In today’s competitive market, it’s essential to do more than simply launch a great product. You need to sell the core value of that product, ensuring that users fully understand what it can do for them and why it’s worth using. The most successful companies not only build innovative products but also communicate their unique value effectively. Here, we’ll explore proven techniques for conveying your product’s core value, helping users appreciate its full potential and making sure they continue to engage with it.
Start with a Clear Value Proposition
Your value proposition is your product’s elevator pitch—it should be concise, compelling, and crystal clear. A well-crafted value proposition answers three questions for the user:
What does the product do?
What problem does it solve?
Why is it better than the alternatives?
Take Airbnb’s value proposition as an example. “Belong Anywhere” isn’t just about booking accommodations; it’s about creating a home away from home, providing users with unique, personalized travel experiences. This taps into an emotional need—belonging—which makes the product much more than a room rental service. It positions Airbnb as a community-driven experience rather than just a transactional platform.
A great value proposition should:
Solve a specific problem: Users need to understand how your product directly benefits them.
Be different from competitors: Highlight your unique selling point.
Speak to your target audience: Tailor your message so it resonates with your ideal users.
By crafting a clear value proposition, users immediately see what your product stands for, making it easier for them to understand why they should invest their time and money in it.
Leverage Storytelling
People relate to stories far more than they do to facts or statistics. When you use storytelling in your product’s narrative, you’re not just explaining what it does—you’re painting a picture of how it can change the user’s life. This technique was used effectively by Slack. Instead of positioning themselves as another team chat tool, Slack told a story about boosting productivity and making team collaboration simpler and more enjoyable.
For instance, in Slack’s launch video, they showed how a disorganized company could transform into a streamlined, efficient team just by switching to their platform. This resonated deeply with businesses that were overwhelmed by email chains and scattered communication tools. By focusing on outcomes (more productivity and collaboration), Slack created an emotional connection with its users.
Pro Tip: Build your product story around your customer’s pain points and show how your product solves them. Make the user the hero of the story, with your product as the solution that saves the day.
Educate Through User Onboarding
When users first interact with your product, they should quickly and easily understand its value. This is where user onboarding plays a vital role. If your onboarding process is smooth, intuitive, and demonstrates your product’s core value within the first few minutes, you greatly improve your chances of keeping that user engaged long-term.
A great example of this is Duolingo. Duolingo’s onboarding process is gamified, providing immediate feedback, fun rewards, and a sense of progress right from the start. This approach makes users feel accomplished even during their first interactions with the app. By highlighting how quickly and enjoyably they can learn a new language, Duolingo showcases its core value—easy, fun, and effective language learning.
Key Onboarding Tips:
Show value quickly: Highlight core features and benefits early on.
Keep it simple: The onboarding process should never overwhelm the user.
Encourage progress: Like Duolingo, provide small wins that keep users motivated to explore further.
By making users see how your product benefits them immediately, you increase the chances they’ll stick around and become regular users.
Create Urgency and Exclusivity
Creating urgency and exclusivity taps into a psychological principle known as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). When users feel like they might miss out on something valuable, they’re more likely to take action. Spotify, for example, often uses limited-time offers to push users to sign up for premium subscriptions. By making it clear that the free trial or discounted offer won’t last long, Spotify compels users to act immediately rather than delaying their decision.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, underscored the importance of staying ahead of the curve when he said: “In business, what’s dangerous is not to evolve.”
This highlights the idea that businesses should not only create urgency for users but also continuously evolve their offerings to keep up with changing user needs. Failing to innovate leads to stagnation, and in a competitive market, this could mean losing out to more agile competitors.
By leveraging urgency and exclusivity, you can prompt users to take immediate action and engage with your product before the opportunity slips away.
Utilize Social Proof
People trust what others say about a product more than what a company says about itself. Social proof — like customer testimonials, reviews, and case studies—provides validation that your product is valuable. Apple has mastered the use of social proof by regularly showcasing how its products are used by top professionals and creatives in the fields of photography, music, design, and more. These user stories serve as powerful endorsements, making potential customers feel more confident in choosing Apple products.
Social proof works because it reassures users that others like them are benefiting from the product.
As Steve Jobs once said: “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
This applies to how users perceive product value. By presenting your product in a real-world context with credible endorsements, you help users understand its worth and make an informed decision to use it.
Simplify the Product Experience
A product that’s easy to use and understand will naturally demonstrate its value faster. Complex interfaces or convoluted workflows can alienate users before they even get to experience the core benefits. Simplicity ensures that users can quickly grasp what your product offers without frustration.
Google is an excellent example of simplicity done right. From day one, its interface has been clean, minimalistic, and easy to navigate. There’s no learning curve—users instantly understand how to search and find information. This simplicity has been a key driver of Google’s success, as it removes any barriers between the user and the core value of the product: fast and accurate search results.
Key Rule: Streamline your product’s interface and remove unnecessary features that don’t contribute to its core value. Users should never feel confused about how to extract the product’s benefits.
Techniques to Make the Value Stick:
Show, Don’t Tell: Give users the opportunity to experience the product’s value firsthand through demos or free trials. For instance, Dropbox gained early traction by offering free storage space, letting users feel the convenience of cloud storage before asking them to pay for additional space.
Focus on Benefits, Not Features: Instead of listing technical specs or detailed feature descriptions, focus on how your product improves users' lives. For example, instead of saying “Our app has a cloud-based infrastructure,” say “Our app keeps your data safe and accessible from anywhere.”
Keep Reminding Users of Your Value: Just as Netflix continuously updates its content and sends personalized recommendations, you should keep users engaged with regular updates and reminders of how your product benefits them.
Selling the core value of your product requires a blend of clarity, user education, emotional engagement, and continuous validation. By implementing these strategies, you can ensure that users not only understand the true worth of your product but also feel compelled to keep using it.