When trying to figure out how to successfully market your fledgling enterprise on a shoestring budget building your home-based business can seem like taking a trip to Mount Everest.
You probably are a bit fearful of gambling your money on expensive marketing campaigns that may or may not work. So you have chosen, wisely, I might add to try online marketing. I say wisely because even though it can sometimes be hard to understand and implement it’s actually the most cost effective marketing system currently available. But, to get the biggest return on the time and money you’ve invested in making it work you need to develop your Unique Selling Proposition or USP.
This is actually true regardless of the type of media you choose to market your business. To say developing a strong USP is a key component in successfully marketing your business would be an understatement. Why . . .? Creating a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the key ingredient in getting noticed by your target audience. Unique Selling Proposition is a worldwide term for setting your business apart from others. It says what’s unique about your business and let’s potential customers know why they should pick you over all the other screaming voices yelling “Pick me! Pick me!” right alongside you.
Do you have a USP, do you know how to create one? If you’re like many home-based business owners you probably don’t have a clue how to determine your unique selling point. But it’s important to figure it out because in business terms, it’s very much like being unaware of your own identity. Establishing a USP is the focal point around which the success of your company and the sale of your products and services are built. That’s why it absolutely needs to be stated clearly, delivered honestly and fulfilled honorably and effectively, every time, all the time.
To be most effective it is always offered in terms of what the benefit is to your customers. It also needs to be positioned or stated in a way that will ring true within your targeted market place to potential customers and be accepted by them at every level.
While anyone can claim to have created a Unique Selling Proposition, the real test, of course, is making a USP that is actually effective. So how do you know when you have nailed it? That’s easy . . . when your business is the first thing that pops into your customers mind when they hear it, or when they need the type of product or service you are offering. It means they’re remembering you and your business in the best possible way, the way you want them to. It also means it’s extremely important that you make sure your USP really represents your business.
Developing a good USP (or tag line as some call it) will set your product or service apart from the “also rans” in your market. To do that however, It has to create the impression of both indirectly as well as directly answering the 10 million dollar question: what makes my product better, different and more desirable than anyone else? In other words why should I buy from you? And your answer, your USP has to be accepted by your potential customer as being a credible statement. That means get rid of generic statements like “we are the best …or we are number one;” unless of course you are number one and can prove it!
Avis says they’re #2 in the car rental business, “because they try harder” Hertz says they’re #1 – they have the statistics to prove their claims – Papa John’s claimed to “make a better pizza” turns out he couldn’t prove it at all. Domino’s Pizza sued him for false advertising and he wound up defending himself by saying his claims were “puffery” that’s legal speak for promotional statements and claims that express subjective rather than objective views, which no “reasonable person” would take literally. In other words, it was just a bunch of hype. That is not a situation you want to be in, where you can’t back up your claims and have to back track on your USP and lose all credibility.
Aside from being catchy, a USP must be memorable and thought-provoking, if possible.
- Fresh Hot Pizza in 30 Minutes or it’s Free
- When You Absolutely Positively Need it There on Time
- It Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking
- Now That’s Easy
I bet when you looked at each of those statements you immediately though of a specific company, and what they had to offer – Dominos Pizza, FedEx, Timex & Staples each of these companies clearly understood their market, their product or service and what they have to offer their prospects and have been able to build huge business empires because of it despite competition and fluctuations in the economy.
Take a good look at those USPs each proposition is clear, attainable and unpretentious. They get the attention of potential clients because they answer the question. They tell the client what’s in it for them and they do it in a way that can be accepted as believable. When you can figure out how to do that for your business you’ll be well on your way to home-business success.
Loading ...