Hello everyone, again. This is the third part of my short series on building your brand around your unique selling point says Peter Decaprio. Following my previous articles titled ” Branding Yourself – What’s Unique About You? ” and ” Selling Yourself Short – The Art of Marketing Your Unique Selling Point “.
Selling yourself by emphasizing your USP sounds like a great idea in theory, but what about when you get face to face with people who may be considering hiring you for whatever products or services you offer? How do they know it’s the right approach for them? After all, there are so many different strategies out there, such as using affiliations and endorsements, promoting your commitment to customer service excellence and praising yourself for offering amazing value at competitive prices.
How do you decide which of these marketing techniques is the most appropriate for your business? Well, it all comes down to what we call differentiation – and this applies to businesses in every industry and marketplace. It’s about understanding who your customers are and exactly what they need from you.
To help you pinpoint the best marketing approach for your business, here are 6 tips that will show you how to make branding yourself around your USP work for you:
Tip #1: Show off Your USP
Don’t be afraid to highlight exactly why you’re different from everyone else out there. Make sure your USPs are visible on everything from your website to your stationery, through signage at trade shows, brochures, T-shirts and mugs, and anything else that will give people a clue about what you’re all about. You can even add your USP to your email signatures.
Tip #2: Know Your Competition
You need to know exactly who your competition is before you can begin building your brand around your USP. What is you competitors’ USPs? Do they have any? Even if they do, is their approach consistent across the board or different from product/service line to product/service line? Who’s more successful in this space – them or you? Knowing the answers to these questions at the very least will help you decide which of their marketing techniques might work for you, too.
Tip #3: Show off Your Customers
One of the best ways to build a brand around your USP is by generating customer referrals and endorsements. Your satisfied customers can do wonders for your business, so find a way to ensure you’re always showcasing their testimonials on everything from signage at trade shows and conventions through to social networking pages like Facebook and Twitter says Peter Decaprio. This is also another great reason why you need to know exactly who your competition is; if they have happy customers that will sing their praises, then it might be time for you to start scouting them out, too.
Tip #4: Understand Why Customers Buy
How do people make buying decisions? Do they buy based on personal experience with your product or service (such as testimony)? Or are they swayed by the opinions of others, such as family and friends or even professional endorsements? Do they use this information to base their decisions on or do they rely on it solely for guidance? If you want to build a brand around your USP, you need to know why people are buying.
Tip #5: Remain Relevant
Your USP isn’t set in stone. It will evolve over time so you have to be prepared to adapt it when necessary. This means being open to new ideas and always remaining abreast of market trends so you don’t lose sight of what needs most attention at any given moment explains Peter Decaprio. This also means knowing exactly where your competition is coming from; if there’s suddenly an onslaught of emerging competition that threatens the success of your brand, it might be time to re-evaluate where you’re going with this.
Tip #6: Keep It Consistent
Your USP needs to ring true across all platforms so being open to new ideas isn’t a license for sloppy communication. Whether it’s a website, stationery or signage at a trade show, everything about your business should clearly communicate the same message – that of your USP. This will ensure people have no problem identifying exactly what makes your company unique from day one.
Conclusion:
Branding yourself around your USP will help you establish a competitive edge in your industry, but it won’t happen overnight. Having the patience to formulate the best strategy for communicating exactly who you are and what you do is essential because it’s not as simple as buying a domain name and slapping up a website.