Literally all the successful companies you can think of right now at the top of your head have one thing in common — a clear and straight-to-the-point Unique Selling Proposition (USP)!
Essentially, your USP is that one factor that differentiates you from your competition and ultimately drives consumers to your brand over others. Let’s start this article hot by telling you that every single day, whether we notice it or not, we are exposed to 4000 – 10 000 ads in different sizes, formats and locations. Yup! That is a lot!
However, when you take into consideration how many businesses are out there on a mission to solve similar problems to similar audiences, that amount starts to make sense. Now you understand why finding your USP is absolutely critical, right?
When consumers are on the market for the products and services you offer, everything can appear the same to them, just different company names. Your goal is to not be in that crowd, but to stand out with a specific benefit that your competitors don’t commonly offer and by constantly pushing your marketing message while ensuring it reflects your mission, culture and values.
Let me demonstrate this using some of my personal favorites:
〰️ Apple | One thing about Apple that they continuously highlight the fact that they are all about convenience, quality and forward-thinking. Merely having the ability to instantly switch between devices while you are taking notes or on a FaceTime call is thee epitome of convenience and consumers are always willing to pay top dollar for anything that makes life easier.
〰️ Notion | If Notion started a cult, I would hop right in it with no questions. Why? Their Uniqueness, which has drawn over 30 million users, is how simple and easy-to-use their product is. It is used by project managers, creative freelancers, accountants, engineers and students — they provide consumers with all the necessary tools needed for organization, productivity and collaboration.
〰️ Canva | Another cult you can sign me up for! Their marketing message states, “Empowering the world to design” and honestly, they couldn’t be more accurate in their USP. Canva allows users with no design experience to create eye-catching presentations, websites, wedding invitations, brochures, social media templates… the list actually goes on forever!
Now, how can you also build success through your Unique Selling Point?
✷ Understand Your Audience
Get into the shoes of the people you are trying to talk to! Who are they? What are their challenges? What do they value? What would make life easier for them? Once you have painted that picture, it’s time for you to identify what you could do to help them in such a way that sets you apart from businesses in the same industry as you!
✷ Engage With Your Customers
Now, one thing I can tell you about your existing customers, they know your business very well — they are loyal to you for a reason. Find out from them through email or social media surveys what they love most about your brand and once you have that conversation rolling, let them open up about how you can improve the quality of your products/services and overall customer experience.
Related ☽ Your Guide To Creating A Lasting Impression With A Welcome Email Sequence
✷ Get To Know Your Competitors
How are you going to stand out if you don’t know what you are up against? It’s time to do some stalking! Make a list of businesses offering the same solutions as you — the big boys and the startups, they all have something to teach you. When you have your list, analyze what they do well and where they fall short. Using the data you collect from this, you can then find a gap in the market that you can fill as your USP!
✷ Keep Up With What Is Hip & Happening In The Market
Knowing and understanding trends is not the same as implementing them. To find your USP, you have to be aware of the trends but you do not have to play along. Keeping up with what’s happening in the industry can help you understand what people want and need. TikTok is one of the best places to find out about this because it is the house of consumers! Better yet, TikTok works as a search engine too so you can be pretty specific about what you want to understand and brainstorm ways to combat issues your target are faced with.
✷ Be For Real
Who you are as a business should be reflected in your USP! We are in an era where consumers appreciate transparency, honesty and real human connections. With that in mind, build your USP around satisfying these needs in order to build trust and loyalty with your people. So, while other brands are focusing on doing what they competitors are doing because they want to stay on the safe side, you can gain more traction by providing something out of the norm that people can find comfort in.
Hold on, I have more help up my sleeve… You can know what to do to be successful but how to do it can be a little challenging. So, let me show you some factors you can choose to focus on when deciding on what your Unique Selling Proposition will be →
〰️ Quality | Your product or service may be of higher quality than competitors, giving customers greater value for their money. Don’t forget to show them proof of this through testimonials, videos, tutorials and research.
〰️ Price | You may offer a lower price point than competitors, making your product or service more accessible to a wider audience. This is a trick used by OpenAI when they launched ChatGPT – they offered their service for free and in turn, made them stand out from other AI content producers!
〰️ Customer Service | Let me tell you something I found out from HubSpot Research, 93% of customers claim that they would make more purchases from businesses that have great customer service. Honestly, that just makes sense because excellent customer services makes your people feel seen and heard, that is super important!
〰️ What You Support | Naturally as humans, we are drawn to people that ‘speak our language’! Once you understand your audience, it’s easy to find out what movements the support and your USP should reflect that you also support it because what matters to them should also matter to you!
Before I let you go, remember that your Unique Selling Proposition has to be Unique in order for it to Sell! Make it clear and concise, easy to understand and relevant to what your target audience believes in. Once all is said and done, consistently communicate it in all your marketing efforts from your website to your social media to your audience!
Peachy Tangerine 