It’s unfortunate that there are so many corporations, entrepreneurs, minipreneurs and internet marketers who are investing heavily to market and grow their businesses yet they don’t stand a chance no matter what they do. Wouldn’t you want to know why you put so much effort into marketing your products, services or websites and continually seem to get far less return than you would expect is possible? Certainly anyone going through this frustration would, and that’s why it’s so important to understand what a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is and how it applies to your business. UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITIONIf you’ve ever chased venture capital financing for a business idea you or your team have had, you will understand what we mean by “your 30-second elevator pitch”. I recently attended a business ventures fair in our city. This is a twice yearly event where aspiring entrepreneurs get 30-seconds to pitch a roomful of venture capitals and angel investors on the merit of their idea. It’s tougher than most people could ever imagine, to organize all of these elements into a few sentences – 1. Your target market 2. The #1 benefit your product or service provides to your target market 3. A description of your product or service 4. What makes you unique in your marketplace Of course, you cannot deal with each of these criteria alone, your Unique Value Proposition must be based on an idea that includes all of the criteria above before you can develop your UVP. In other words, as you invent or re-invent (in the case of an existing business) your business, you must base that business on your UVP rather that trying to cobble it together after you have already launched. You can have the brightest minds in the world, the most savvy marketers and sales team, kick-butt products and services and even the hardest work ethic in your market, that all means NOTHING without a strong UVP. Even more deceptive is the fact that internet marketers or entrepreneurs can achieve some early success without a strong UVP fooling them into a false sense of business success all the while teetering on the edge of ruin as the competition closes in around them. WHAT IS A UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITIONIn all of the economics, business and marketing training I’ve been exposed to over the last twenty or so years, there is frighteningly little emphasis placed on the Follow

Along with their popular line of high-end networking equipment, Cisco Systems offers something else for Cisco.com visitors to buy: a line of Cisco-brand leisure wear and accessories, everything from wind breakers to golf balls. The only problem is, to see the line of logo-emboldened products, you need to first fill out a registration form. Yes. You read that correctly. Just to *see* the available products, you need to create an account by filling out the four-page, 45-question form. (You have to tell Cisco your job role twice, your job title once, and the language you prefer to speak 3 times — all in English.) Then, if you can find your way back to the online marketplace, you can see the selection of laser-light key chains with the Cisco logo. There are many great business advantages to having users create an account and log into the system. You know who is using your system, how often they visit, and what they do on the site. You can store information they might need later, such as their order history and their billing info for future purchases. And, you can offer them content and services reserved for only your best clientele. Yet, in usability test after usability test, we see the registration and sign-in processes to be consistently problematic. It’s the most common thing that scares users away from shopping on e-commerce sites. It generates the most calls to the customer-support call center. Designing an account registration and sign-in process that doesn’t frustrate users turns out to be very difficult to achieve. It looks easy at the outset, but a pile of subtleties can sneak up on your experience, making something that should be simple become stressful for the users. Here are 8 common design mistakes we often see as we watch users try to create accounts and sign into the site: Mistake #1: Having a Sign-in In The First Place It seems the reason Cisco requires you to log in just to see the golf balls for sale is not all products are available for the general public. Some are only for employees (who also get a nice discount). Some are only for certified Cisco engineers. To know what products and prices to display, the site needs to know who you are. Fortunately, most sites don’t take this approach. On most sites, you can do many things without identifying yourself. And, that’s the way customers like it. They hate having to create an account to do Follow