A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating a Unique Value Proposition

Want to increase your conversions and make more sales? Driving those numbers up is all about winning over hearts and minds — and to do that, you need to effectively convey the value of your product or service to your customers.

That’s what a unique value proposition (UVP) is designed to do. When you create a UVP, you’re showing customers exactly how the benefits of your product meets their specific needs.

It’s not as simple as merely writing out the benefits of your offerings. Creating a UVP that converts takes research, data, and thought. Below, we’ll show you what a UVP is, how you can create one, plus a few examples of successful UVPs from different brands.

What Is a Unique Value Proposition?

A unique value proposition is a short, simple statement that has one job: It explains why customers should choose your product or service. This statement is sometimes referred to as a unique selling proposition, or USP — and it’s often confused with product descriptions or mission statements, though there are clear differences between them.

Let’s take a quick look at each so you can understand the difference:

• Mission statements: They focus on the overall company mission. For example, a company selling online courses might have a mission statement like “To help learners expand their knowledge.”
• Product descriptions: They provide the details about a product or service. In the example of online courses, these descriptions would describe what you will learn in each course.
• Unique value propositions: They describe the value that your products offer over other, similar products. Perhaps these online courses are more affordable than most, or maybe they have some other benefit that is absent among competitor offerings.

That’s what makes a unique value proposition crucial to long-term growth. You can tell your customers all about your products and your company’s mission. But in a sea of similar competitor offerings, those messages will get lost if you don’t also show your customers what gives your product or company unique value over the competition.

How Do You Write a Good Unique Value Proposition?

The difference between a strong value proposition and a weak one often comes down to the amount of work and market research that you put into it. If you create an off-the-cuff value proposition, there’s a good chance it will fail to land with customers or that it won’t differentiate your offerings enough to make your brand more enticing than the competition. 

With that in mind, we’re going to show you how to build a great value proposition using the following five steps.

1. List the Benefits of Your Product or Service

To create an effective value proposition, the best place to start is with the basics — and that means that you need to first create a list of benefits for your product or service. However, this isn’t always as simple as it sounds, especially since it’s easy to become confused between features, advantages, and benefits. 

For example, if you’re selling tablets, would you consider an extra-long battery life to be a feature or a benefit?

The easiest way to tell the difference is to do a features, advantages, and benefits (FAB) analysis. To do a FAB analysis, start by making a list of your product’s features. Next, take each feature and write out the advantages for that feature, then list the specific benefits that each advantage provides. 

Let’s say that your company creates and sells tablets. Here’s what your FAB analysis for one feature would look like:

• Feature: High resolution display
• Advantage: Easier to see details clearly
• Benefits: Less eye strain, more enjoyable visual experience

The idea is to thoroughly analyze your product or service’s features to discover how those features benefit your customers because those benefits are what you’ll use to create a unique value proposition.

2. Research Your Target Audience

The next step is to do a deep dive on your target market. Research your target audience to create buyer personas and to discover who your ideal customers might be. Don’t stop at your potential customers — be sure to also research your existing customers, too. 

In particular, gather information about customer needs and pain points. The key is to zoom in on the precise things that your customers need. 

For example, when surveyed, customers will often say that they purchased a tablet with longer battery life so that they can get more hours of use in between charges. However, you can dig deeper than that: 

• Are customers running out of battery at school or on long flights or somewhere else they may not be able to recharge easily?
• Are they power users who are playing games or doing other demanding things that drain the battery quickly? 

Specifics like these will help you craft a unique value proposition that directly addresses specific pain points.

3. Research the Competition

Now it’s time to get a little intel on your competitors’ offerings. If you’re new to the tablet market, then the place to start is with Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and other tablet manufacturers. 

Examine their products inside and out — and check out their digital marketing campaigns, case studies that they’ve published, and any other asset that can shed light on features and benefits. If need be, apply the same FAB analysis method here, too. 

