Today’s post is about a very necessary part of the marketing strategy for your business. I am talking about your USP or unique selling proposition. This is what sets you apart from all your competitors and gives your customers a reason to do business with you. I will explain the USP by looking at the revolutionary path that Jesus gives us.
Jesus gives us a way to eternal life with our loving Father. Before our savior walked among men, the idea of eternal life was unheard of. No one else talked about the possibility of living in heaven for eternity. This is Jesus’ USP or unique selling proposition. He gave us hope of life with the Father in a state of happiness and joy that would last for ever more. No one else had ever given mankind this type of promise.
A USP or unique selling proposition is a term that is critical to the success of any business in a competitive market place. The idea was first developed by Rosser Reese a marketer working for Ted Bates & Co. Reese stated that an effective USP has three parts and each is necessary to the success of the business.
1. A business must make a proposition to the customer. The proposition can not just be a bunch of empty promises about how good the product is it must make a direct statement. It is an agreement that if the customer buys the product, they will receive a specific benefit. Jesus’s agreement with us is that through Him we can reach life with the Father.
2. The proposition must be unique. That is, it must be a proposition that the competition either can’t or does not make. The USP is usually something that sets your product apart from all the other competitors but not always. Sometimes a USP is developed by stressing a part of your business that everyone else does but does not talk about. In the case of Jesus, His USP is unique because He is the only path to everlasting life.
3. The proposition must be so powerful and exciting that it will pull new customers to your business to buy your product. Your USP must be viewed by the customer as something they must have if they are going to be satisfied with the type of product you are selling. What could be more powerful than a promise of redemption bought with the blood of Jesus?
As you can see Jesus has a very powerful and enticing USP. He is offering a path back to our most basic goal which is being with our Father through eternity.
Now let’s look at an example of using a USP in business. Suppose you have an online Christian bookstore. If you do a search on Google for Christian bookstores you get 1,270,000 results. It is hard to stand out in this crowd. But if you search for “Christian stories for teens” you get only 437 search results. It would be very easy to get your bookstore ranked against 437 competing pages.
If your unique selling proposition is that you specialize in Christian stories for teens then people will go to you when they are looking for stories of faith that their teens can relate to. You have made the proposition that your customers will find these types of stories on your web page. The key would be to set up one page for this USP and then set up other pages to target other USPs like stories about miracles, stories about overcoming obstacles, or stories about the effects of prayer. You would have a unique selling proposition for each type of book.
The internet is a wonderful tool that we are still learning to use effectively to market our businesses. A big key to success is to find niches which are small parts of the market to target. A strong USP makes this much easier.
I hope you found this information useful. Our prayers are with you.
