Creating a USP can help improve your profits
How can you make your business stand out from the rest of the competition? How can you draw prospective customers and clients to your brand? Well, aside from providing good quality products and services, you need to have a unique selling proposition that is strong enough to influence your target market's buying decision and drive them to take the desired action.
Enhance Your Bottom Line by Uncovering Your Company's USP
So, how do you start developing your unique selling proposition (USP)? While this may seem like a daunting task to some small business owners [3], crafting an effective USP can be a lot easier if you follow these simple suggestions:
Describe your biggest benefits. Pretend for a while that you are not the owner of your business and put yourself in your customers' shoes. What products and/or services does the business offer and how do these products provide customer satisfaction [4]? What does the target market want to achieve when using such products or services? List these things down and let your customers know why these benefits are important to them.
Be unique. Stand out by creating a buying criterion that clearly illustrates why your target customers need to patronize your brand and not those of your competitors. Why should your products and services be the most logical choice? Let them know the reason why.
Fulfill a need. Identify which needs go unfulfilled and use them in creating your USP. You can likewise use existing pains and performance gaps in drafting your USP. Just make sure your products and/or services deliver on their promise.
Provide solid proof. Most consumers are skeptical of the advertising claims most companies make so you will need to offer some solid proof.
After taking all these things into consideration, you are now ready to create your company's USP. However, to make sure it attracts your target market's attention, you may want to take note of the following suggestions:
- Keep it short. Some of the most effective USPs are not even one sentence long. Consider Domino Pizza's "Pizza delivered in 30 minutes, or it's free" and California Milk Processors' Board "got milk?". You get the idea.
- Convey a positive feeling. For best results, your USP should leave a great impact and a positive emotion.
- Promote emotional gratification. A powerful USP focuses on the results and benefits that can be derived from patronizing a particular brand.
- Leave some room for imagination. Add a touch of mystery by being a little vague. It helps.
So, are you ready to start creating your own USP? It's about time you do.