What's Special About You?
The term USP – Unique Selling Proposition was created by Rosser Reeves in 1961 in his book Reality Advertising, in it he stated that “The proposition must be one that the competition cannot, or does not, offer.”
Does your business have a Unique Selling Proposition? If you don’t you may be wondering why you need one, the answer is simple, setting and publishing your USP helps your ideal customer to understand what sets your business apart from your competitors.
In this blog post I’m going to share with you some top tips that will help you to put your USP together.
The benefits of a USP
In many ways, the issue of specificity in marketing and advertising is tied up with USP. Each time a highly specific claim is made uniqueness, as compared with the competitor, is created. A USP secures the status of a business as the head in their industry and that leads to greater loyalty from clients, greater profits due to margin improvement and greater client numbers – all massive benefits for any business.
It is interesting how in industries like clothing, furniture and hardware even a relatively minor unique, benefit-orientated difference between competitors can make all the difference as far as sales and industry dominance are concerned.
Making your own USP
When I talk about USP’s with my clients one of the most common responses I get is, “I offer the exact same services or products as my competitors, so how can I create an effective USP?”
The answer is to do your research. Look at the website of your competitors or businesses in a similar field. How do they position themselves that helps them to stand out from the crowd. Looking at brochures and other sales and marketing materials can help you too, what strap lines do they use in their marketing, this could be “we have 50 Five Star Google reviews”, “ we’re the only business in our sector to have won a Queen’s Award for Industry”, “We offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee (shows you are willing to back yourself).”
Armed with your research you now need to ask yourself two questions:-
- Is there anything you offer that they don’t?
- Is there a process that you do better than your competitors?
If there isn’t something that helps you to stand out, can you make a claim that sets you apart from your competitors? To make this stick you’ll need to be able to back it up with facts and figures, market research. If you’re the number 1 selling brand in your field being able to prove it will help give power to your marketing, advertising and sale process.
Some of the businesses I work with offer a guarantee and they use this as their USP. If this is a strategy you want to use them you need to come up with a powerful guarantee, you need to know what your customers want you to guarantee, and what you actually can promise. The idea here is to match your abilities with your customers’ wants. Often, it’s a good idea to over promise. You probably underrate you product or service anyway. If you think it’s good, why not promise that it will be great – it’ll make you pick up your act, and probably be more in lime with your current customers’ perceptions anyway.
Types of USP
When working on your USP it might help you to understand that there are three different types.
- Perceived USP – This is where the customer perceives a difference or uniqueness in the product or service you offer.
- Actual USP – As you’d imagine this is where there is an actual difference. So the “highest quality”, “exclusivity”.
- Created USP – this is where you create a difference where no real difference exists. But that you offer something that your competitors don’t. Domino’s Pizza has a great example of this, with their “Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s Free.”
Every business wants to stand out from the competition and having a Unique Selling Proposition really can help. Make sure you have an engaging hook that will help your potential client to take the next step and contact you. When it comes to putting a USP together I know that many business owners struggle to see why people would buy from them rather than a competitor. If this is you then book a 121 brainstorming session with me and let’s get started. Interested? Give me a call on 07952 112432, or Click here to send me an email.
