Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Download PDFDownload PDF
Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

/
Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

MIN
/
About the Episode
Episode Highlights
Meet our Guest
Episode Transcript

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Get the Report

Not a valid e-mail address

Great, thank ya!

You can now access the content.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Guide

What Is a Value Proposition?

Panelists
No items found.
Introduction
Introduction

Great, thank ya!

You can now access the content.
Download NowDownload Now
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Panelists
No items found.
Infographic

What Is a Value Proposition?

From best practices to stellar examples, get the insights you need to create a strong value proposition for your company.
Download InfographicDownload Infographic

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Collecting payments with online forms is easy, but first, you have to choose the right payment gateway. Browse the providers in our gateway credit card processing comparison chart to find the best option for your business. Then sign up for Formstack Forms, customize your payment forms, and start collecting profits in minutes.

Online Payment Gateway Comparison Chart

NOTE: These amounts reflect the monthly subscription for the payment provider. Formstack does not charge a fee to integrate with any of our payment partners.

FEATURES
Authorize.Net
Bambora
Chargify
First Data
PayPal
PayPal Pro
PayPal Payflow
Stripe
WePay
Monthly Fees
$25
$25
$149+
Contact First Data
$0
$25
$0-$25
$0
$0
Transaction Fees
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
N/A
Contact First Data
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
10¢
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
Countries
5
8
Based on payment gateway
50+
203
3
4
25
USA
Currencies
11
2
23
140
25
23
25
135+
1
Card Types
6
13
Based on payment gateway
5
9
9
5
6
4
Limits
None
None
Based on payment gateway
None
$10,000
None
None
None
None
Form Payments
Recurring Billing
Mobile Payments
PSD2 Compliant

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Is this just another marketing buzz-phrase? Or is there actual value in a value proposition? Value propositions can seem nebulous, but if they are done right, they can provide you with a competitive tool to reach customers and close sales. In this guide, we walk you through the essentials for creating a strong value proposition that will help move your business forward.

The Fundamentals of a Strong Value Proposition

When it comes to marketing, a strong value proposition is one of the most critical components of your messaging. It's what your company uses to communicate the value of using your products or services, and tells people exactly why they should want to do business with you.

Yet despite its importance, identifying a strong value proposition remains a common struggle for many organizations. Some businesses use industry buzzwords and jargon that make it difficult to understand what the company’s trying to convey. Others present pithy, meaningless slogans. Still others fail to identify what their value proposition is in the first place. Which is a shame, since a strong value proposition can open the door to a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Thankfully, with a few fundamentals, identifying your company’s value prop can be a fairly straightforward process.

At its core, a value proposition is precisely what the name implies: a proposal of value. It’s what you promise you'll deliver to your customers. Rather than a list of products or features, it provides customers with the one overarching advantage they’ll gain by doing business with you.

The process starts by answering several key questions, such as:

  • What would make a prospective customer want to choose your company over your competition?
  • How do your products or services make current customers feel?
  • What do your products or services empower people to do?
  • What benefits are they unlikely to find elsewhere?

Look for answers in every resource you can. See what your customers are saying in case studies, product reviews, documented sales calls, social media conversations, and more. Keep an eye out for insights that tell you which specific problems you help solve—and what makes your company the right choice for the job. It could be as simple as offering the best price, or as complex as providing a proprietary product no one else offers.

The important thing to remember is that your value proposition is not a tagline or slogan, but rather a straightforward statement that conveys the tangible benefits someone gets when they choose you over competitors.

Why Every Business Needs a Good Value Proposition 

Once you have an effective value proposition—one that clearly articulates the advantages of choosing your company—it opens the door to all kinds of opportunities. A strong value proposition:

Helps you make a strong first impression. When prospects visit your website for the first time, they’ll decide in an instant if they want to stick around and learn more. By putting your value proposition front and center, you make it easy for them to quickly grasp how your company can meet their needs.

Differentiates your company from competitor brands. When prospects read your value prop, they immediately understand what you offer that’s different. For some companies, small value-adds like free shipping or extended warranties do the trick. For others, bigger advantages such as custom products or one-of-a-kind services are at the core. No matter what type of differentiator defines your company, the key is to identify what makes you unique in the eyes of your ideal customer. 

