Nine Ideas For Developing Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Do you know your USP?  Many people struggle with this as they not think they have anything to offer their customers.  They ask themselves, why should people do business with me and not somebody else. What does your family and friends tell you that you are good at?  Maybe you are a great writer, speaker, or you have had prior selling or marketing experience from a previous job.  What ever it may be, package it and develop your brand, "YOU INC." I am going to give you 9 ways to go about answering these questions. 1. What are you really selling? My USP is The Social Media State Trooper.  There are a few social media experts out there that I wanted to put my own spin on it.  I am a retired Maine State Trooper and am branding myself by telling my story. A few examples of these are:

• Wal-Mart sells bargains:  Roll back the prices
• Airlines sells friendly service
• Revlon sells hope

An Italian restaurant owner who is known for a quiet place for romance, how to keep your spouse happy, especially on Valentine's Day.  Even though the food may be great, it is known for a place for reconnection. You need to know what you are selling 2. What do they dislike about the "other company?" What do people hate about your competition?  Is it customer support, not enough engagement (social media), are they always pushing their MLM and products onto them, or they are not creating great content and solving their problems. Do some research and find out what the consumers in your niche hate about the other guy.  Whatever it may be, address it, be the opposite of it and advertise THAT as your USP. 3. Create a club for them. If you are generating great content and are attracting customers to you, then create a membership for them.  You do not need to go hog wild on the pricing, keep it low key.  Make it a preferred members club. Have them either prepay or offer them a financial incentive.  Give them special pricing and bonus coupons in exchange for great content, How To Videos, E-Books, etc.  Help them solve a problem. There are so many people that do not know Facebook well enough to use it as a business tool.  So I am in the process of developing a social media membership site for them.  Not only is it just about Facebook, but the other social media platforms.  There will be modules on how to create your social media plan, develop your USP, and niche, as well as creating your marketing funnel.  I take you step by step on how to create an ethical bribe, how to build your opt-in box, to creating an e-mail sequence and squeeze pages. You have to treat your customers well and give them what they want.  If you do not know, ask them.  I put a questionnaire on my Facebook Page and received over 2000 responses.  Approximately 1700 of them wanted to learn Facebook. 4. White Collar product at a blue collar price If you can deliver a very high quality personal experience, a  white glove experience at a good cost effective price, that's a terrific USP. Make sure you don't make it too inviting that you will cut into your profit margin. You need to keep track of your profit margins and make sure your cash flow stays healthy. Businesses that try to compete on price usually race to the bottom.  So be sure it's done in a smart way. Back to the membership site, how many of you belong to one?  Are you satisfied with the content and service you are getting?  Are you paying outrageous prices for every level you are at? You need to think, how can I compete, offer customers great value, but not end up in the poor house.  Keep your prices reasonable, but not to the point that you are working harder than what you are making. If I charge $67 a month for my membership, and I sponsor only 300 people in the world, that is over 200 million dollars a year.  I think I could live off that. Just remember....everyone LOVES value at a good price. 5. Content Creating educational content that solves problems that people are having can be a USP. Maybe your are a chiropractor,  who has dozens of competitors in their town, if they wrote a book that is a unique approach to pain management, physical strength and health, etc... You offer this book, whether it is an e-book, website, membership site to your customers, you will stand out above the others who just hand out fliers. Depending on your industry, content can be a USP.  Make sure you create great content. 6. Be Dependable Be dependable is a powerful USP.  It does not cost you any money, it is simple and make sure you do what you say. How many of you had to call a plumber and waited around all morning for them to show up?  They gave you a specific time and was not considerate enough to call you to let you know they would be late.  Doesn't that just drive you nuts. Do you think people are going to come to you for service if you treat them with no respect?  NO Make sure you are there for your customers and that they know you care. 7. The confluence A “confluence” is when you take two things that would seemingly be unrelated and you match them together. Examples of this are network marketers who are experts in another field like SEO.  Ray and Ferny from SEO Network are an example. Copyblogger is another example.  Copyblogger is a blog that merges direct response copywriting with social media. Take two ideas that are not related and merge them together to form your USP.  It is a great way to set you apart from the rest. 8. New audience for an old product The idea here is that you have a product many people are selling but you find a new audience for it and then you find a way to translate what you’ve got to the needs of the new audience. 9. YOU INC Branding yourself is the best USP.  People follow you because they like your personality, your persona, your take on things, your style, the people you like to have in your life as friends and customers. Like I said earlier, I am branding myself as The Social Media State Trooper.  I want to be different from the other social media gurus. You Inc. is the best USP.  You can promote yourself and work it naturally into your business. I hope you enjoyed the article.  Please leave a comment in the boxes below. To Your Success, Anita Levesque http://facebook.com/anitawaltonlevesque 207-694-0314