Less than 10 seconds is often what it takes for the average visitor to decide that they want to leave your landing page. (source)
This isn’t good news for affiliates, or marketers in general.
In other words, what it means is that your landing page has only a very short while to showcase your offer effectively and make it resonate with the visitor’s needs, ultimately ending up in a conversion.
The only way you can achieve this is via a clear and straightforward unique value proposition (UVP).
The Secret of UVP
The first rule to keep in mind is that a good UVP should be centered around the visitor, not around the offer.
It doesn’t matter what specific elements the offer has, or what bonuses there are. What matters is what all of this means for the visitor.
Make your UVP actually talk about them, as opposed to talking about you.
The Main Elements of a Good UVP
The UVP you’re presenting should focus on:
- Conveying the value quickly. (Remember, only 10 seconds.)
- Pointing out what’s unique about the offer.
- Focusing on the benefits.
- Talking about the needs and pains of the visitor, and the solution.
- Staying fact-only, and not using meaningless phrases like “the best on the market.”
- Using the language that the visitor would use. No jargon or otherwise disconnected expressions.
Spying on Your Competition
Being up-to-date with what your competition is doing is always a good idea, regardless of what you want to use this knowledge for.
This isn’t different for UVP either. Check what the UVPs of your direct competitors are, what’s good about them (and what’s not), what you can mimic, and what you should stay away from.
Coming Up With Your UVP and Tuning Your Landing Page
You can showcase your UVP in a couple of ways:
Start with a short headline that conveys your UVP in less than two seconds of reading time. If your headline is too complicated or too long, people will get confused and not convert.
Add a supporting headline that you can place either before or after the main headline. The goal is to precondition the visitors. In short, after reading your supporting headline, the visitor should know whether or not the offer is for them.
Use bullet points to showcase the top benefits and features of the offer. This is where you can address the pain points and present a solution.
Now take all these three elements and place them on your landing page above the fold if possible. Remember, you only have 10 seconds, so you want to avoid forcing the visitor to scroll at all costs. The less they have to do, the better.
Make Sure the UVP is Visible on Other Pages Too
If you’re embedding any type of signup forms or whole iframes on your site then you should also make the UVP visible on other pages throughout the conversion funnel.
A big percentage of visitors will always abandon the checkout process mid-way and not end up converting. Therefore, constantly displaying the UVP, reassures them that they’re doing the right thing by taking advantage of the offer.
You can do this in the sidebar of your site, for example:
Keep Split Testing
To some extent, UVP is just like any other element of a successful website. You can split test it similarly to your call to action buttons, form fields, or anything else.
Try switching around the main elements of your UVP (headline, supporting headline, bullet points), as well as using alternative versions of those elements.
It’s very likely that perfecting your UVP will bring much better conversions than focusing on simple things like the appearance of your buttons or affiliate links.