Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is your brand’s raison d’être or reason for being. It is the promise that will make your brand more valuable and more visible to its market. Writing a convincing USP is one of the first challenges to promoting your business, as it lays the foundation for all of your key messages.
To create a solid unique selling proposition that will draw in leads you must ask the following questions of your business:
- What is unique about your product or service offering?
- How do you differentiate your business from your competitors?
- What is different about your product or service and why should people buy from your organisation?
A USP is not about screaming ‘we have the best product’ in a noisy market. You’ll find no marketing success competing point for point with other established brands. Instead of playing a game you can’t win, change the game! Make a different promise – find your specialty and hone in on it, in all of your marketing.
1. Narrow your target audience.
Resist the urge to market to everybody. The reality is that only a segment of the consumer population will be interested in your service or product. Instead of marketing to everybody, zone in on your specific target market, your niche. Your USP is the perfect opportunity to cut to the chase. Identify the needs of this market in your messaging for a winning USP.
2. Keep it short.
You’ll be tempted to cram every one of your brand benefits into your USP but this will only do you a disservice. You want your USP to be remembered, so keep it tight. Start out by writing a list of all the benefits of your brand and then zero in on the benefit that you’re best at that your competitors aren’t focusing on.
3 Focus on the end result, not the feature.
How will your brand impact your customers in the long run? This is about more than just a unique feature, price point or delivery method – your USP should be about the positive end result for your buyers. If you can link your USP to an emotion you will strike marketing gold.
What are the top 5 things buyers need to know about your business? Is it excellent customer service, quality products, innovative design or fast order turnaround? Ensure these messages and your USP are in all collateral, on the web and even in sales proposals.
You’ve made the promise, now prove it!
Once you have developed your USP, it’s time to sing it from the roof top! Make sure everyone in the business understands why your business stands out from the rest. If your USP is focused on customer service or delivery it’s especially important that your staff understand the promise and can act on it. This is also a great time to develop your key messages, which will back up your brand promise with quantitative proof that you can deliver.
