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Take Your Unique Value Proposition to the Next Level
This post is designed to get your creative juices flowing when it comes to leveraging your Unique Value Proposition (UVP).
For those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, we at FutureNow define Unique Value Proposition as: The brief, memorable phrase that concisely and powerfully describes the value of your business and creates excitement in the prospect. The value proposition is not a slogan or a phrase designed for advertising, although that is one potential use for it. Instead, its purpose is to answer the prospect’s implicit question, “Why should I do business with you and not somebody else?”
If you haven’t yet developed, tested, and optimized a Unique Value Proposition, bookmark this post and stop reading. Go read this and this. Oh, this one is good, too 
If you do have a solid UVP already developed and placed on your homepage and other important landing pages, let’s get down to the business of taking your UVP to the next level!
Homepages and landing pages aren’t the only place where your UVP needs to do some persuading. There’s a whole, entire experience with your company (marketing touch points, landing pages, conversion experiences, post-purchase support, etc.) that can and should emanate your UVP so that it can be felt through every second a prospect or customer spends with you. That, of course, will help with the “memorable” part of the UVP definition.
Here are a just a few ways in which your UVP could “cascade” across the user experience:
- phone on-hold messaging
- marketing/merchandising/promotions
- email signatures from employees
- site navigation
- site graphics
- blog theme
If you have a UVP, does it currently inform design and optimization decisions? Do your graphic designers and copywriters have it in front of them wherever they work? How about Marketing, does the UVP find its way into promotions so they’re not run-of-the-mill?
Let’s look at some random ideas from real UVPs, and brainstorm on how businesses could leverage them across a holistic site experience.
These are paraphrased and excerpted from real UVPs out there on the Web. [Disclosure: most of these come from present or past FutureNow clients.]
“…family owned and operated…” — Sure, this can differentiate. It would be cool to see this “family” concept cascading across the site design with family member bios, in the About Us section, and maybe even through some humor, e.g. ‘Help us settle a family argument by picking your favorite of our new product line.’
“…guiding clients through the admissions maze…” — I like the mental image of a ‘maze,’ so there are lots of ways that could be incorporated into various graphics through the site. And copy could play a part, too. Imagine a confirmation message that says, ‘Congratulations. You’re one step closure to making it out of the maze.’
“…enhance your relationships, finances, and spiritual life…” — 3 is always the magic number, so building these 3 aspects of life into a ‘trinity’ graphic showing the words and icons in perfect harmony could be very persuasive. And it would make sense to have site navigation reflect these as categories.
“…what if understanding men could be easy?” — Using the ‘what if’ approach can be very persuasive, so imagine how a good designer and copywriter could team up to build that theme across an entire site?
“…connect to a thriving community of designers…” — Being able to connect with a ‘thriving community’ of any kind is compelling, but how to express that and substantiate it? A ‘ticker’ could display every time a new member signed up for a community, or posted a comment, etc. And graphics could be used to further enhance that feeling of thriving community.
This was just a one-sided brainstorm, so perhaps not the best quality, but hopefully they spark some ideas as to how you can work your own UVP further into the fabric of your online business.
Leave us a comment with any examples of companies you feel are executing on this concept in an elegant way.
About the author
Brendan Regan is a Senior Persuasion Analyst. Prior to joining FutureNow, he worked in B2C online travel and B2B marketing. He likes to grok web design, user experience, and persuasive copywriting.
More articles from Brendan Regan
- Nobody wants to read your sh**!September 21st, 2009
- Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!September 18th, 2009
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November 16th, 2009
9:22 am
Good Post.
Since I tuned up my UVP I saw an improvement in add to cart orders.
What I also found out also is it also depends on how you lay out, over all text length and formatting are also important.
November 16th, 2009
11:04 am
very nice tips. Marketing is complex factor. One most important is, what is our proposition answering their problem. Is’nt it?
November 17th, 2009
2:35 pm
Nice say,Unique Value Proposition,UVP,comes with the confidence in your business,it may be self used for the betterment of your own business if not anything else.
November 18th, 2009
8:43 am
Hi Audio Bible !
I think you’ve got a great UVP – very clear, very strong.
What kind of percentage increase are you getting – compared to before or compared to a weaker UVP ?
November 19th, 2009
8:57 am
this is very nice.
November 22nd, 2009
8:59 pm
great post, very interesting topic about tips to Take our Unique Value Proposition to the Next Level
November 24th, 2009
9:38 pm
Thank for nice tip.
But it’s very difficult to make it.
December 1st, 2009
6:01 am
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December 19th, 2009
8:34 pm
Thank You,
Good Post
December 31st, 2009
11:17 am
Great resource -thanks for making it available.
January 1st, 2010
8:57 am
Since I tuned up my UVP I saw an improvement in add to cart orders.
January 2nd, 2010
12:19 pm
I know that a lot of people really hold family-run businesses very highly because they feel that they will receive better treatment. Thanks for the article, it’s certainly making me think a lot more about my own business.
January 5th, 2010
8:15 am
great post, very interesting topic about tips to Take our Unique Value Proposition to the Next Level
January 5th, 2010
8:16 am
very nice tips. Marketing is complex factor. One most important is, what is our proposition answering their problem. Is’nt it?
January 8th, 2010
10:29 pm
I have developed my own unique value proposition and found it isn’t easy bacuse I’m not copywriter.
January 9th, 2010
11:47 am
Authorativeness really related to UVP, it is very hard to convince people if they dont see you as somebody who knows your subject really well
January 15th, 2010
5:48 pm
What about this phrase… “i’m lovin’ it” or “What we’re made of..”
January 20th, 2010
2:00 pm
I know that a lot of people really hold family-run businesses very highly because they feel that they will receive better treatment. Thanks for the article, it’s certainly making me think a lot more about my own business.
February 1st, 2010
7:37 pm
Nice blog. I got a lot of effective info. I’ve been keeping an eye on this technology for awhile. It’s interestinghow it keeps varying, yet some of the core factors stay the same. Have you seen much change since Google made their latest acquisition in the area?
February 10th, 2010
1:21 pm
Unique value proposition is a new term for me,I think it’s new for many people.But your analysis is very nice.Thanks.
February 22nd, 2010
3:35 am
I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
February 22nd, 2010
5:03 am
Thank you for such interesting UVP criteria, love the example with know what men want
February 28th, 2010
2:41 pm
Great information. You have to make yourself look valuable in the work place. Great information I will use.
March 3rd, 2010
10:37 am
You are only worth what you think you are worth. You have to remember that if you dont believe in yourself no one will.
March 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
great post, very interesting topic about tips to Take our Unique Value Proposition to the Next Level
March 9th, 2010
5:46 pm
“Why should I do business with you and not somebody else?”
Simply brilliant, the one and only question!
March 10th, 2010
12:47 pm
It is very important to have confidence in your skills and abilities. You have to trust yourself first.
March 16th, 2010
10:59 pm
I think self-confidence and courage is very important.
March 19th, 2010
7:17 am
Those are very helpful tools/ideas for having a good value propositions. Thanks.