A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a description of the qualities of your business that are unique to your product or service and that set you apart in a direction that encourages potential customers to buy from you and not from your competitors.
Understanding your company's USP is where work on any business begins, not from creating a website or opening a legal entity. Creating your brand begins with a robust and unique selling proposition.
The main goal of a USP is to make it clear to the audience why they should buy from you. Make a simple statement that explains why you have a unique product and why it's the best choice for your customers.
Whether it's buying pet food or ordering a car with a driver, every potential buyer has a problem or a desire that your company needs to solve for him. In this blog post, I'll tell you where the USP concept came from, how to form it and mention unique selling proposition examples.
Crafting A Strong USP That Stands Out
Rosser Reeves, advertiser, copywriter, and the creator of the unique selling proposition (USP) concept in marketing strategy, identified three critical components of a successful USP: it should be concrete, unique, and efficient. If you want to develop a winning value proposition that incorporates all of these features, consider the following simple steps:
Know Your Audience
Before launching any marketing campaign, it's crucial to assess your target market and narrow your focus as much as possible. For instance, if you're opening an online store selling beauty products, target a specific group of customers instead of catering to a broad audience.
For example, focus on clients with sensitive skin and introduce specialized products that cater to their specific needs. By narrowing your target audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to address their unique needs, stand out from competitors, and create a better customer experience.
Analyze Your Competitors
A unique position is important to stand out from many companies in your sector. Specific benefits in your marketing message become a powerful tool. An essential step is to perform deep market research and conduct relevant surveys to identify similar products.
You must offer a unique value and that your competitors don't provide the same thing. For instance, let's say you offer bespoke mobile apps for small businesses focusing on affordability.
Could your competitor offer a similar service?
Possibly. However, they might offer premium, high-cost mobile apps with additional features that cater to large corporations. Your target audience is small business owners, while their target audience is large corporations.
This is why your unique selling proposition (USP) shouldn't contain generic phrases such as “best solution” and “high quality.”
Highlight Your Benefits
Describe the most significant distinguishing features of your business offer. In this step, use 3-5 differentiators of your company's products that should get you started. It's important that your prospective customers can receive these bonuses only from you!
What sets you apart from your competitors?
Think like your customer. Why these benefits should be important to buyers, and how they solve their problems. Finally, compare your benefits with those of your competitors.
Who's more enticing?
Be Specific and Clear
Describe the problem you are solving most effectively. Imagine yourself in the place of your ideal customers. It's even better if you are “in the know” and you understand what specific problems your potential buyer may experience.
When looking for a birthday present for someone, you have a problem–that is finding this present.
Test and Refine
– Did the car break down? So the problem is to buy a spare part.
Your effective business model should be focused on providing solutions for those problems.
After going from the first to the fourth step, you have already accumulated a lot of information. Now take all your notes and format them into one paragraph. Write down your thoughts, ideas, desires, and views, and prepare to receive your well-crafted USP in the next step. After that, take the resulting paragraph of text and fit it all into one sentence.
This is your USP statement that will attract the right customers. Yes, it may take a lot of time and a lot of brainstorming. But this compelling USP is often the first thing a client sees when they visit your site.
Additional Considerations for Crafting Your Unique Selling Proposition
Keep your USP Short and Simple
Canva is another great example of staying true to its USP. The graphic design platform allows you to create professional presentations, posters, business cards, and other visual content quickly and easily from templates, and this is displayed in every function of the service.
USP: Online design just got easier.
Promise What You Can Deliver
“You'll get a hot, fresh pizza in 30 minutes or for free” is a decades-old unique selling proposition from Domino’s Pizza and is one of the best in marketing history.
USP: Hot pizza in 30 minutes or free.
Look from the Client's Point of View
A vivid example of the unique USP, introduced by Reeves himself, is M&M's advertising campaign: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”–The concrete and unique benefit of M&M's sweets is brought to the audience–the absence of discomfort from melted candy shell and stickiness on your hands.
You should not chase and rush to create a unique selling proposition. Take a few days to prepare it. Discuss with relatives, friends, and colleagues, and ask for advice from suppliers if you have a similar business or perhaps us… more on that below
Unlocking Success
If you're an entrepreneur looking to build a successful business, it's tempting to want to be all things to all people. But the reality is that trying to chase every aspect of your chosen niche can often lead to failure.
Instead, the key to success lies in narrowing your focus and doing your job exceptionally well. By honing in on your niche and making your business unique, you'll become known for your standout qualities, setting yourself apart from the crowd and earning a stellar reputation along the way.
But how do you narrow your niche and create a unique selling proposition that is a clear statement? That's where Corethos comes in.
Our team of business development experts is here to help you craft a USP that will increase your company's profitability, contribute to the success of your brand, and ultimately bring you more loyal customers.
We'll work with you every step of the way to identify what makes your business unique and help you communicate that message to your audience in a way that resonates.
So why wait? Contact us today and let's build the USP for your successful company together.
