SEO
5 Great Value Proposition Examples & Why They Work
“Find a need and fill it.”
This quote is widely attributed to Henry J. Kaiser, the son of German immigrants who became the millionaire head of a vast industrial empire.
It’s also probably the simplest, clearest explanation of a value proposition, finding where the need is and then addressing it.
Arguably the most important part of any business’s marketing messaging, many business owners and marketers struggle to define their value proposition.
Instead of simply and clearly defining why they’re in business, they obfuscate through corporate jargon, buzzwords, and empty slogans. Or they don’t have one at all, at least not one they have defined.
If this sounds like you, there’s good news: You’re probably vastly overcomplicating things.
To help you shape yours, this piece will take a close look at five great value propositions and explain why they work. Ready to get started?
What Is A Value Proposition?
Just in case you still don’t understand or we haven’t been 100% clear, let’s define what a value proposition is.
Value props, as they’re sometimes colloquially known, are a business’s answer to a simple question: Why should a potential customer buy from you and not your competitor?
But before you go off on some wild brand story about features, cost and ROI, keep these three things in mind – a great value proposition is:
- Simple for a person to understand.
- Unique.
- Measurable.
It’s a promise by your company to your customers or target audience about what you do and why you exist.
It should also be the foundation for every piece of your marketing copy. Every banner ad, section of website copy, or television commercial should come back to this main idea about why you’re in business in the first place.
If you don’t have one in mind when you begin to draft content, you’re basically trying to steer a boat without a paddle.
An effective value proposition directly communicates with your customers and simplistically tells them why your company, service, or product stands out amongst competitors and why it is the best solution to their problem. It’s to the point and explains why you are the ideal choice for them.
The time you spend creating a strong value proposition is nothing compared to the advantages it will give you. By creating an effective, unique value proposition, you can potentially:
- Attract more engagement from more customers.
- Increase conversions.
- Stand out from your competition.
- Increase customer loyalty.
- Draw influencers to your brand.
As such a vital part of marketing messaging, it’s somewhat surprising that so many businesses don’t prioritize a strong value prop.
Instead of clearly defining their raison d’etre, they try to replace it with random discounts and pre-mature loyalty programs or by tossing money at disorganized marketing campaigns that ultimately fail to tell the customer the value the company brings.
They also commonly misinterpret what a value proposition is exactly. Many brands push one thing, and one thing only: their brand.
A value proposition should be focused on the people you’re trying to reach – not the company.
Another common mistake is creating a generic message that doesn’t engage the target audience or explain how the business can help.
This type of messaging may include empty statements like “local favorite,” “best quality,” and others that are not specifically tailored to an audience.
Instead of taking a shortcut and writing a meaningless statement, it’s worth taking the time to craft a strong yet simplistically clear value proposition. This will make it easier and more cost-effective to attract and keep the customers you want coming back.
So, now that we know what a value proposition is and what it isn’t, let’s take a look at some brands that have nailed it.
1. Trello
What they sell: A visual tool for managing projects, workflows, and tasks.
How it’s helpful: It streamlines project organization for multiple parties within a company, helping everyone track benchmarks and stay on the same page.
How it stands out from competitors: Trello quickly organizes tasks and deadlines into an easy-to-understand visual card format. Plus, the base version is free and shareable with anyone within an organization.
Is their proposition communicated simplistically? Yes, it is easy for people to understand right off the bat. The subhead addresses doing away with outdated project management practices that can oftentimes be a headache. This tells customers how directly Trello will make their lives easier while implying it will save time for their entire team.
2. Stitch Fix
What they sell: Personal wardrobe styling services.
How it’s helpful: Stylists help busy people find clothing that fits their personal style and ship it directly to them.
How it stands out from competitors: Stich Fix offers quick, customizable, unique clothing picked out and sent to a person by stylists.
Is the proposition communicated simplistically? Yes, their messaging proclaims that they not only offer personal styling, but they offer it to individuals of all different shapes and style preferences. This casts a wide net for their target audience and invites people of all types to use the service.
3. Evernote
What they sell: Software for task lists and note-taking.
How it’s helpful: Evernote helps users easily organize and share notes and tasks across notepads, devices, locations, etc.
How it stands out from competitors: It has major capabilities that allow a user to feel organized with a sophisticated notepad with cloud-based capabilities, so nothing gets lost.
Is the proposition communicated simplistically? Yes, the proposition addresses the user’s pain points directly – a lack of organization or the need for a better tool to help them get organized. It specifically states what the tool can be used for, i.e., to stay on top of tasks, avoid headaches, take notes and prevent things from falling through the cracks.
4. HotJar
What they sell: Heat mapping and behavior tracking software.
