Your value proposition, and the second one your email list needs
The reason someone should buy from you, and a second reason to stay on your list. Most shops have a decent first one and a discount code where the second belongs.
- 146Value Proposition
- The unique value that your email content offers to subscribers, encouraging them to engage and convert.
- Two of them
- Why buy from your shop, and why stay subscribed to your emails
- Stated on
- The sign-up form, the product page and the first welcome email
- Not one
- A discount on its own, which is a reason to join once, then leave
- Different from
- A USP, which is only the part nobody else can claim
A discount is an offer, not a value proposition
Look at your sign-up form. If it says join for money off your first order, that's the whole deal. People take it, use the code, and have no reason to open anything after. Then the list learns to wait for the next one.
A value proposition for the list is what they'd miss if they left. Early access to new drops. Restock alerts before the public hears. Recipes, care guides, the founder's honest notes. Member prices. Something real, said on the form and delivered in the inbox.
Promising something at sign-up you can keep every week
| The form promises | So the emails have to deliver |
|---|---|
| First look at new drops | A real early window, before the public, every time |
| Restock alerts | A back in stock flow that fires the day stock lands |
| Recipes or how-tos | One in the first email, and one in most emails after it |
| Member prices | Prices the public site genuinely doesn't show |
The promise sets the frequency too. Promise weekly recipes and go quiet for a month, and you've broken it. Promise first look and send it to everyone at once, and you've broken it more quietly.
Testing your value proposition against your last few campaigns
Pull your last few campaigns in Klaviyo and read them as a subscriber would. Would anyone miss these if they stopped? If most are a product grid with a discount in the subject line, the honest answer's no. Your unsubscribe rate will say so before you do.
The fix is rarely a redesign. Decide what the list is for, say it on the form, and build the welcome flow to prove it in the first week. If a sale is all you've got to say this month, there are better things to send than a discount.
Related terms
FAQs
What can a sign-up form promise apart from a discount?
Something specific you'll deliver every time you send: early access, restock alerts, recipes, care guides or member prices. Say it in plain words beside the email field, and say roughly how often they'll hear from you. A first order discount can sit alongside it, but if it's the only promise, people leave once they've used it.
How do you write a value proposition for an online shop?
Start with who it's for, then what they get, then why it's worth the price against the alternatives. Write it as one or two plain sentences a customer could repeat to a friend. Then check every page and email against it. If something contradicts it, change the thing, not the sentence.
Why do people unsubscribe right after using a welcome code?
Because the code was the only thing they signed up for. Once it's spent, there's nothing left on offer. Give the list a reason to stay that isn't money off, say what it is on the form, and deliver it in the first two or three emails, before the code's been used.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, our founder.
We're all about relationships built on trust, mutual respect and a shared vision for success. If that sounds like your vibe, let's make some waves together 🌊
