You’re in business to create value.
Value is what customers pay for when they buy your product.
Last week, I renewed my Evernote subscription.
What do I get from using Evernote?
Evernote is where I store all my thoughts.
When I have a new idea for a blog post, a site design, a product – anything, Evernote is where I store them.
I can always access thoughts I store in Evernote earlier in the day and late before bed.
The value is, Evernote lets me remember all my thoughts. Now, I don’t worry about forgetting anything.
I paid $69.99 to use it for another year, and the value I get from it far surpasses its price.
Let me give you another example.
OmniKick is a popup tool that helps businesses collect visitors’ emails on their sites and get those visitors to follow them on social media.
OmniKick enables you to build your email list and social accounts. That’s the value you get from using OmniKick. Sign up for free to start using OmniKick.
Yesterday, I paid $139.99 to learn Laravel on Udemy.
Laravel is a PHP Framework. You can build amazing web properties with Laravel.
After watching a few videos in the course, I can say that I’m beginning to understand how it works.
I’m getting value for my money. I’m learning new things.
You derive value from your car. You use it to get to work, take your family to movies, and sightseeing, and more. Those are values.
I can go on and on giving you different examples of value.
Let’s get into what this article is really about.
Value proposition.
What is value proposition?
Value proposition is a statement about what customers get from buying your product. No, it’s not a slogan.
One thousand companies in the same industry may be creating products that do the same thing, but they should never have the same value proposition.
Value proposition is how smart companies differentiate themselves from competitors.
To identify value for your product, value proposition canvas can play a significant role.
For example, while both companies are in the auto industry, Audi’s value proposition should be different from Honda’s value proposition.
Great Value Proposition Examples
When I see a new business online, one of the things I look for is its value proposition.
The company’s value proposition tells me a lot about it.
If the value proposition isn’t clear and concise, it’s a sign that the product or service is below par.
The company has to know what it does very well to create a great value proposition.
Below are 15 smart companies with great value propositions.
1. Evernote
Don’t be surprised Evernote is the first on the list. I’m a big fan of Evernote.
I use it for almost everything when it comes to notes taking. Maybe, that is because I take a lot of notes every day.
Here’s Evernote’s value proposition:
“Remember everything.”
Who doesn’t want to remember everything?
It makes you want to use their service.
2. Dollar Shave Club
In 2012, Dollar Shave Club became popular due to this amazing video.
Universal later purchased the company for $1 billion, all-cash deal in 2016.
Here are the products the company sells today:
- Blades
- Oral care
- Haircare
- Skin care
- Butt Wipes
- And more
And here’s their value proposition:
“When it comes to helping you look, feel, and smell great, we deliver.”
The value their customers get is to look, feel and smell great.
By reading their value proposition alone, you may become interested in buying their products.
3. Stripe
I first saw the name Stripe in digital marketing forums in 2012.
By 2013, almost everyone I know was talking about it.
So, I decided to check out the Stripe’s website.
I knew what the startup was about upon landing on its homepage.
Their value proposition was clear:
As think React developers from Relevant..
“Web and mobile payments built for developers.”
Today, the homepage still targets developers.
It’s all about satisfying developers.
They now use a phrase like “developers first.”
Stripe isn’t the only payment gateway on the web. PayPal serves the same market too.
But Stripe managed to standout, and it’s clear in the company’s value proposition.
4. Apple
I love Apple. I’m an Apple fan.
Apple is the king of simplicity and elegance.
Apple went from the brink of collapse to become one of the world’s most valuable companies with loyal fans.
Today, people respect Apple as a company. Even if you don’t use Apple’s products, you’ll still have a great deal of respect for them.
You’ll still want to learn about their success.
One of the key secrets of Apple’s success is their products and the way they market them.
Each of their product has its unique value proposition.
The value proposition for iPhone X is pretty simple and short:
“Say hello to the future.”
Who doesn’t want to get their hands on the future?
Their MacBook Pro and HomePod both have their unique value propositions.
5. FreshBooks
Small business owners want to spend more time building their businesses and less time on accounting work.
A tool like FreshBooks makes that possible.
When you land on their website, it’s the first thing they say their service does.
Their value proposition is short, and they make it bold on the site.
“Small business accounting software that makes billing painless.”
FreshBooks serves business owners.
I like how they got straight to the point with their value proposition.
They ask for the email address of potential customers after the value proposition.
6. Salesforce
Salesforce is the number one leader in CRM.
CRM means customer relationship management.
Their platform is a CRM software that helps businesses manage their relationships with both prospects and clients.
Upon landing on the site, you’ll see their value proposition:
“Start instantly on the out-of-the-box CRM built for small business growth.”
“Out-of-the-box” means something you can start using immediately.
Salesforce is using this phrase to differentiate their platform from competitors.