How it’s helpful: HotJar assists marketers and others in related fields, including project management and web development, in understanding how users interact with a website.
How it stands out from competitors: This product offers a unique mix of heat mapping, video recordings, and reports, allowing users to analyze user behavior on a website, as well as conduct user surveys and polls.
Is the proposition communicated simplistically? Yes, visitors are told exactly what the tool does right from the get-go: heat mapping, visitor session recording, user surveys, and polls. It also calls out GDPR compliance and shows that multiple team members can use the tool to make insights.
5. Freshly
What they sell: Prepared meal kits.
How it’s helpful: Freshly cooks and delivers meals; customers only have to heat them up.
How it stands out from competitors: People can choose from a range of more than 30 meals made from natural ingredients and delivered right to their door. There is also an opt-out option and the possibility to cancel specific weeks or at any time in general instead of being locked in for months.
Is the proposition communicated simplistically? Yes, it is communicated simply and clearly with helpful visuals and icons that outline the process of using the service.
Nail Your Brand’s Value Proposition
If you want to convert a customer and maintain their loyalty, it’s imperative to nail a unique value proposition.
There are a few steps to take when starting the brainstorming and research process for the perfect value proposition for your brand:
Research Your Audience
- What do they do for a living?
- Where do they live?
- What do they search for?
- What are their common pain points?
Create A Buyer Persona
After extensive research has been conducted on your target audience, analyze the data and look for:
- Repeated pain points.
- Specific language that a buyer may use.
- What industry do they work in?
Do Some Competitive Research
After researching your target audience, you may find that they already use a product or service similar to the one your company is trying to market to them.
Research those competitors and find the key differences in your offerings and identify the advantage(s) your product or service can provide that separate you from them.
Finding the primary benefit of your product or service is pivotal to differentiating your company from others.
You Take It From Here
For something that seems so simple (did you not how many times we used the word “simplistically?”), landing on the perfect value prop for your business is not nearly as easy as you might think.
It takes work to find the right value proposition. You have to perform research, brainstorm ideas, and discover what differentiates your business.
And then, once you’ve done all that, you have to distill it all down to as few words as possible and implement it throughout your marketing. But it’s worth every second and every drop of sweat.
On the other hand, it’s easy to create a bad value prop, one that lacks clarity and doesn’t convince customers of its value or that of your products and/or services.
But with this, you run the risk of it failing, which likely means a loss of profitability, cut-off access to some or all of your customers, and in the worst case, your company going out of business.
Put in the work now to clearly and strongly define why you’re in business and what your value is. Your bottom line will thank you.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
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SEO
Google March 2024 Core Update Officially Completed A Week Ago
Google has officially completed its March 2024 Core Update, ending over a month of ranking volatility across the web.
However, Google didn’t confirm the rollout’s conclusion on its data anomaly page until April 26—a whole week after the update was completed on April 19.
Many in the SEO community had been speculating for days about whether the turbulent update had wrapped up.
The delayed transparency exemplifies Google’s communication issues with publishers and the need for clarity during core updates
Google March 2024 Core Update Timeline & Status
First announced on March 5, the core algorithm update is complete as of April 19. It took 45 days to complete.
Unlike more routine core refreshes, Google warned this one was more complex.
Google’s documentation reads:
“As this is a complex update, the rollout may take up to a month. It’s likely there will be more fluctuations in rankings than with a regular core update, as different systems get fully updated and reinforce each other.”
The aftershocks were tangible, with some websites reporting losses of over 60% of their organic search traffic, according to data from industry observers.
The ripple effects also led to the deindexing of hundreds of sites that were allegedly violating Google’s guidelines.
Addressing Manipulation Attempts
In its official guidance, Google highlighted the criteria it looks for when targeting link spam and manipulation attempts:
- Creating “low-value content” purely to garner manipulative links and inflate rankings.
- Links intended to boost sites’ rankings artificially, including manipulative outgoing links.
- The “repurposing” of expired domains with radically different content to game search visibility.
The updated guidelines warn:
“Any links that are intended to manipulate rankings in Google Search results may be considered link spam. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”
John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, responded to the turbulence by advising publishers not to make rash changes while the core update was ongoing.
However, he suggested sites could proactively fix issues like unnatural paid links.
“If you have noticed things that are worth improving on your site, I’d go ahead and get things done. The idea is not to make changes just for search engines, right? Your users will be happy if you can make things better even if search engines haven’t updated their view of your site yet.”
Emphasizing Quality Over Links
The core update made notable changes to how Google ranks websites.
Most significantly, Google reduced the importance of links in determining a website’s ranking.
