Thursday, April 20, 2006
Making Your Product Stand Out With an Attention-Grabbing USP
Are you missing out on a chance to really stand out among your competitors?
Before getting to work on improving the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for a client today, I decided to see what his competitors are using for theirs. I was surprised at how weak most of their USPs were.
Here's how my research went. I go to the first site and hunt around for something that seems to sum up why visitors should do their business there. Eventually I found, "Your best place to shop for..." I go to the next one and find, "Your best place to shop for..." And on the next one I find, "Your best place to shop for..."
Hmm. I think I'm detecting a pattern here.
Folks, these aren't USPs. They're hype. And the same thing goes for slogans like, "Great prices, better value!" They're creatively bankrupt, giving absolutely no compelling reason for visitors to choose that business over its competitors.
The good news in all of this is that if the competition is so willing to plug in recycled hype instead of a real USP, you can give yourself a competitive advantage by simply crafting a good one.
Now, I'll admit that that's easier said than done. Zeroing in on a compelling USP for a business is incredibly challenging. But when you accomplish it, it can become the key to all of your copywriting for that business. And it can dramatically increase your sales.
So what makes a compelling USP? Here are the three key elements.
1. It must be unique
And I mean it must be unique in the true sense of the word. It must be one of a kind—something that no competitor either is able to or willing to offer. And that is the biggest challenge to find.
Usually, it's something that isn't immediately obvious even to the people who run the business. It takes some digging. One time a copywriter was trying to come up with something unique about the pianos from a mid-market piano company.
The company didn't make the highest quality pianos, but it didn't make the cheapest either. Their pianos were incredibly ordinary. He kept pressing the owners for something unique about the pianos, but they couldn't come up with anything.
So he went for a walk in the factory, poking around for something—anything—that seemed unique. After a while, he spotted a pile of iron bars.
He asked a worker what they were. The worker answered, "Those? Oh, we put those in to keep the frame from warping."
"What would happen if the frame warped?" the writer asked.
The worker replied, "Over time, the piano's tone would change and you'd have to tune it more often."
"So all piano makers put these bars in their pianos?"
"No," the worker replied. "I think we're the only one."
Bingo! The writer used that little, forgotten manufacturing detail to brand that company's pianos as "Manufactured to sound the same as the day you bought it even twenty years later." And that USP shot sales through the roof.
2. It must clearly define a specific benefit that the customer will enjoy
You notice the copywriter didn't write, "We stick iron bars in our pianos." He focused the USP on the benefit the buyer would enjoy. He focused on the fact that buyers could count on that piano to sound just as good as it does right now for its entire lifetime.
He focused on a benefit that gave customers the impression of those pianos actually being higher quality than the most expensive brands. Yet, other than the bars, they were no different from middle-of-the-line brands.
3. It must describe a benefit that is strong enough to move people to buy
The quality implied by that USP was just what many piano buyers were looking for. A piano is a big investment. You buy one and you expect it to last a lifetime. And the assurance that these pianos would sound good for a lifetime while other pianos would age and change was strong enough to move people to choose that brand over others.
Now, granted, when you write a compelling USP, your copywriting work isn't done. But it does become a lot easier. You can weave that unique benefit through all your copy, expand on it, develop it, so that that single, unique element becomes your clincher to make the sale.
And considering how weak most USPs on the Web are, if you can craft a good one, you instantly have a unique advantage over your competitors.
Jeff
Are you missing out on a chance to really stand out among your competitors?
Before getting to work on improving the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for a client today, I decided to see what his competitors are using for theirs. I was surprised at how weak most of their USPs were.
Here's how my research went. I go to the first site and hunt around for something that seems to sum up why visitors should do their business there. Eventually I found, "Your best place to shop for..." I go to the next one and find, "Your best place to shop for..." And on the next one I find, "Your best place to shop for..."
Hmm. I think I'm detecting a pattern here.
Folks, these aren't USPs. They're hype. And the same thing goes for slogans like, "Great prices, better value!" They're creatively bankrupt, giving absolutely no compelling reason for visitors to choose that business over its competitors.
The good news in all of this is that if the competition is so willing to plug in recycled hype instead of a real USP, you can give yourself a competitive advantage by simply crafting a good one.
Now, I'll admit that that's easier said than done. Zeroing in on a compelling USP for a business is incredibly challenging. But when you accomplish it, it can become the key to all of your copywriting for that business. And it can dramatically increase your sales.
So what makes a compelling USP? Here are the three key elements.
1. It must be unique
And I mean it must be unique in the true sense of the word. It must be one of a kind—something that no competitor either is able to or willing to offer. And that is the biggest challenge to find.
Usually, it's something that isn't immediately obvious even to the people who run the business. It takes some digging. One time a copywriter was trying to come up with something unique about the pianos from a mid-market piano company.
The company didn't make the highest quality pianos, but it didn't make the cheapest either. Their pianos were incredibly ordinary. He kept pressing the owners for something unique about the pianos, but they couldn't come up with anything.
So he went for a walk in the factory, poking around for something—anything—that seemed unique. After a while, he spotted a pile of iron bars.
He asked a worker what they were. The worker answered, "Those? Oh, we put those in to keep the frame from warping."
"What would happen if the frame warped?" the writer asked.
The worker replied, "Over time, the piano's tone would change and you'd have to tune it more often."
"So all piano makers put these bars in their pianos?"
"No," the worker replied. "I think we're the only one."
Bingo! The writer used that little, forgotten manufacturing detail to brand that company's pianos as "Manufactured to sound the same as the day you bought it even twenty years later." And that USP shot sales through the roof.
2. It must clearly define a specific benefit that the customer will enjoy
You notice the copywriter didn't write, "We stick iron bars in our pianos." He focused the USP on the benefit the buyer would enjoy. He focused on the fact that buyers could count on that piano to sound just as good as it does right now for its entire lifetime.
He focused on a benefit that gave customers the impression of those pianos actually being higher quality than the most expensive brands. Yet, other than the bars, they were no different from middle-of-the-line brands.
3. It must describe a benefit that is strong enough to move people to buy
The quality implied by that USP was just what many piano buyers were looking for. A piano is a big investment. You buy one and you expect it to last a lifetime. And the assurance that these pianos would sound good for a lifetime while other pianos would age and change was strong enough to move people to choose that brand over others.
Now, granted, when you write a compelling USP, your copywriting work isn't done. But it does become a lot easier. You can weave that unique benefit through all your copy, expand on it, develop it, so that that single, unique element becomes your clincher to make the sale.
And considering how weak most USPs on the Web are, if you can craft a good one, you instantly have a unique advantage over your competitors.
Jeff
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