There’s a whole host of things needed to run a successful business. From products to customer service and everything in between, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks and get left out.
One thing that you definitely don’t want to neglect is your unique selling proposition. Here’s what you need to know about creating a specific benefit to the customer for your business:
What Is a Unique Selling Proposition?
A unique selling proposition (USP) tells potential customers about your business in terms of what you offer and what sets you apart from everyone else in your sector. A company’s USP isn’t necessarily the same thing as a slogan, but it can technically be used as one. A successful USP should be more detailed than a simple slogan by containing a promise to your customers and the value that you provide them.
A strong USP should have an assertive and detailed perspective. At the same time, it shouldn’t be too lengthy or in-depth. It needs to have clarity and focus on your audience regarding who they are, what they’re looking for, and what they care about. It needs to be memorable and defensible.
Why Do You Need a Unique Selling Proposition?
Your marketing campaigns need a unique selling proposition to compete in a crowded market. Often, customers often make a purchasing decision based on a small amount of information within your blog or landing pages. Your unique selling proposition could be the deciding factor that drives them to choose your company over the competition.
How to Create a Unique Selling Proposition?
Here are the six steps that you need to follow to create an effective and unique selling proposition:
1. Identify Your Target Audience
The first step to creating your company’s USP is to identify your target audience. You will be writing your unique selling proposition for this group specifically, so it’s beneficial to identify this group from the get-go. Hopefully, you have an established marketing strategy that has already identified your target audience.
If not, then you’ll need to start from scratch. To identify the right target audience for your brand, you may want to start out with market research. From there, you can analyze your existing customers through social media profiles, websites, email lists, etc. If you’re feeling stuck, you could also take a look at the audiences of competitors.
While it may be tempting to go for a broad approach when it comes to identifying your target audience, this may not be the best idea. Instead, it’s important to get specific as well as go beyond basic demographic information like age, gender, location, etc. Go deeper to create a detailed customer persona that includes information like interests, goals, pain points, motivations, etc.
2. Explain What Problem You Solve
The second step to creating your unique selling proposition is to explain what problem you solve. Customers buy products to solve their problems — no matter how seemingly small they are. As a result, you need to make it clear to your audience what your product does and how it will improve their lives.
Obviously, your product doesn’t have to be completely life-changing in order to be effective. Instead, focus on what it can actually do for your customers in both concrete and abstract arenas. Oftentimes, brands are selling more than actual products — they’re selling images and lifestyle ideals as well.
3. Explain What Makes You Different From the Rest
The third step to creating your unique selling proposition is to explain what makes you different from the rest. It’s not enough to just say what you do because odds are there are tons of other brands out there that are doing something similar. If your audience isn’t sure of what sets you apart from the competition, they may simply choose your competition over you.
In order to effectively poach customers from the competition, you don’t necessarily have to drag them. Instead of focusing on their weaknesses, focus on your strengths for a more positive approach that will impress customers. For this step, you should be able to come up with a shortlist of three to five different benefits.
4. Make a Promise to Your Customers
The fourth step to creating your unique selling proposition is to promise your customers about the products and services you offer. You can use some of the benefits listed in step three to come up with a realistic promise that you intend to keep. This information doesn’t have to be explicitly written into your unique selling proposition, but it should be incorporated to a certain extent.
5. Integrate and Refine
Now it’s time to integrate everything that you’ve come up with so far into a short paragraph. If you come across any similar ideas, which you should, you can merge them together. Be sure to focus on transitions and creating a short paragraph that flows well and makes sense.
6. Condense and Finalize
Finally, it’s time to condense your statement even further from multiple sentences into a single sentence. Your unique selling proposition should be short, sweet, and to the point. At the same time, you want to be detailed and specific. This can be a hard balance to achieve, which is why we are going to discuss some great examples to give you a better idea of what this looks like in practice. Your ads do this when you add a tagline.
Unique Selling Proposition Examples
Here are a few examples of unique selling propositions that are incredibly well-done and have been proven effective:
- Tiffany & Co., the jewelry company’s unique selling proposition, is “The Right One Is Worth Waiting For.” Essentially saying that the right partner and the right ring (theirs) are worth waiting for.
- Robinhood, the first mobile investing app to offer commission-free stock trading, promotes its mission of providing “Investing for Everyone” within its unique selling proposition. They are promoting an accessible and simple investing method that doesn’t require a finance degree to understand.
- Warby Parker, an eyeglasses company’s unique selling proposition, is “Try 5 Frames at Home for Free.” This sets them apart from the competition and essentially promises their prospective customers that they will easily find the right pair of glasses while shopping online.
- Ben & Jerry’s, an ice cream company’s unique value proposition, is “We Make the Best Possible Ice Cream in the Best Possible Way.” While this may seem quite general, they go on to describe what makes their ice cream different. Meanwhile, they already have the brand recognition needed to back up the claim of the “best possible ice cream.”
- Airbnb, an online home rental and travel company’s unique selling point, is “Book Unique Places to Stay and Things to Do.” This shows off the fact that you can book unique stays on the platform in things like treehouses, yurts, windmills, RVs, and everything in between.
Final Thoughts on Unique Selling Propositions
You don’t have to be a marketing expert in developing a strong unique selling proposition for your online advertisements or your content marketing, but it helps give you a competitive advantage! Greg Gillman can help you develop the best statement and put it in the best locations to grow your business and achieve success exponentially.
Sources:
Unique Selling Proposition (USP) | Entrepreneur
Creating a Buyer Persona for Your Business | AllBusiness
Eight Key Strategies to Overcome Your Competition and Stand Out in a Crowded Market | Forbes
