Vote on a USP for ZapFlashAt Copy Hackers, we recommend most startups use their unique selling proposition – or value proposition – as their home page headline.

That’s because, when you’re a new business, visitors to your site need to be told what’s unique or different about you that they’d really like.

Why? Because they don’t know you yet.

Because they don’t know how to make sense of you yet.

And because they don’t know how to stack you against who & what they already know.

You have to help them – by clearly stating your USP on the page. For best results, ensure your USP covers these 5 points:

  1. It states what’s unique or different about you
  2. The thing that’s unique or different is DESIRABLE to your prospect
  3. It is specific, not a watered-down summary
  4. It is succinct (again, without losing specifics – yikes, right?!)
  5. It is more likely to be remembered than forgotten

Jaimie W at the soon-to-launch ZapFlash wrote to me with six – count ’em, 6! – ideas for the ZapFlash USP that she’d like to use as her home page headline. Here’s what she said ZapFlash is about:

“ZapFlash is a mass market product that makes smartphone photos beautiful. My target audience is people who upload their photos to Facebook.”

Got it? Cool. Here’s your Copy Hackers mission, should you choose to accept it..:

Help Jaimie Narrow Her USP Options

So She Can Split-Test the Winners

This exercise is a tad rough, but it’s a great way to narrow options. So…

Let’s pretend that, after seeing a great photo with “ZapFlash” on it on Facebook, you’ve gone to the ZapFlash site to learn more. Read the following and tell Jaimie whether she’s hittin’ the bullseye or missin’ the mark for you…

READ & VOTE ON OPTION A:

Writing a USP

 

READ & VOTE ON OPTION B:

Writing USPs

 

READ & VOTE ON OPTION C:

Value propositions

 

READ & VOTE ON OPTION D:

Unique sales proposition option

 

READ & VOTE ON OPTION E:

Value prop headlines

 

READ & VOTE ON OPTION F:

Value propositions

 

How Jaimie’s Target Audience Has Been Responding to the Options

The college kids are digging Option B, which promises “no more washed out photos of your friends in dark bars”.

Older women prefer Option E, which is the only option that messages ease. It’s also a very active, energetic headline – which feels stickier than the options that don’t lead with a verb (e.g., Option D).

Older men prefer Option F, which uses language that, although somewhat vague, speaks to a benefit and sounds a little like sportscaster and sports-drink lingo, if I do say so m’self.

Does that surprise you? Is it as you expected?

Tell me your take on it in the comments…