In the marketing world, the USP is a very important concept because it allows us to reflect on our own potential and be able to capture the attention of your ideal customer!
What is a USP?
Reporting what is written in wikipedia we can say that.
The unique selling proposition, often as an acronym USP, which in Italian could be translated as exclusive selling argument, is a theoretical model of advertising operation formulated by Rosser Reeves in the 1940s.
According to this principle, an advertisement, in order for it to be effective, must focus on “a single selling argument” (Selling point), and by unique is meant a characteristic peculiar to a product that is not the preserve of competitors.
By leveraging a single logical reason why it would be worthwhile to purchase a product, it would be possible to eliminate dispersion risks and concentrate persuasive effort on a single selling proposition that the recipient of the advertisement would eventually remember over time and make their own.
The USP was formulated by Reeves by taking the Hard Selling[1] advertising philosophy of Claude C. Hopkins and was summarized in the following points:
- every advertising campaign must propose a benefit to the consumer;
- this must be such that competitors cannot offer it;
- the benefit must be so beneficial that it can drive millions of consumers to purchase.
Today, being unique is increasingly difficult because there are a variety of companies offering the any kind of product or service, and among them there could be the one you propose as well.
Speaking of e-Commerce, we could bring Amazon as an example. Would you be able to offer the same services and products and at the same time be competitive on prices?
Let’s take another example, Booking. Booking is the world’s most widely used search engine for booking accommodations. Would you be able to compete with such a giant by opening your own hotel search engine as well?
I don’t think it’s that simple, these sites were born several years ago, and in addition to the fact that they have managed to take an immense share of the market, they have managed to build customer loyalty. Anyone knows that a purchase on Amazon or a reservation on Booking is safe!
Trust in this field is everything, just get a bad reputation in the beginning and restarting the business becomes an increasingly complicated thing.
It may seem then there is nothing to be done. On the one hand we have price competition from the big giants, on the other hand we have the loyalty they have gained over time. But then what can we do?
The truth is that there will always be a place for people who have an innovative idea and know how to play their cards right.
In 2008 a small site was born in Chicago. Gradually it grew and started making deals with major U.S. cities to reach worldwide coverage within a couple of years. This company was able to turn down a generous offer from Google, which had come in offering nearly $6 billion.
Who am I talking about? The answer is Groupon.
If you think about it, Groupon is very similar to Amazon and Booking (after all, they both sell products) but the former was born long after these giants and they were able to buy their (more than) modest share of the market.
Their idea was not to go up against these big giants, what they did instead was to identify a need that was not being met at that time and offer to fill it.
So avoid saying you’re all things to all people, the Web is full of people proposing themselves with this formula, and choosing someone has become very difficult if we play on those terms.
How to find your USP?
To create a USP, there is no real rule. Because it is a concept that is very much about you and the product/service you offer.
Use your personality
The safest thing you need to do is to make sure that your personality is accepted by your customers. You certainly don’t have to change your personality for them, rather try to give free rein to your personality because it will allow you to better share the ideas that are going around in your head, why you started your site, and why you feel it is okay to have income from it.
People will be able to read that, both on your who we are page, but even more importantly from anything you produce, from the love you put into making things.
I, for example, did not choose all the people who Google the word “website creation” or the like, I chose only those who share my purpose, those to whom I can introduce myself without too many super big words and who in digital are always looking for human contact!
Look around you
What the Internet needs are willing people who want to improve the world they live in and find solutions that can help the end user in some way as well as themselves. Yes, that’s right, themselves. A good product comes from something that is useful first of all to ourselves. Only in this way can we know it to the fullest and be able to offer it to others!
For example, in my case: what would be the point of going around “selling” websites or related services if I didn’t have one, or even worse, had a useless and poorly manufactured site? ….
Identify your Target Audience
I concluded the previous advice by slightly introducing this. Knowing who your customer is is a key thing, we have already talked about how helpful this can be in creating your services/products, but knowing who you are selling to will be helpful in understanding, what they want and how much they can pay you.
As long as you are able to identify your audience, you will be able to focus on them and use your expertise to create what they need.
What if I don’t have a Unique Selling Proposition?
You may even be able to run your business without a USP but you are leaving opportunities aside that maybe someone else could take advantage of.
Promoting your business without knowing in detail about our potential customer and the value added, could cause you to be one of those workers who will do any kind of work just to make ends meet.
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