7. Slack
Slack is one of my favorite tools. I use it daily.
We use it here at OmniKick to share ideas and keep everyone in the loop.
More and more companies are allowing their employees to work remotely. Slack makes remote even more appealing.
Inside Slack, you can do almost everything you normally do in the office.
Maybe your team needs to start a new project, and you want everyone to be aware of it.
Or, you just hired a new employee and want to introduce he/she to the team.
Or, you want to set a budget for the next project and want everyone to contribute their inputs.
Or, you want to discuss important developments within the company.
Everything and more you can think of can be done inside Slack.
Slack’s value proposition is, “Where Work Happens.”
8. Spotify
What can the value proposition of a music app be?
As a music fan, I think this is a tough job.
While I’m a big fan of Apple, I don’t like the value proposition for iTunes.
I don’t believe they did a fantastic job with that value proposition.
Spotify serves the same market. But their value proposition is just breathtaking.
Their value proposition contains three words, yet it’ll have a better positive effect on anyone.
9. InVision
InVision is the world’s leading design platform for creating customer experiences.
As someone who has a deep interest in design, I’m seeing a lot of designers talk about InVision.
Their value proposition will catch the attention of any designer.
“Design better. Faster. Together.”
Those four words say everything the app does.
Imagine you can say everything your product does with just four words?
10. Uber
Uber revolutionized the transportation industry. I’m a big fan of companies that drive innovation.
Uber wants you to get to where you’re going with zero hassle.
Their value proposition shows the reason why the company is so popular.
11. MailChimp
MailChimp used to be about just email marketing.
Their value proposition was “Send better email. Sell more stuff.”
In 2017 the company transitioned into a marketing automation company.
I like their new value proposition better:
“Build your brand. Sell more stuff.”
One thing you’ll notice is that they didn’t discard their old value proposition completely. They kept the second sentence from their old one, which is “Sell more stuff.”
It shows how important a value proposition can be to a brand.
12. Robinhood
Robinhood is changing online trading. You can trade stocks, options, ETFs, and cryptos without paying any commission. The company doesn’t have a minimum deposit which online traders love very much.
When you land on the site, you see their value proposition.
“Free stock trading is expanding internationally.”
It’s clear that most of their potential customers reside outside the United States.
When I wanted to start investing in U.S. stocks five years ago, this was almost impossible. Needed to provide many documents, and the minimum deposit was a bit high too.
You don’t need many words to explain what your company does.
Just tell the key unique feature or benefit that makes your business stand out from the competition.
13. Square
Square is a credit card processing company founded by Jack Dorsey, one of Twitter’s co-founders.
Square works with Apple and Android devices to enable businesses to receive credit card payments from customers at their locations.
Their target customers are stores, restaurants, etc.
Most of their customers who are business owners are not skilled computer users.
Square made it clear in their value proposition that their POS system is easy to set up and use.
14. Zapier
I use many different apps every day.
What Zapier does is, it lets you connect your apps. You can take information from one app to another with ease. This saves a lot of time.
Their value proposition makes this clear:
15. Thumbtack
Thumbtack is a platform where you can find local professionals like house cleaners, handymen, interior painters, makeup artists, photographers, landscapers, etc.
Their value proposition summarizes what the business does.
The above 15 are value proposition examples you can learn from.
How to create a great value proposition for your business
How can you, a startup or small business owner create a value proposition that sells your product or service like hotcake?
Sell the benefits
What are the benefits your business offers?
Write them on a piece of paper.
As you write these benefits, some will catch your attention. Perhaps, they are unique to your business.
Slack uses “Where Work Happens,” and Robinhood uses “Free stock trading is expanding internationally.” These are benefits they offer potential customers.
You can create a value proposition from a benefit.
Create a value proposition for each of your product
Like Apple does for each of its product and service, you should also create a value proposition for every product or service you sell.
It helps each product or service compete on its own.
Whenever you wish to discontinue selling a product or service, you can do so easily without affecting other products and services you sell.
Conclusion
A value proposition is an important element you must have in place before you start selling online.
There’s fierce competition in every industry online.
To compete, you need a value proposition that tells potential customers how your business is different from others. Even a local restaurant like Acenar uses a value proposition to differentiate itself from other restaurants in San Antonio. They claim they only offer their guests Texas regional Mexican dishes – modern Tex-Mex meals.
Same goes with Diff Eyewear which states that they provide luxurious eyewears without the luxury price tag.
In this article, I’ve given you 15 value proposition examples you can learn from to create yours.
Remember that you need to start collecting emails on your site.
If you’ve managed to hook a potential customer with your value proposition, you should collect their email address and continue marketing to them.
OmniKick is an ideal tool for building your email list.
OmniKick is a popup technology that will help you create popup templates that convert.
Want to see OmniKick in action?