Remember, you’re creating a unique value proposition. The details you learn here will be essential to help you differentiate between your products and the competition.

4. Connect the Dots

By this point, you should have a list of benefits for your product, a good understanding of your target customers’ needs and pain points, and a list of the benefits that your competitors are leveraging in their own marketing campaigns. Now it’s time to sift through this data to see what makes your offerings unique:

• Does your product offer benefits that the competition can’t offer?
• Does your product offer superior benefits to those offered by the competition (like 16 hours of battery life compared to the competition’s 12 hours)?
• Does your target audience have unique needs or pain points that the competition’s product doesn’t address?

These types of questions will help you sort out the unique value that you can offer to the market. 

5. Write and Format Your Unique Value Proposition

There are a variety of ways to write your official proposition. For instance, you can create a one-pager that goes into detail about the benefits and pain relievers that your product offers, or you could create a flowchart (often called a value proposition canvas) that connects features to benefits, pain points, gaps in competitor offerings, and more.

However, one of the best ways to draft your value proposition is to simply keep it short and sweet with a headline followed by a two- to three-sentence paragraph. The headline should clearly state the benefit that your customers will receive, and the paragraph below should go into a little more detail about what you’re offering and who you’re offering it to.

This particular format works well because it translates easily to short-form content like paid ads or the header of your company’s website. That not only lets you get your unique value proposition in front of as many eyes as possible but also makes it easier for you to do A/B testing on your site’s header or split testing on ads featuring different unique value propositions.

3 Examples of Unique Value Propositions

Now that we’ve covered the basics on how to create a unique value proposition, let’s look at how top brands do it. See below for a few great value proposition examples.

1. Jebbit

As you can see here, Jebbit’s commerce page is following the headline and paragraph format perfectly. The headline effectively communicates a big benefit for Jebbit’s customers: increasing sales. 

The paragraph below expands on that benefit with additional details. How can customers get the benefit of increased sales and higher conversions? By using Jebbit to create customized, high-quality experiences for their own customers.

Last, this value proposition wraps things up with a call to action to contact the sales team. This format is particularly effective for generating sales leads because it lays out major benefits in clear terms — then the CTA prompts them to take immediate action to learn more.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot also has a powerful value proposition. The headline (“Grow better with HubSpot”) casts a broad net, but since HubSpot targets business owners and marketers, it’s effective because it addresses a need that all of their customers share, which is growth.

The paragraph below goes on to address some of the biggest of their customers’ problems: 

• The need for software that isn’t overwhelming
• The need for a solution that works seamlessly with the tools both they and their customers are using
• The need for a scalable platform that will grow with their business rather than forcing them to make potentially costly upgrades later

This value proposition builds on the benefits that customers can expect with visual elements that give insights into what the platform can do. 

3. Patagonia

Patagonia’s value proposition is a great example of how you can leverage differentiation to set yourself apart from other brands. When consumers think of clothing brands, any number of options could come to mind: Gucci, Nike, Columbia Outfitters, The Gap, and dozens more. Each offers something different from the others — and so does Patagonia. 

With that in mind, the headline wastes no time informing customers that this is where they should go when they need jackets and parkas (as opposed to, say, jeans and sneakers). 

Next, the value proposition goes on to highlight the benefits customers will get from these jackets and parkas: Extra warmth for customers who have more extreme needs and waterproofing, which is not a common feature among most jackets.

All of this is combined with the background image, which shows people being outdoors and active while wearing the company’s products. That hints at a particular customer need for warm, comfortable outerwear that supports an active outdoor lifestyle.

Optimize Your Unique Value Proposition With Jebbit’s Help

To create a value proposition that wins over your customers, you need information. Jebbit can help you get the kind of consumer insights and first-party marketing research that will help you understand your audience’s wants, needs, and pain points. Use Jebbit to create quizzes, incentivize data collection, or build other types of interactive experiences that engage customers while providing you with insights.

Ready to learn more? Contact us today to discover how Jebbit can improve your insights.