A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is what makes your product or service special. What element makes you stand out from your competitors? When you find that, you’ll be one step ahead of the competition.
Having a strong USP will give you plenty of advantages, especially in those competitive markets. In this article, we’ll cover how to create a strong, powerful, and compelling USP with excellent tips. We’ll also give you some examples to ensure you have a better idea of how the top companies have done it.
Understanding the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Simply put, the USP is the essence of what makes you better or more unique to your competitors. It’s a marketing and sales tool that people use to communicate to potential clients what makes them worth their time and money.
Whether you’re looking to boost e-commerce sales through email marketing or pop-ups, you must have a powerful USP if you want to succeed. It should clearly communicate a benefit that your competitors don’t have.
USPs play a huge role in marketing, as they ensure that companies can let clients know about what stands out at the heart of their business.
Components of a Strong USP
A strong USP should have the three following components:
- Clarity: Your customers have no time to lose, so your USP must be as clear as possible. The message must be strong, concise, and direct.
- Relevance: Why is your USP important? It should be able to provide a solution to a common problem people have.
- Differentiation: Your “USP” won’t do much if your competitors also have it. Remember, it must be something that makes you different from the rest.
Steps to Develop a Strong Unique Selling Proposition
Creating a powerful USP isn’t too complicated once you have the necessary tools in mind. With our five-step guide, you’ll have everything you need to create a compelling USP that helps you reach your target audience and get more sales.
Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience
Who are you building your USP for? This is crucial before we start working on the proposition itself. Your target audience (or customer persona) represents who your ideal client is based on people who have already bought from you.
Think about the characteristics that match your best customer, and that will help you identify your ideal client. Once you get there, you will get a better idea of how to craft a USP, which is amazing when trying to generate more leads.
Some strategies to identify your target audience include:
- Research your market.
- Consider the marketing channels you’re going to use.
- Assess the competition.
Step 2: Analyze Your Competitors
A competitive analysis is one of the best ways to gather all the information you need to become better than the competition. You’ll learn more about their products, marketing, and sales processes, ensuring you take their weaknesses and strengths and use them to your favor.
It’s possible to analyze competitors in different ways, depending on the industry you want to focus on. Some of the factors you must include in your analysis include:
- Features
- Pricing
- Marketing
- Differentiators
- Strengths/weaknesses
- Target audience
Think about the companies that best resemble what you want to do. These are the ones you should base most of your research on. When you do your competitor analysis, you’ll identify gaps and opportunities, which you’ll use when creating your USP.
Step 3: Assess Your Strengths and Weaknesses
While it’s crucial to look at what others are doing right and wrong, we can’t forget about ourselves. Remember to assess what makes you strong and weak, as this will help you work on your USP. When you identify your strengths, for example, you must leverage them to create your proposition.
By working on your weaknesses, on the other hand, you create more opportunities to refine your USP in the future.
How do you assess your strengths and weaknesses, though? There are plenty of methods!
One of the easiest ones is to consider customer feedback. What are people saying about your business? Both positive and negative comments will play a huge role in your strategy.
Another plan to consider is to do a SWOT analysis. It stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.” A SWOT analysis helps you understand your business from different perspectives. Although it may take you some time to get it done, it will give you a more comprehensive outlook on your strengths and weaknesses.
Step 4: Define Your Unique Value
Here’s when it gets good! Once you’ve gathered as much information as possible about your business, market, and competitors, it’s time to create your USP.
Remember, you must be clear and concise, but you can’t forget about being compelling too. Reflect on your personal and professional adventure on this part. How did you get to where you are? What are the values that define your business and its goals?
Articulate your USP correctly by being simple and specific. Use strong language, and be unique. You must focus on your benefits and nothing else. If you lose time talking about something else, you’ll likely lose the attention of some people.
There are many companies trying to stand out at the same time as you, so what will you do to become the best? The message that shines the most will be the winner, and that’s what your aim should be. Whether you’re setting up a SAAS business or any other industry, this strategy will get you to success.
Step 5: Test and Refine Your USP
You’re finished crafting your USP, but are you done with everything? Not really. If you want to be successful, you must test your USP from time to time to ensure that it still works. When it stops working, you must refine it so that it meets current standards.
There are plenty of ways to test and refine your USP, including:
- Surveys
- Ads
- Landing pages
- Customer interviews
- A/B testing
Remember to tweak your USP based on the results you get. Don’t forget to do this, as this is the key that will keep you successful for a long time.
Crafting Your Unique Selling Proposition Statement
Your USP statement is broken down into three parts:
- What your business does
- Who you do it for
- How you’re unique
You must describe what your brand does in a few words. It doesn’t matter if you go overboard at first. Write what comes to mind, and feel free to edit the result.
Once you’re done, you must describe your customer persona, which you should have by now. Finally, explain all the benefits that your customers gain by shopping from you or using your services/products.
Some examples of great USPs include:
- Nordstrom: “Nordstrom, Inc. is a leading fashion retailer offering compelling clothing, shoes, and accessories for men, women, and kids. Since 1901, we’ve been committed to providing our customers with the best possible service—and to improving it every day.”
- Nike: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.”
- FedEx: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
- Starbucks: “Expect more than a coffee.”
- Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less—or it’s free.”
Here are some tips for writing a powerful USP statement:
- Don’t be generic. Make sure that your USP doesn’t sound the same as your competitors’. Your USP should be memorable and concise.
- Write your USP by keeping your audience in mind. This will help you ensure that it resonates with your target audience. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it gives you excellent results.
USP Examples
Let’s get a bit more specific. Here are some Unique Selling Proposition examples that have revolutionized certain industries. These may help you get a better idea of how a few sentences can completely change how you perceive a business:
- Tech Industry: Apple – “Think different.”
- Retail Industry: IKEA – “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”
- Service Industry: WooCommerce – “The most customizable eCommerce platform for building your online business.”
What Lessons Can You Learn?
There’s no “specific” way to write a USP. As you can see, some of the greatest USPs are only one or two sentences long. You can show people what makes your business unique while being concise. All it takes is creativity and some time to think.
Of course, there are a few psychological factors that play a role in these USPs. If you know how to connect with people, you’ll be successful.
Implementing Your Unique Selling Proposition
How do you implement your USP once you have it? It’s time to get it into your marketing strategy.
If you have a website, for example, you have plenty of options to include your USP, including popups or notification bars. You can also use your landing pages or content to implement your USP.
Social media channels are also an excellent place for you to show your USP in a concise manner. Remember to be consistent across all your channels. Writing something different in each one will only confuse your public.
Once you’re done implementing your Unique Selling Proposition, make sure to monitor its progress, as this will be crucial to measure its success. Some metrics to watch out for include:
- Conversion rate
- Click-through rate
- Engagement rate
- Retention rate
- Referral rate
- Bounce rate
Conclusion
A USP is a “must” for any business. It’s not something you can set and forget. Give your USP some thought, and make sure to refine it every once in a while.
By implementing the tips we gave you in this blog post, you can create a more enticing USP that attracts your target audience.
On the other hand, you can start using smart platforms to connect with your target audience and generate leads. Sign up with Poptin today, and learn more about all the features it has available for you.
