WHAT'S YOUR USP?
USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition
Your USP is the single most compelling reason why your prospect
should do business with you instead of your competition!
To market your business effectively
you MUST know your USP!
Now that it is spelled out so boldly, how much time and effort have you
actually invested in developing your USP? Maybe you already know your USP.
How effectively are you incoporating your USP into your marketing strategy?
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- THINK ABOUT YOUR ADVERTISEMENT
- Is it alluring enough to attract attention?
- Does it project a high-quality image?
- Does it make the prospect realize how much
they will benefit by doing business with you?
- Does it make the prospect choose your product
or service over your competitors'?
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If the answers to these questions are not YES, YES, YES and YES
then keep reading.
The USP was developed and practiced by the Ted Bates Agency, a prominent Madison Avenue advertising firm, in the 1940's and 50's. In the 90's, the
successor to Ted Bates is the New York agency, Backer Spielvogel Bates,
whose CEO is Kenneth Rogers. According to Rogers, your USP should:
- Motivate your prospect
- Convey product uniqueness
- Convey product identity
Another prominent practitioner of the USP discipline is Jay Abraham, reputedly America's highest paid consultant ($5,000 per hour). According to Abraham, your USP answers the question, "What's in it for your prospective customer?"
Says Abraham, "Your prospect only cares about the benefits that will accrue to them if they favor your product over your competition. They care little about how great your company is, or how long you've been in business. You have to give them a compelling reason to buy."
To be as compelling or persuasive as possible requires that you know your product's USP; that is, what sets it apart from your competition.
To determine that, we suggest you answering the following questions:
- What are the key features of my product?
- What are the key features of the competitive products?
- Which of my product's key features are truly different?
- If there's more than one, is one the most significant?
- How does that most important unique feature, or
combination of features, translate into a real benefit?
By answering those questions sequentially, the answer to question 5 will be your USP. It may be a single differentiating factor, or it may be a combination. Either way, it must have the characteristics identified above by Rogers and Abraham, and it must be:
- Simple
- Believable
- Communicable
The answer might have to be simple but finding the right answer isn't always easy. You already know your USP even if it's not obvious to you right now. It's your business who knows it better than you? That's where our exclusive Marketing Blueprint Developer comes in. Your USP is in the answers of the 35 simple questions we ask you.
Like in section 3
FEATURES - Describe all the great things about your product/service.
BENEFITS - Describe how that feature will improve your customer's life.
You'll attract the maximum number of customers when you offer a BENEFIT they cannot get from your competitors.
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FEATURES are about the product
BENEFITS are about the prospect.
For example: Let's say you are selling a Turbo
Charged Vacuum Cleaner that picks up more dirt
better and faster than the regular vacuum cleaners on the market.
The FEATURE is: "Turbo charged"
The BENEFITS are: It picks up more dirt, their house will be cleaner. It's faster, they'll have more time to relax or do something that they enjoy.
We hope you have reaffirmed that you have already identified your USP and are putting it to good use in your advertising or maybe you discovered a whole new USP and are thinking about your new marketing plan.
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DON'T KNOW HOW TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS?
NO PROBLEM!
Our Marketing Blueprint Developer consists of a set of 35 questions specifically designed to draw out the positive aspects of your business and give you the information you need to establish your USP
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Now you need to figure out your MWR (Most Wanted Response)
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