At MacMartin, we have helped many businesses attract more clients and drive their companies forward through help of expert digital marketing and professional web design. One of the strongest marketing assets each business has is their USP (Unique Selling Point). This will be the one or a few aspects of your company that will set you apart from your competitors and allow you to carve a niche into the market. If you don’t know yours yet, it’s time to work it out! Here are 5 tips that will help with creating a unique selling point.
1. Identify your customer
Creating a unique selling point starts by identifying who your target audience are. What issues are your customers looking to solve? What need can your products and services meet? Start by analysing your target demographic and try to narrow down their age group, lifestyle, common traits, hobbies and interests. This will help you identify their needs and from there you can figure out how your business can meet them.
2. Research the competition
In order to create a unique selling point, you need to know whether your business is truly unique, so researching the competition is a crucial step. While you may find that your competitors offer similar products or services, it doesn’t mean they always deliver on what they have promised. So just because there are similarities between your business and theirs doesn’t mean you need to completely restructure your entire company. Is there anything you can do better than your competitors? Perhaps your offering tailors to a different demographic or offers additional extras that theirs doesn’t? Remember to keep your target audience in mind as you are researching other companies on the market.
3. Know your strengths (and weaknesses)
As you’re creating a unique selling point, it is useful to perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. This will help you identify what you’re already doing well, what might be your downfall, as well as areas for advancement and threats that may hinder your success.
For example, your service may be more thorough and offer more value than a similar one provided by one of your competitors, but yours might cost more, which could be seen as a weakness by some customers. Performing such analysis of your business will help you place emphasis on the value of your service as your USP instead of the aspects that may deter customers.
4. Analyse the market
Creating a unique selling point doesn’t mean that it will stay the same forever. It’s important that, as you are narrowing down your USP, you are actively researching industry trends and you keep doing that as you move forward with your business. This will help you keep up with consumer demand and get ahead of the curve in your sector.
5. Have a clear definition
So, now that you have figured out your USP, you need to put it in a simple sentence that makes it easy to understand and resonates with your customers. If you find you can’t do that, this is where you need to go back to the drawing board and be more specific about what it is you can offer that other businesses can’t. Here are some great USP examples:
‘’We’re number two. We try harder.’’ – Avis
This USP from a used car company is a great example of turning a negative into a positive! Don’t be afraid to add a bit of humour and word play in your USP.
‘’You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.’’ – Domino’s Pizza
This is another example of a clearly summarised USP that tells you exactly what you can expect from the company, highlighting their strengths.
‘’World’s strongest coffee.’’ – Death Wish Coffee
This USP perfectly highlights who the company is targeting. While other coffee roasters may cater to people who love a smooth, velvety coffee, Death Wish is clearly aiming for coffee lovers who love an extra strong cup of java. It’s a bold statement and it works for their USP.
Want your business to connect with your target audience?
Contact our friendly team of marketing professionals today – we cater to all of your marketing needs from website and user experience design to social media marketing, graphic design and content creation.
