What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition?

By: John Elder posted in Internet Marketing

Hello good people!

I see it every day…my consulting clients ask me to look at their web site and tell them what I think.

I look…and I look…and I can’t really tell what the point of the site is. Sure it looks good…nice graphics…nice copy…whatever they’re selling is displayed to good effect…but something is missing….something….important.

That something is called the U.S.P. which is short for Unique Selling Proposition…. marketers all around the globe call this by slightly different names…but the point is, a U.S.P. is that ONE thing that makes you different than everybody else.

It doesn’t really matter what you’re selling, you need to come up with a U.S.P. and use that U.S.P. as the focus of all your efforts…make your web site about it, use it in ALL of your advertising, print it on your business cards, etc. etc. etc.

So what exactly IS a U.S.P.? Think of it as a benefit…the MAIN benefit that your product or service will give to a customer. But go beyond that….think of it as the main benefit that your product or service will provide, that no other company can provide.

There may be a hundred people selling the same item…but you might give 24 hour free tech support when no one else does….so maybe your free tech support is your U.S.P.

Maybe everyone else’s reduces acne in 72 hours but yours reduces acne in 36 hours…THAT would be your U.S.P.

I don’t know what you sell so I can’t say for sure…but whatever you sell, be it product or service, you MUST MUST MUST figure out what yours is.

Once you do, everything else falls into place. You know what to write about on your web site…what to focus your copy on…what to talk about in your advertising…how to open a conversation with a customer at a trade show…everything and anything becomes clearer once you define your U.S.P.

So here are some boilerplate U.S.P.’s to give you some examples of how to start…

Free Tech Support
Money Back Guarantee
Year Long Money Back Guarantee
Speed
Ease of Use
Free shipping

These are just a few very basic ideas…let’s imagine you own an online store that sells bath candles. What makes your store any different from one of the thousands of others out there, or even the big retail chains? If you don’t figure out what sets your site apart…you’ll never make a penny in this racket.

It might be that you bunch your candles in groups based on special occasions and the bundles are cheaper than if you were to buy them separately.

It might be that you offer a free aroma therapy music CD with all purchases….

It might be that you offer a candle of the month club of exotic candles…

Hopefully you start to get the idea…you ABSOLUTELY must have some hook…some UNIQUE thing that sets you apart….define that “thing”, figure out that hook…and you’re set.