What is a USP? A USP is a unique selling proposition or, a unique selling point, depending on who you ask. Essentially, a USP is what makes your business stand out on the market. What do you have that another company selling the same products or services does not? An example of a USP might be delivery time. If you can provide a faster turnaround, you’re offering something more to customers. But a USP could be anything and identifying what yours is could provide to be incredibly valuable. But how do you do this?
Customers Know Best
One of the best ways to find out your USP is to ask your customers. Of course, they won't know what you’re talking about if you ask them directly. Instead, ask them why they shop with you and what makes your business more attractive compared to others. You can do this each time you secure a sale as a quick question at the end of a transaction. Not everything they tell you will be related to your USP and you’re looking for specific points. For instance, they might say that your shop has a brilliant ambience. Or that the employees make them feel comfortable and helpful. You don’t have to get a marketing agency to do this research for you. In fact, customers are more likely to respond if you ask them yourself.
Learn From Your Competition
If your business has only recently opened its doors, you may not have that many customers. You don’t want to push away the few you have by being overly familiar with them. Instead, you can take a different tactic to seek out your USP. You can look at the USP of your direct competition. If they have a website, you’ll usually find their USP here. They’ll be using it to market their business. It could be a product that no one else sells or a price guarantee. Once you know their USP, you can set up your own to beat it. You can improve on their USP and offer your customers something more.You can even ask their customers what they like about the business. You may want to try and find out why they choose their company over yours. Don’t be too surprised if they don’t know yours exists. Marketing is usually the main problem in this situation.
Using Your USP
At this point, you will have reached one of two conclusions. You may now know what your USP is, or you may realise that you don’t have one... If you know what it is, you can expand on it. You can mention and reference it through marketing materials. You can even build up your business around it to boost your customer base.If you don’t have a USP, you can use the strengths of your competition and suggestions from customers to build one. Ask customers directly what they want from your company and use that information. You’ll then have a USP based around the requests of customers. Do this and you will definitely see increased interest in your company.
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