Branding

All business owners should be continually searching for marketing tips to better their business. You might have a great system set up, and you know everything there is to know about your industry. This still doesn’t mean your business is going to be a success. It’s sad that is a reality for some business owners because they will never make it. They can get past this by either learning about how to promote or hire someone else to do it.

Out of all the strategies, tricks, and tips to make an effective marketing campaign, there is one thing that stands above the rest. The marketing tip of all marketing tips. Want to know what that is? It’s establishing your business apart from it’s competitors. It’s branding your message. It’s your unique selling proposition or USP.

Your unique selling proposition is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the very reason why people should buy from you and not someone else. What makes you special? What can you offer that every other company in your industry can’t? Why are you so different?

A lot of you are probably saying ‘oh well, we have a low price…‘ or perhaps ‘we provide the best quality…‘. Well I’ve got bad news for you. These things don’t matter to the public anymore. These exact differentiations have been used since the ’70s and buyers have already heard them a thousand times. So, you provide the lowest price…do they sell it at Wal-Mart?….Then, you don’t have a buyer anymore. We all know you can’t beat Wal-Mart’s prices.

You have to really grab the prospects attention with your USP. It has to be different…and I mean really different. The word unique is in the phrase. Be one of a kind. Things like integrity, loyalty, honesty, best service, most quality, longest time in business, and lowest price are all ineffective USPs in today’s market.

This is one of the greatest marketing tips you can hear. Sometimes finding the right USP can be very difficult though. It can take time until you find something absolutely perfect. Once you have it though, you wouldn’t believe how much more business you will get.

Ask yourself these questions to help find your USP:

1. How is your product/service better or different then your competitors?
2. What physical or emotional needs does your product/service supply?
3. What is your ideal buyer (age, gender, demographic, etc) and what do they like?
4. In what ways does your customer service excel?
5. What is special about your staff?
6. What do customers say about you?

These 6 questions will help you focus into the right USP. Once you have your USP created, you need to brand your company around that sentence. Not only do you need to create why you are different, you have to live it. Fulfill the promise you make with your USP and people will know why they should buy from you more then anyone else.