Want More Publicity? First, Find Your USP

A “Unique Selling Proposition” sounds like a fancy catch phrase, but it’s very important when it comes to marketing your business. It’s also very important when it comes to attracting media attention, because without knowing your Unique Selling Proposition you really cannot come up with compelling story angles to entice reporters to write about your business.

So, what is a “Unique Selling Proposition”? A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is that thing or things about a business that differentiates it in a positive way from its competitors.

It’s important to note that you don’t have to be the only one in the world offering a particular product or service to make it part of your Unique Selling Proposition. These days it’s very difficult to be “one of a kind” in any industry.

You just have to find what it is that you do differently (i.e. – better) than your competitors. What makes you stand out in your field? For example:

-Do you offer a product that comes with the longest warranty in the business?
-Do you offer your clients a particular industry expertise that your competitors lack?
-Are you a “boutique” company competing in a field of big players and offering the same products/services with more personalized service?

Whatever it is, if you can identify what makes you unique in your industry, then you’ve found your USP.

Here’s an example very close to home for me.

At my partner's and my PR agency, Reeves Laverdure Public Relations, our Unique Selling Proposition is that we specialize in one particular niche of public relations – media publicity. This differentiates us from other PR firms in our marketplace, who usually dabble in many different aspects of marketing ranging from event planning to Web site design to direct mail.

This “jack of all trades” mentality of our competitors really works to our advantage, since when clients looking for publicity ask why they should hire us, our answer is easy – because it is all we do.

It also helps us to weed out prospects who are not well-suited for our services.

Now, we’re obviously not the only PR agency in the world that concentrates strictly on publicity, but that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we have made this uniqueness our own, and that it differentiates us enough from our competitors that it serves a strong selling tool.

You, too, have a uniqueness about your business that you can capitalize on, both in communicating to your clients/customers and in identifying what is newsworthy about you.

The challenge in identifying your USP is that it is often very difficult for a person to take an objective step back from his or her own business in order to determine what is unique about it.

I’ll bet that you take for granted what you do everyday. I know that’s true of our clients, and of us. That’s why it’s good to get an opinion from someone who can objectively look at your business from the “outside.”

When identifying your Unique Selling Proposition, I suggest that you do not go it alone. If you do, you are certain to have a slanted and even myopic opinion. What’s more, you may miss out on what indeed is most unique about you. Therefore, I suggest calling on the people who are most important to your business – your customers – to help you out.

After all, who better to identify what is unique about you than the people you are serving every day?

I suggest distributing a brief questionnaire to your customers, with questions that are designed to help you uncover possible Unique Selling Propositions. Such questions might include:

· What do you like best about our product/service?
· Why did you initially choose to do business with our company?
· Did you ever do business with any of our competitors?
· If so, what do you feel makes us different?
· Would you recommend us to your friends/associates?
· If so, why?

This is just a brief sampling of questions you can ask that are designed to help identify your Unique Selling Proposition.

Of course, in return for asking your clients/customers to fill out such a questionnaire, you must “entice” them with a special “thank you” offer. Be sure to give them a free product sample, a free service, or whatever it is that applies to your business. Never ask them to do you a favor without adequately thanking them in return.

Every business has at least one, if not more than one thing, aspect to it that differentiates it from its competition. By uncovering what makes you and your business different, you will also begin to uncover what is “newsworthy” about you.

And, although my goal in this newsletter is to take you through the steps that will help increase your media coverage, I feel compelled to state that once you have determined your USP, it should become the focal point of all of your marketing – from publicity to advertising to your Web site and whatever else applies to your business.

Your Unique Selling Proposition is what makes you “special.” It will not only help you to identify great story angles to help generate publicity, but it should also become an important part of your brand.

copyright 2007, Diana Laverdure (a/k/a the "pr princess") www.proactivepublicity.net