First things First … Target Your Niche

No matter what you have to offer the marketplace, you must learn that the most successful businesses don’t try to be something for everyone. Instead they focus in on a narrow subject area - a niche. No matter what you are selling (whether it be a product or a professional service), you need to target your niche.

At first glance, it may seem like offering a product or service that is appealing to everyone will generate more sales than one geared toward a smaller group of people. But, the fact is this concept rarely, if ever pans out.. Instead, what you need is to focus on solving a specific problem. Usually the more specific the better.

Marketing is all about being at the right place, at the right time, with the right message. If you try to be there for everyone, your message will become diluted. And if you dilute it enough, it won’t be the right message, at the right time, for anyone. Try to remember that and apply it in everything you do related to your business - it’s a golden rule of marketing.

So select a target group and strive to appeal to them and them alone.

• Design your product or service to solve their needs
• Adjust your marketing to fit with their interests
• Write your advertising to be compelling to them

This may seem simple at first glance. But, take it to heart; it really is a sure-fire way to increase your sales.

I’m sure you get the idea. Just focus in on one specific area. It is impossible for any one product or service to fill everyone’s needs.

You may need to adjust your product or service, your advertising, your website, or your target audience a little (or all of them). Fortunately, none of these are set in stone and can usually be changed quite easily.

I’m sceptical…

You may be a little skeptical at first. If this is the right way to do business, why don’t all (or any) of your competitors do it? It’s a good question, and here are a couple of answers…

For one, many businesses are afraid to set themselves apart. This is due in part to being afraid of stepping aside from the pack.

And secondly, targeting a select audience seems like it would cost some clients. But the reality is you can’t appeal to everyone anyway. Try to do it and it is likely you won’t appeal too much of anyone. Differentiating is the key to success in business.

Remember

You stand a better chance of becoming an acknowledged leader in a smaller niche than in a larger one. If you look around at your competition, it is likely that no one has segmented the market and gone after a smaller niche. That means there is a prime opportunity for you if you give this a try.

Got your Niche — Now your USP

What’s that, you ask? Well, a USP is a Unique Selling Proposition. You may have heard it expressed before as a unique buying advantage, unique value proposition or any other number of ways?

But basically, a USP is an attempt to express the uniqueness of your business in a single statement. It can be a promise no one else makes. It can also be a unique benefit that applies only to your product or service. Either way, it serves to differentiate you from your competition.

To sum it up, it’s a one to two sentence phrase (or it can be a concept) that clearly lets your customers know why they should buy your product or service over your competitor’s products or services.

It’s NOT “Buy Mine”!

Sounds obvious, but think about it. Why should your customers buy from you and not someone else? You need a good reason; otherwise, your lack of one will indicate that you are merely jumping around shouting “buy mine”, “buy mine” just like virtually everyone else out there (no wonder very few businesses ever make it to their 5th year).

Your major benefit

Your USP should spell out exactly what your major benefit is. What will your product or service do for your prospect if he or she buys?

Whatever you are selling, think of its best benefit. Turn that into a phrase and you will have your USP. If you can twist the phrase in a way that makes you appear different than your competitors that’s even better. Remember, you want to focus on your unique appeal.

You want to cement that benefit or promise to your product or service. And you want this benefit to be important enough to get consumers clamoring to buy from you.

Elements of a profit pulling USP:

• Your USP should set you apart favorably.
• Your aim is to try to fill an obvious void in the marketplace.
• Your positioning should set you apart from your competition.

In the process, it should get prospective customers excited about your product or service.

Be on the Customer’s Side

Having a USP helps make you look like you are on the customer’s side and not just out to prey on unsuspecting passer bys. Instead of raving how you’re number 1 (like everyone else), you stress the benefits a customer will get from buying from you.

Prospective customers really don’t care how great your company is (especially if that’s coming from you) or how long you’ve been in business. They want to know what’s in it for them. What benefits will they get if they buy from you instead of your competition? That’s your USP. It’s what sets you apart from your competition.

You need proof?

USP’s were developed in the late 1950’s /early 1960’s by Rosser Reeves. Over the decades, they have been shown to be a highly effective means for advertising. This has held true for giant corporations and small businesses and service professionals.

Some of the more popular USP’s have been used for decades. I’m sure you’ll recognize these two…

Optus - Yes!

Bunnings - Lowest Prices are Just the Beginning

USP’s are everywhere, if you take the time to notice. Keep learning about this positioning tactic and you’ll probably never look at advertising the same way again!

So whether you offer a service or a product, you need to find a way to differentiate your business from your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you are a dentist, hairdresser, estate agent, accountant, doctor, lawyer, graphic designer, etc…

The use of a unique selling proposition in your business will only stand to benefit you.

Hard sell for your USP

Here is what a profit pulling USP will allow you to do.

• Find a niche and position yourself as the ONLY choice for that niche.
• Place your product or service on a different level than your competition, catapult you to higher plane of business and enable you to sell in a vacuum (i.e. no direct competition).
• Protect you from market fluctuations.
• Break free from mindless advertising and get your product or service remembered more than any other in your market.
• Grant a stronger preference for your company’s products and services so you can charge more and customers will gladly pay your higher price.

USP or Marketing Strategy?

You may want to think of a USP as a marketing strategy. Without a well thought out strategy, your advertising will send out random messages that don’t have a common theme.

