Uncovering
Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
By Susan Young, President, AimFire Marketing
October 2007
Many of
you have heard of the acronym USP
in the marketing world. Your USP – and every business should
have one – is the statement that answers the question, “What
is it that you offer that your competitors do not?”
If
you are not using your USP in your marketing activities, you are
failing to differentiate your business from your competitors.
Why, then, would they buy from you?
Here
are some common ways you can create a USP for your business:
-
Price
(higher or lower)
-
Above
and beyond customer service (must explain)
-
Convenience
(location, ordering, etc.)
-
Product
features or benefits (patented process or material)
-
Guarantees
-
Innovation
(nothing like your product or service out there)
Now, print out this page and write your own USP statement.
Your USP Statement:
___________________________________
offers _____________________________
(my
company and/or my product or service)
(target audience)
_______________________________
so that they can ________________________.
(your
unique offering or feature)
(benefit gained)
Examples
to get you started:
Walmart,
a neighborhood retail store,
offers price-conscious Americans
every day low prices on the goods they need so that they
can save money.
Baskin
Robbins
offers ice cream lovers around the world pink spoon samples
of any of its 31 flavors of ice cream at no cost so that
they can enjoy the fun, flavor and variety of their
old-fashioned ice cream treats.
Benjamin
Franklin Plumbers
offers people frustrated with plumbing providers in the past
a guarantee that their plumbers will arrive on time or they
will pay you $5 per minute so that they can take
advantage of their valuable time.
Susan Young is
president of AimFire Marketing, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based marketing,
public relations, website development and search engine
optimization firm that works with
growing companies to implement effective marketing
communications programs. You
can contact Susan and learn more about Aim Fire Marketing by
visiting www.aimfiremarketing.com.
Copyright
- AimFire Marketing. You can reprint this article on your
website or eNewsletter by including this statement and the above paragraph.
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