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USPs

by Tash Hughes of Word Constructions (www.wordconstructions.com) 

What on earth is a USP you may be wondering…

USP stands for Unique Selling Point and is an extremely important piece of information for business owners. Not many business owners really take the time to discover what their USP is, let alone use it.

When you start a business, you believe in your product or service – or you should! Maybe you really are the only person in the world offering it, but you probably do have some competitors.

As a potential customer, I would have to ask “why should I buy from you rather than your competitor?”

The answer is your USP.

What is it that makes your business different to the rest in some way that appeals to your customers? What makes your service or product better than theirs?

Let’s take an example. Mary is a hairdresser in a busy suburb where there are 15 other hairdressers as well. Why should people go to Mary instead of the other 15 hairdressers?

Mary lists her business strengths as being friendly, reasonably priced, good with children and having 15 years experience.

But two of the other hairdressers have more experience and five others are cheaper than Mary. She needs something more.

Mary has set up her salon with an enclosed play area for children and has colourful gowns for children to wear for haircuts. There are also pictures of favourite characters on the walls in one part of the saloon and the whole place is done in bright colours.

So, Mary’s USP is that she is a family hairdresser – she is happy to have children playing whilst she does Mum’s hair and manages to get children’s hair cut without tantrums. Any parent knows that these are great features.

Knowing her USP, Mary can now make all of her advertising concentrate on families and mothers.

Let’s try another example. Shane is a carpenter about to begin his new business. He wants to start well and to stand out from other carpenters in his area.

During his apprenticeship and by talking to people he meets, Shane knows that tradesmen of all sorts have a reputation for making a mess. He also knows that many tradesmen actually tidy after the site before they leave, despite the reputation.

Shane decides to make his USP that he is a tidy and clean tradesman.

He calls his business Clean Cabinets to help further his USP, and targets all his marketing at the fact he tidies up the site when the job is done.

Although most service people would tidy up, the fact that Shane tells his clients this gives them an extra trust in Shane’s work. It wasn’t so much that tidying up is unique, but telling clients about it was unique.

Look at your business carefully and find what your USP is and then tell clients what it is. As long as your USP is what clients want, your business will do well.

Tash Hughes is the owner of Word Constructions and is available to solve all your business writing problems! From letters to policies, newsletters to web content, Word Constructions writes all business documents to your style and satisfaction.