When I was in college back in the 90’s earning my marketing degree, the focus was on marketing tangible products rather than on marketing services. As a result, my understanding of unique selling proposition (USP) was based on marketing a product. In this post, we will focus on your USP for marketing services as a service professional.
The description for USP in one of my old advertising textbook is: The unique selling proposition, or the differentiating features, of every product advertised; a concept developed by Rosser Reaves of the Ted Bates advertising agency.
However, according to a recent article I read by Peter Vogopoulos, co-founder of Firepole Marketing, if you are a service provider, your USP is you. Peter says, “You are the only variable that cannot be replicated. Your competitors can have the same hours, offer the same products, get certified from the same place, offer the same result, same, same, all the same as you, but they can never be you.†Click here to read the entire article.
For nine years I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what is unique about our Internet marketing services. Why should someone retain our services rather than work with Billy Bob and Associates. I was working from the premise of what I learned at Arizona State University; marketing a tangible product.
According to Peter, we have to connect to our potential clients on a personal level. When we bring our true values and attributes to the table, someone will like us and be inspired to do business with us.
According to Bob Bly, who is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets,†that in addition to your intangible USP, your personality, service professionals also have a tangible USP. Bob says, “The tangible USP is the visible, quantifiable differentiator between you and your competitors. Because it can be seen, felt, described, and grasped, the tangible USP is the one you feature in your marketing copy.†You can read Bob’s article by going here.
So, based on the concept developed by Rosser Reaves if you are advertising/marketing a product, you have to come up with differentiating features as your USP. Peter Vogopoulos says be you, and Bob Bly suggests be you, as well as create a tangible USP for your marketing copy, which differentiates you from your competitors.
What are your thoughts on unique selling proposition? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us your comments below. Come back next week for more Internet marketing tips.
Hello Rita,
Thanks for featuring my article in your post! And I’m quite honored to be quoted alongside Bob Bly.
A tangible difference can be an advantage that can certainly help someone choose you over your competition, but I’ve always maintained that tangible factors such as these can be replicated, sometimes quite easily. What no one can replicate, however, is you.
In the end, people buy from people. And they will prefer to buy from people who they like and with whom they resonate. The two important lessons to draw from this are:
1. Be unabashedly yourself. People who love you for who you are will be inspired to to do business with you.
2. Some people won’t resonate with you. Some may not like you. Don’t take this personally. If you are not for some of them, that’s okay, someone else is. It’s not a popularity contest, it’s a profit contest. If you want popularity go into movies or politics. In business, you have to niche, niche, and dominate your niche by being the only perceived choice for a select group of ideal clients. That’s how you dominate. It’s much better to have 100 raving fans than 1000 “meh” clients. Seriously.
Keep it awesome, Rita Jo
Peter
Hi Peter, You are very welcome! Once again, thank you very much for giving me clarity as to what is my USP. As I mentioned in my post, I learned about USP from the perspective of advertising/marketing tangible products as opposed to services. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and commenting.
Rita