Enables you to attract the right customers. Your company’s value proposition is laser-focused on explaining what you deliver to your target market. As a result, it can help you attract highly qualified prospects who are most likely to convert to customers.

Shows prospects “what’s in it for them.” The most powerful value propositions help customers understand, at a glance, how their lives will be better by using your products or services. When the value is crystal clear, customers are much more likely to engage with your brand.

How to Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Because the value proposition is highly unique to each company, there isn’t a single template that will work for each individual organization. Still, there are a few key steps that work well across virtually every industry.

  1. Make a list of all the benefits your company offers to customers. 
  2. Identify what advantages prospects will gain from using your products and services.
  3. Combine those benefits and advantages into a simple, straightforward statement that tells prospects what you offer and how you’re different.

The resulting value proposition should be a clear, concise statement that articulates:

  • The problems you solve
  • The benefits you provide
  • What separates you from other options

This information is typically encapsulated in a short block of text that includes a headline and subhead, and sometimes a short paragraph of text or three bullet points.

3 Excellent Value Proposition Examples 

What does an effective value proposition look like? While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to creating the ideal value prop, most of the best examples are short, easy to understand, and free of jargon. The key is to identify what makes your brand most attractive to customers, and then convey those benefits as clearly and concisely as possible.

For example, here’s how three successful brands have succinctly portrayed their value to customers online:

Slack: Brings the team together, wherever you are

Slack is often used by marketers as an example of a strong value prop, and for good reason. From the moment a prospect sees Slack in Google search results, it’s instantly clear what the product does:

Slack is where work flows. It's where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.



When you get to the homepage, the first headline and short block of text make it easy to quickly understand both the value and who it's for:

Slack brings the team together, wherever you are.

With all of your communication and tools in one place, remote teams will stay productive no matter where you’re working from.



Peloton: Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of

The Peloton brand isn’t the most affordable exercise bike, and yet it’s seen huge surges in demand. The reason? The brand offers some very compelling value for the cost, which is evident the moment someone lands on the company’s website:

Game-changing cardio you can’t get enough of.



Scroll a little further, and short, easy-to-digest blocks of copy help visitors instantly understand what’s in it for them:

Discover an immersive cardio experience that will keep you coming back for more.

Live weekly classes: Feel the energy of a live ride with real-time instructor shoutouts.

On-demand library: With classes that range from 5 to 90 minutes, find a ride for every mood.

Motivating instructors: Show up and ride to your best with live encouragement from top instructors.

Diverse class types. Keep your workout fresh with different themes, difficulty levels and music genres.



Tableau: Can help anyone see and understand their data

Tableau offers a great example of how even highly technical companies can hone in on a value proposition that’s easy to understand:

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.



Headlines, subheads, and brief, jargon-free descriptions further communicate value on the business’s homepage:

Get a full picture of your business, inside and out. 

Connect all of your data with critical external sources like public health status, economic indicators, and government policy. 


Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people.



In each of these examples, the benefits of engaging with the company are clear, concise, and easy to understand at a glance.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Value Proposition 

As you create your value proposition, it’s important to keep several best practices in mind:

  • Offer a clear benefit. The best value propositions are crystal clear. What do you offer, and who is it for? What makes your products and services useful? If it’s easy to answer these questions after a quick read, you’re on the right path. Always strive for clarity first.
  • Keep it concise. If your value proposition takes a long time to read, it’s not really a value proposition. Your prospects shouldn’t need to read a lot of text or use a dictionary to understand what it is you’re offering.
  • Avoid hype. An effective value proposition will offer concrete, tangible results a customer can expect to get from purchasing your products.
  • Make it easy to understand. It shouldn't take prospects any more than five to 10 seconds to grasp the full meaning of your value proposition.

In conclusion

Every business needs a strong value proposition to connect with customers. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or who your target audience is. Taking the time to create a strong statement is bound to give you a competitive edge. By using the strategies and best practices outlined above, you can easily transform your marketing into an enticing and engaging experience.  


Looking for more tips you can use to connect with customers? Formstack offers a full set of tools designed to make life easier for digital marketers. See how you can put your value proposition to work with the Formstack marketing suite.

Meet The Host
Content Marketing Manager
Connect
Lindsay is a writer with a background in journalism and loves getting to flex her interview skills as host of Practically Genius. She manages Formstack's blog and long-form reports, like the 2022 State of Digital Maturity: Advancing Workflow Automation.