Three questions that will expose weak copy

Could this statement apply to other products or services?

A value proposition should be specific enough that it only makes sense in your context. “Help you and your users succeed” could work just as well on a SaaS website or on the site of a user researcher. If it can work on a different kind of website, it isn’t a proposition at all. It’s just a sentence.

Could a competitor make this claim?

If your direct competitors could copy-paste your headline and it would work just as well for them, it isn’t differentiating you. It’s just noise.

Would the opposite statement be ridiculous?

This is my favorite test, because it exposes just how empty a claim can be. If no company would ever say “We’re helping your users fail” or “We provide terrible customer service,” then the positive version isn’t telling anyone anything. You’re essentially saying “We are not actively terrible,” which is not much of a selling point.

Source: paul@boagworld.com