Set yourself apart to attract your favorite clients
Arguably, the unique selling proposition (or USP in fancy marketing jargon) is the most important aspect of your business. In a sea of professionals offering services, what makes you different from the rest? What makes you the best option for me?
I like to illustrate what USP is by having you imagine standing in the cereal isle at your grocery store. There are literally hundreds of brands screaming to get into your cart, your belly, and, ultimately, your wallet.
How do your decide which cereal will make it to the preverbal finish line? Well, here are some factors:
- Value - we are looking for something to nourish our bodies well while not paying more than the value we expect to receive.
- Packaging - is the look and feel of the brand packaging in line with our values and preferences?
- Taste - of course we want to enjoy what we are spending our money (and calories :) ) on, right?!
- Promotion - likely something has spurred our curiosity and has led us back to this decision stage. We have major FOMO (fear of missing out) on the latest, greatest, even healthiest offerings. We see campaigns through digital and traditional media inundating us with why we NEED this brand (of cereal), so we consider giving it a shot.
How can you establish yourself as a stand-out cereal?
GREAT question!
Your unique selling proposition is one statement that describes your brand in a way that sets you apart from the competition. It’s not you a tagline, website headline, or mission statement, it’s something you can hang your hat on in your business to utilize in each interaction and move it makes.
What IS THE RECIPE FOR A GREAT USP?
- Make it memorable and original. Be authentic and assert your expertise.
- Cater your USP to embodying the needs of your persona/avatar client
- Ensure that everything in your business leads back to your USP and use it in every piece of interaction that you can!
A good way to get going is to think about what the customer is looking for and how your service/product has a unique and different approach to solving their desired outcome. It may not be the end product itself, instead it may be the journey to get there, the special touches you place along the way... either way, in the end, it will be about the limbic response (or how the customer feels) about the transaction.
Here is an example of how I developed my USP at CANVANA
- Through a lengthy research process, I learned that, for a while, people were looking to courses or Google to solve marketing problems. I was all set to make my processes into courses when I recognized the course fatigue that was plaguing my potential clients. Instead, I started a community as a safe and quick place to get the exact answers that budding (and seasoned) business professionals were seeking at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-on "done-for-you" marketing pro.
- I also saw that helping the client be prepared for a full-on "done-for-you" marketing pro, when needed, made clients feel like they are better prepared and feel that time (and $$$) are more effectively spent after spending some time in their own brands. I created workbooks that take my clients through the process as a package for a full marketing experience or singularly for specific facets of marketing.
I was inspired by the book Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (blueoceanstrategy.com) described as "the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to open up a new market space and create new demand. It is about creating and capturing uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant. It is based on the view that market boundaries and industry structure are not a given and can be reconstructed by the actions and beliefs of industry players."
In other words, focus on the great things that make your product / service stand out from the rest without giving the feelings of competition.
HERE ARE A FEW ideas TO really DIAL INTO YOUR USP:
- Make a list of everything that unique to your brand; keep it simple
- Help identify your stand-out features by researching what would usually be your competition's offerings (stik to the Blue Ocean in your thinking)
- Identify the direct matches to your persona's wants / needs. Dig into the analytics and data that provide in-depth insight into the minds of consumers
- Be authentic! Don't bolster the products or services that are still in the idea stage. Instead, ensure that the featured items are fully developed and ready to market.
Since you have (hopefully, but if not you can by visiting canvanastudio.com/freebie) identified your persona, it should be easy to align everything to your audience. It's ok that this USP is so established that it won't appeal to all audiences, you don't want to have to sort through all of the cold leads to fins thse precious warm leads.
Now, with a clear USP, it will help you in promotion your product / service as well as simplifying the options when it comes to choosing your company to do business with and trusting to carry through with your promises.
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