase.
Internal fascinations are bullet points designed to persuade the reader to continue reading the article.

A summary on bullet points

People like bullet points and are more likely to read them than a paragraph.

The hallmark of a great bullet point is brevity plus a promise.

Brevity means short bullets that can be read at a glance and keeps your reader moving through your article. The promise is the tease or hook you’re making to your reader that can benefit them.

Bullet points serve to break-up the text by highlighting specific aspects of your copy. The scanner slows down to read, going from one bullet point, then onto the next, and so on.

And, more important, bullet points make your article far easier to read.

After all, that’s what it’s all about. Getting your reader to finish your article.

How to Write Subheadings and why they’re Important

The headline has grabbed your reader’s attention.

The opening first sentence keeps it.

So far, so good! But now they’re just going to scroll down the page and see if anything else captures their attention.

The sad truth is only about 10% of readers are going to read every word your write. That’s the typical behavior of your average web reader.

That’s where subheadings come in. They pull your reader up to take notice.

So, it goes without saying that you need to know how to write subheadings to get your reader to read, rather than scan, what you’ve written.

What is a subheading and why they’re important

A subheading, or subhead, are mini-headlines and play a huge role in capturing and holding the scanners attention.

It also keeps them moving down the page from one subhead to the next.

Subheadings are smaller in size than the main headline but larger than the text of your article.

They’re meant to stand out.

The main purpose of subheadings are:

They stand out because of their size and attract attention.
The scanner will stop to read them and continue scanning until the next subhead which they’ll then read.
Scanning from subhead to subhead, they serve to guide the reader down the page.
A subheading that looks interesting will get the scanner to read that section, and so on.

Reading behavior of the scanner

What the scanner is doing is evaluating whether they want to invest their time into reading your article.

Think of subheadings as being like hooks. They’re the hooks that get the scanner to stop, look and read.

The subheadings should also serve to summarize your article. That way the scanner is able to read and feel the flow of the story by your subheads.

In other words, the subheadings should give the reader a quick and easy guide to see what’s going on with your article.

How to write subheadings that captivate

Creating a subheading follows the same principles as writing a headline using the Four U’s Formula.

The subheading would ideally be:

Useful – it shows a promise and a benefit to the reader.
Unique – it contains a fact or opinion your reader may not be aware of.
Ultra-specific – this makes a subheading stand out and demand attention.
Urgent – urgency gets your reader to take notice and action.

But that’s a lot of things to put into a subheading, particularly if it needs to be short.

So, try to include the most important which are Useful and Unique.

Just like writing headlines, you want your subheading to show a benefit, to allure and entice your reader to take notice. They also need to be descriptive about what you’re writing.

Also, like the heading, the shorter your subhead the better. Some say 8 words or less so long as it’s descriptive.

Structuring the subheadings on your page

There are no hard and fast rules but the following will serve as a guideline:

If the headline is the premise, then the subheadings are the tips.

Your first subheading should be your best, the most intriguing, the one with the biggest bang.

The shorter the subhead the better.

Subheadings break your article up into readable and sequential sections.

Subheadings need to have rhythm and consistency which helps the reader move down the page from one subhead to the next subhead.

Consistency is the natural rhythm or flow between the subheads. You want to be consistent with a step one, step two, step three, step four type approach.

In summary

Subheadings serve to summarize your article by breaking it up into readable sections.

The content below each subhead is distinct yet there is a natural flow from one subhead to the next.

This allows for the person that’s scanning to get a quick and easy guide to see what’s going on with your article and if of interest, to stop, look and read.

How to write subheadings follows the same principle as those for crafting a headline. Importantly you want them to be descriptive, show a benefit for your reader, and be short.

For me, the major benefit of subheads is they make reading so much easier.

How to Craft the First Sentence of your Article

The headline gets your readers attention. Then you’ve got to keep it.

What follows the headline is your opening first sentence or paragraph and it’s called the opening.

It could be just one sentence or a very short paragraph, but it must open with plenty of punch.

The purpose of the first sentence

Your first sentence should dominate as it’s the most important piece of the article after the headline.

The headline has served its purpose of stopping the reader in their tracks with a captivating promise. They then move on to read your opening sentence or paragraph which is where you convince them to continue to read.

Remember, the only goal behind the headline is to get them to read the first sentence.

So, like a waterfall that starts with the headline, the next goal is to get them to read the first sentence. Then your only goal behind the first sentence is to get them to read the second sentence, and so on.

In a nutshell:

The headline captures your reader’s attention. The first sentence keeps it.

How long should the first sentence be?

It must be short.

The most important tip is that your opening first sentence should be short.

It could even be as short as a one-word or two-word sentence. The goal, however, is to create expectancy and anticipation, maybe even to shock or awe.

5 popular types of openings

There are a few well-trodden and proven ways to open an article. They can be used in combination or any which way. Below are the 5 most popular:

Ask a question

This creates curiosity and gets the reader thinking and it’s that thinking that equals active engagement with your writing.

Your reader is already captivated.

Share a quote or an anecdote

Opening with a meaningful quote can speak to some of the pain or problem your reader is trying to solve. Just make sure the quote is 100% accurate.

Sharing an anecdote is also a good way of opening. The key though is how you tell the story. An imaginative writer can start the anecdote right in the middle of the story.

Invoking the mind’s eye

This is when you’re asking the reader to create a mental image of something. Using words like “Do you remember when …” or “Picture yourself …”.

You can also project the future by painting a picture in your reader’s mind of what their life would be like if they take you up on the promise you made in the headline. You would use words like “Imagine when …”.

An analogy, metaphor, or simile

Opening with an analogy can be very powerful as it’s a comparison of two different things that have some similarities. Something like “Her hand was as cold as ice” or “You’re as annoying as nails on a chalkboard”

On the other hand, a powerful metaphor can do the trick. A metaphor makes a comparison between two things that aren’t alike but have something in common. Two examples are “Laughter is the music of the soul” or “Scars are the road map to the soul”.

Opening with a simile can be more descriptive and elicit the emotional response you’re seeking. A simile is the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind. Examples are “They fought like cats and dogs” and “They are as different as night and day”.

Cite a statistic

A statistic is a good opening so long as it has some shock value and it’s unique. Again, it must grab your reader’s attention. A statistic that’s fascinating.

A statistic that’s been overused will be ignored. Make sure it stands out, it’s new and unique.

Finally, make sure the statistic you’re wanting to use is exact, not rounded off. For example, if the figure is 16,435 then use it. Don’t round it off to 16,000.

Same goes for a percentage. If the percentage is 11.89% then that’s what it is. It’s not 12%.

By making statistics exact also implies you’ve done your research and it shows authority.

In summary

The most important take away is that your opening first sentence should be short and grab your reader’s attention.

Achieve that and the reader will want to read the next sentence, and then the next and so on. Just like a cascading waterfall.

Remember, the headline captures your reader’s attention. The first sentence keeps it.