When we pitch our product to our customers we tend to lead with our solution and this fails. Customers don't care about your solution but their problems. If you put yourself in their shoes, it's easier to see this. We are all customers after all of other products. We don't buy products solely for the underlying solution or technology but rather to solve a problem.
So the way to get the attention of a customer is not by pitching your solution but by nailing their problem. You do this with the use of a unique value proposition or a promise, which is the intersection of their problems with your solution.
To build an effective value proposition, you need to be as specific as possible and nail the customer's problem. The most effective way for doing this is by narrowing down your customer segment to initially only target early adopters. When you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one. Facebook is a great example of this: while fb today has almost every possible customer segment on the planet using their product, they didn't start out that way. They started out with a clear definition of their early adopter who happened to be a college student on the Harvard campus. They were able to focus their product and marketing solely around that segment. Only once they cracked that segment they expanded to others.
Much like traction is the thing that gets the investors' attention, the thing that gets customers' attention is your unique value proposition or promise. If you can nail your customers' problem with a big promise you can capture their attention, otherwise they simply leave.
e.g. Job board site: simply rigurgitating your features and benefits might get some attention, but leading with a bold headline like "We help you find your dream job in 60 days or your money back" is an example of a strong promise. While it doesn't say anything about your solution, if a job seeker reads it on the headline of a landing page chances are high that they want to learn a little bit more.