This will prevent it from being as effective as it would have been if you had a strategy in place. It is difficult to have any type of coherent marketing message or “game plan” without a USP. Most businesses are left struggling to attract new clients by shouting out, “we’re the best”, or “buy from me”.

So how do the experts do it?

Well, I’ll give you an example of a well known USP. First of all, let me say that it’s easy to gloss right over the power of good USP’s because we are so familiar with them.

Head & Shoulders -

“Healthy, beautiful, dandruff free hair.”

If you’ve ever been to the shampoo aisle at the supermarket, you’ve seen it. And there are literally hundreds of shampoos to choose from. So when Head & Shoulders came out, who would’ve noticed, right?

Wrong. Everybody noticed because Head & Shoulders targets people with dry, flaky scalps. People with dandruff. And this made all the difference to their campaign.

Without its dandruff fighting power, Head & Shoulders would just be another shampoo.

Can you see the power in selecting a target audience; a niche?

Of course, people who don’t have dandruff aren’t going to be as interested. But Head & Shoulders practically has a monopoly on the dandruff crowd — and have for decades. They were the first (to my knowledge) to cater to people with dry scalps and they are still going strong today.

It’s a unique concept and although it seems obvious now, it was highly creative at the time.

A USA Example

This USP demonstrates some interesting features of USP’s, even if we in the antipodes may not recognise it from real life!

Papa John’s -

“Better ingredients. Better pizza. Papa John’s.”

Papa John’s is owned by John Schnatter. His pizzeria would have just been another local pizza joint if not for his unique positioning in the marketplace. He wanted to stand out, and he did.

He follows through on the promise and has succeeded tremendously. Who would have thought having the best pizza ingredients would have been such a key to pizza success?

Do you also notice how this USP implies that other pizza restaurants are not using the freshest ingredients? This packs in an extra powerful punch.

Notice how either of these companies could have chosen to simply say “we’re better”, but they didn’t. Instead, they took it much further by being specific.

Another example

Here’s a final example from a Melbourne based service business

Garner+Lang -

“Helping people who are (or plan to be) high income or high net-worth investors … acquire and market Commercial Property - for maximum return.”

See how this USP literally shouts to the reader that this business is anything but just another real estate agency. It tells you exactly what the business does, exactly who is “qualified” to be a client. And, there is absolutely no doubt about the benefit which clients can expect.

If you are writing your USP for a service based business, you could do far worse than measure your USP against this one before you finalise it.

Do it yourself

You will need to put on your thinking cap to create your own USP, but it isn’t something that needs to cost you an arm and a leg to come up with.

Sure you can go to an ad agency and spend tens of thousands of dollars crafting it. But, the fact is, even if you go to a high priced marketing agency and they do their job right, the USP will still ultimately come from you.

You know your business and the promises you can fulfill much better than anyone else. So in the end, you must be the one to create it.

USP categories

So how do you come up with a USP for your business?

Well, the most commonly used unique selling propositions fit into one of four categories. These four categories are …

1. Service
2. Exclusivity
3. Value
4. Price

In addition, you can choose from a fifth basic category - “niching” your product or service to cater to a segment of the market.

In order to decide which “spin” to take, you may need to study your competitors and find out if there is a “gap” in their messages. If this gap is not something you can manufacture in your product or service, then I’d suggest thinking about differentiating yourself based on one of the four categories mentioned above.

Think back to how Domino’s Pizza built their entire business based on service. Domino’s doesn’t just offer pizza, but they deliver it. They set themselves apart solely by providing a service that was missing in the marketplace.

You can also set yourself apart by offering a special service to clients. Something they would greatly appreciate that no one else offers.

For example

If you’re in the quasi-medical profession (like a naturopath, chiropractor or massage therapist), chances are good that clients in these fields probably complain about wasting their time in the waiting room. So what about working the following into your USP …

“You will not wait more than 10 minutes in our waiting room or your visit is free.”

This USP could really set you apart. If you implement this in your business, I’m guessing your clientele would probably shift toward becoming busy professionals. So, why not take your USP further and cater exclusively to busy professionals? You could appeal to them in more ways then just offering a “no wait visit”…

For example, in addition to not wanting to wait, busy professionals probably worry about turning into a disheveled mess at your office (they don’t want to go back to work like that). So you could make sure to have a place for them to change and hang up their clothes where they will not get wrinkled or soiled.

In addition, if you were going to cater toward the professional crowd, you might want to think about offering later hours or time on the weekend (some people can’t get away from their job).

This is just an idea… I’m sure you can do better!

Wrapping it up

As you probably realise, no one will remember all your benefits, features, and every point you make in your sales materials.

But they will remember your USP if you craft it right. They will hopefully read the rest of your advertising as well, but the take home point for your ads will be the USP and perhaps a few other facts. That is why you want your USP to be powerful enough to sway prospective customers to buy.

You will use your USP as a tool to help people figure out why they should buy from you.

Remember, if you don’t know why they should buy from you, they won’t know why either.

And the bonus is …

Your unique selling proposition may well bring clarity and direction to many aspects of your business.

Conclusion

The objectives of this brief paper were simple

• to convince you that your business must have a clear and properly thought out Unique Selling Proposition
• to get you started on formulating your USP

If you would like more information on developing your USP I recommend that you consider buying the eBook The 3 Minute USP

Much of the content of this post has been derived from that eBook.

Tags: better_marketing, increase_your_sales, niche, target audience, target_group, unique_selling_proposition, usp