In contrast to the description of links as “an important factor in determining relevancy,” Google’s updated spam policies stripped away the “important” designation, simply calling links “a factor.”
This change aligns with Google’s Gary Illyes’ statements that links aren’t among the top three most influential ranking signals.
Instead, Google is giving more weight to quality, credibility, and substantive content.
Consequently, long-running campaigns favoring low-quality link acquisition and keyword optimizations have been demoted.
With the update complete, SEOs and publishers are left to audit their strategies and websites to ensure alignment with Google’s new perspective on ranking.
Core Update Feedback
Google has opened a ranking feedback form related to this core update.
You can use this form until May 31 to provide feedback to Google’s Search team about any issues noticed after the core update.
While the feedback provided won’t be used to make changes for specific queries or websites, Google says it may help inform general improvements to its search ranking systems for future updates.
Google also updated its help documentation on “Debugging drops in Google Search traffic” to help people understand ranking changes after a core update.
Featured Image: Rohit-Tripathi/Shutterstock
FAQ
After the update, what steps should websites take to align with Google’s new ranking criteria?
After Google’s March 2024 Core Update, websites should:
- Improve the quality, trustworthiness, and depth of their website content.
- Stop heavily focusing on getting as many links as possible and prioritize relevant, high-quality links instead.
- Fix any shady or spam-like SEO tactics on their sites.
- Carefully review their SEO strategies to ensure they follow Google’s new guidelines.
SEO
Google Declares It The “Gemini Era” As Revenue Grows 15%
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced its first quarter 2024 financial results today.
While Google reported double-digit growth in key revenue areas, the focus was on its AI developments, dubbed the “Gemini era” by CEO Sundar Pichai.
The Numbers: 15% Revenue Growth, Operating Margins Expand
Alphabet reported Q1 revenues of $80.5 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year, exceeding Wall Street’s projections.
Net income was $23.7 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $1.89. Operating margins expanded to 32%, up from 25% in the prior year.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s President and CFO, stated:
“Our strong financial results reflect revenue strength across the company and ongoing efforts to durably reengineer our cost base.”
Google’s core advertising units, such as Search and YouTube, drove growth. Google advertising revenues hit $61.7 billion for the quarter.
The Cloud division also maintained momentum, with revenues of $9.6 billion, up 28% year-over-year.
Pichai highlighted that YouTube and Cloud are expected to exit 2024 at a combined $100 billion annual revenue run rate.
Generative AI Integration in Search
Google experimented with AI-powered features in Search Labs before recently introducing AI overviews into the main search results page.
Regarding the gradual rollout, Pichai states:
“We are being measured in how we do this, focusing on areas where gen AI can improve the Search experience, while also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.”
Pichai reports that Google’s generative AI features have answered over a billion queries already:
“We’ve already served billions of queries with our generative AI features. It’s enabling people to access new information, to ask questions in new ways, and to ask more complex questions.”
Google reports increased Search usage and user satisfaction among those interacting with the new AI overview results.
The company also highlighted its “Circle to Search” feature on Android, which allows users to circle objects on their screen or in videos to get instant AI-powered answers via Google Lens.
Reorganizing For The “Gemini Era”
As part of the AI roadmap, Alphabet is consolidating all teams building AI models under the Google DeepMind umbrella.
Pichai revealed that, through hardware and software improvements, the company has reduced machine costs associated with its generative AI search results by 80% over the past year.
He states:
“Our data centers are some of the most high-performing, secure, reliable and efficient in the world. We’ve developed new AI models and algorithms that are more than one hundred times more efficient than they were 18 months ago.
How Will Google Make Money With AI?
Alphabet sees opportunities to monetize AI through its advertising products, Cloud offerings, and subscription services.
Google is integrating Gemini into ad products like Performance Max. The company’s Cloud division is bringing “the best of Google AI” to enterprise customers worldwide.
Google One, the company’s subscription service, surpassed 100 million paid subscribers in Q1 and introduced a new premium plan featuring advanced generative AI capabilities powered by Gemini models.
Future Outlook
Pichai outlined six key advantages positioning Alphabet to lead the “next wave of AI innovation”:
- Research leadership in AI breakthroughs like the multimodal Gemini model
- Robust AI infrastructure and custom TPU chips
- Integrating generative AI into Search to enhance the user experience
- A global product footprint reaching billions
- Streamlined teams and improved execution velocity
- Multiple revenue streams to monetize AI through advertising and cloud
With upcoming events like Google I/O and Google Marketing Live, the company is expected to share further updates on its AI initiatives and product roadmap.
Featured Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock
SEO
brightonSEO Live Blog
Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.
Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary. sun, sea, and SEO!
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