What is USP & How To Find It?

USP: Competition is the natural thing in business, especially for eCommerce brands where you don’t need to worry about just your local competitors.

Customers are overwhelmed with choices and want to quickly understand what makes one product or brand different from others. So, knowing the right way to position yourself and your products can mean the difference between standing out and blending in.

Consequently, all entrepreneurs must understand how to identify a unique selling proposition (USP) to help guide branding and marketing decisions.

What is a Unique Selling Proposition?

What is USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?

A unique selling proposition, commonly known as a USP, is one thing that makes your business better than the competition. This distinct advantage sets your business apart from other businesses in your market.

Creating a well-thought-out and accurate USP helps in marketing strategy and influences approaching, branding, copywriting, and other marketing activities. At the center, a USP should fast answer a potential customer’s primary question when they encounter your brand:

“What makes you different from the competition?”

Your USP should match your strengths based on what makes your brand or product uniquely valuable to your customers and different from others. Being “distinctive” is rarely a strong USP in itself. You have to differentiate something your target audience cares about; otherwise, your message won’t be as effective.

A compelling USP should be:

• Robust but defendable: A clear position that forces you to make a case against competing products is more remarkable than a general perspective, such as “We offer Quality, not Quantity.”
• Focus on what your customers want: uniqueness doesn’t matter much if it doesn’t matter to your target customers.
• More than a slogan: While a slogan is a way to communicate your USP, it is also something you can incorporate into other areas of your business, from your return policy to your supply chain. You should be able to talk and walk.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that what you sell has to be unique, but the message you choose to focus on doesn’t compete with yours.

What do people think about USP?

Many businesses think specific marketing offers—like 50% off, Cash-on-delivery, 24/7 customer service, or a solid return policy—are USPs, but it’s not. While convincing and compelling, they are not unique in their own right, nor are they positions that are effortless to defend because any of your competitors can replicate them.

A USP is not just the header copy on your homepage. It is a position your small business takes as a whole that might be a factor in your products, brand, experience, and other touchpoints your customers have with your business.

The best way to understand what a powerful USP is is through an example. So, we are presenting ten examples of unique selling propositions to get it right and what you can learn from each.

How to find USP?

To create a USP, begin with these four qualities that strong selling propositions should include.

1. Concentrate on your customers

Customer experience is at the core of an acceptable unique selling proposition. Today’s consumers face multiple choices and tend to make decisions very fast. To win them over, you must comprehend their requirements and challenges and show them solutions.

Question yourself:

• How do your customer’s shop, online or offline?
• How do they utilise your by-product or service?
• How does your brand align with your consumers’ customary experiences?
• What type of relations will they keep with you in the virtual world or offline?

2. Implant it in your business values

Your business was established for a reason. What do you value, and how do you support those values? A USP is more than simply a sneaky catchphrase or statement while speaking with customers. It must be rooted in something profound and significant.

Reread your purpose and vision statements and add your customers’ needs to them. How will your USP demonstrate that you stand for a certain idea that satisfies a need?

When you produce anything new or plan the subsequent steps in your growth, you and your team may refer back to your USP. Compare your plan to your USP and business principles. It helps you stay customer-focused and guarantees communications consistency.

3. Show your strengths

A little thinking is necessary to determine your strengths. To determine your brand’s strengths, you must be honest about your weaknesses. What are we best at, you might ask?

The terms “unique” and “high value” are generalisations that don’t address your customers’ needs. Keep your clients’ demands in mind while you analyse the benefits of your goods and services. How may your best qualities help your consumers overcome a particular problem?

Use accurate wording that highlights the best aspects of your brand without being too limited to prevent future product development and company growth. Future products ideally all fall under a single USP.

Your four Ps are product, place, price, and promotion. Remember them? Some people have just added a fifth P, people. Concentrate on your strengths to identify the distinctive qualities of your company’s values, goods, and services.

4. Differentiate yourself in contrast to competitors

Customers need to understand how you will meet their demands better than your competition through your USP.

Once you are aware of your advantages and how they help you meet client demands, look at your rivals. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of your competitors to what you are offering. It will assist you in identifying how you differ to meet a niche need. Your unique selling points might be subtle.

• Do you provide customers with a superior online experience than your rivals?
• Are you making it easier for customers to access and pay for your products or services?
• Do you possess more knowledge, values, or procedures than your rivals?
• Do you provide free deliveries or 24-hour service?

None of these bullet points is a USP in themselves. In combination, however, they could help you consider a unique customer experience different from your competitors. In some cases, that contrast forms the core of your USP.

Lastly, USP is the most important part of achieving success for any business. If we missed something to write about in this article, please let us know in the comments section or ask on Twitter.