Promoting your unique selling proposition (USP)

After you’ve spent time coming up with your USP, you’ll want to put it to good use, and milk it for all it’s worth.

Let’s say that after assessing your competition, it became clear to you that you’re the only locksmith in your area offering a ten-year guarantee. And let’s assume that having a ten-year guarantee is of great interest to your potential customers (if in doubt, test your proposed USP out on the kind of people you want to attract).

Putting your USP to work

Having decided to focus on your ten-year guarantee as your unique selling proposition, how do you put it to work?

Start by incorporating it into:

• Your tagline: If your business name is Hills Locksmiths, then your tagline (appearing under your business name and/or logo graphic) could be “Guaranteed security for ten years.”
• The look and feel of your branding: You might decide to create a graphic of an official seal with ’10 year guarantee’ and position it on your website banner, on the cover of your brochure, or at the side of your business card layout.
• Your email signature and voice-mail message: So many of us forget these ones, yet they’re so easy to implement and cost nothing.
• Verbal introductions: If you are at a networking event, introducing your USP is a vital component of engaging others and gauging their interest in what you do.

Want more articles like this? Check out the business marketing section.

Traps to avoid

The marketplace demands change. What is available from your competitors changes, as does your own business. When deciding on your USP and its promotion, remember that your tagline and general look and feel are easier to change with the times than your business name or logo.

Secondly, avoid saying “We are the only ones who…” even if you honestly believe it to be the case. There might be someone else out there who does offer this but doesn’t promote the fact, or maybe you just haven’t found them yet.

Furthermore, as soon as a competitor sees you are “The only ones who…”, they might think “Hey, what a great idea!” and start doing it too. And by the way, unless you’ve trademarked your USP in some way, it’s completely legal for them to do that.

The fact that you are offering it is special enough without you claiming to be the only ones that do. For now.

Whatever you do, ensure that your unique selling proposition is communicated simply and clearly and runs throughout all your promotional material.

How do you put your USP to work?