When you meet some USPs, it breaks out: "Oops!".

Typical, no benefits, lackluster, too generic.

But it is the unique selling proposition that is the heart of any business. The one that revolves around marketing strategy, which helps to advantageously rebuild from competitors and occupy its part of the market.

Let's think of the USP as the core surrounded by hot marketing magma. It moves, mixing, positioning, characteristics of the target audience, competitive information, the benefits of a product or service, as well as the company's business objectives.

If the core is weak, then the magma spreads, smearing the outlines of the company throughout the sales market. And sooner or later the boundaries of business are erased, and then completely disappear.

Here is such a metaphor. And it’s easier to say this: a strong USP = a strong company.

John Carlton, in one of his speeches, says that in search of "the same UTP" It may take more than one sleepless night. But the result should be something special that puts your business in the buyer's mind.

To help you in this difficult task, we have collected 8 scenarios, using which you will create your own competitive offer without much loss of time and nerve cells.

Scenario #1: Unique Feature

If there are a lot of analogues of your business on the market, then try to find some unique difference. Either find or create.

How the marketers of TM "Twix" acted in this situation: they divided an ordinary chocolate-wafer bar into two sticks. And on this they built the entire communication strategy.

Scenario #2

It is very difficult to come up with something original in a classic business. Then it's worth looking for what your competitors are missing.

For example, Claude Hopkins pointed out that toothpaste not only cleans teeth, but also removes unpleasant plaque (film). And so the slogan was born. "Gets Rid of Film on Teeth".

And when developing a USP for a beer brand, he noticed that at the factory bottles are not just washed, but doused with a powerful stream of steam. Mr. Hopkins has taken this workflow (which is used, in fact, by all beer makers) into a concept - "Our Bottles Are Washed With Live Steam!"

Of course, here you need to immerse yourself in all areas of business: from production to the work of secretaries and delivery services.

By the way, you probably remember classic example with delivery "Domino-pizza". It sounds like this: “Delivery in 30 minutes. If we're late - pizza as a gift".

There is a little military trick in this scenario: the business owner often blurs his eyes, and an experienced copywriter with the makings of a detective Maigret is able to pull out a hot and fresh USP.

Scenario #3: The John Carlton Formula

The formula is ideal for a service business. It doesn't even need to come up with anything revolutionary or creative. Substitute your data - and get a working USP.

“With ________ (service, product) we help _________ (ca) solve ______ (problem) with ____ (benefit).”

Options:

• With the Slimming course, we will help women put on their favorite bikini by the summer.
• The Self Copywriter training will help businessmen save hundreds of dollars on freelance services.
• The Mary Poppins service will help mothers to go to the gym, movies and shopping while the baby is under the supervision of an experienced nanny.

The examples are not perfect, but they demonstrate the very principle of working with the Carlton formula. The main thing is that we explain to the target audience what benefits our product or service brings.

Scenario #4: Innovativeness

If the product solves the buyer's problems in a completely new way, then this must be stated in the USP. And "…do not be shy"- as Ivan Dorn sings in his hit.

What could it be:

• innovative formula;
• new product;
• new packaging;
• a new format of interaction with the buyer;
• revolutionary way of delivery;
• etc...

• Innovation! The first Nivea Q10 3 in 1 Roll-On Gel for wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness.
• Vicks - We've combined healing ingredients and the mild flavor of Lemon Tea to help relieve 6 cold symptoms.

Scenario #5: USP with a problem

You can turn the problem of your audience into a unique selling proposition. Those. go not from the description of the service, but from the solution challenging task potential buyer.

• Has a tooth? Ointment "Nebolin" will relieve pain in 5 minutes.
• Bad mood? Invite a friend over for coffee at McDonald's.
• Confused about finding cheap flights? Check out our offers of 183 airlines.

TV commercial example:

— Got a cold? Flu? With Aflubin tablets, a tangible improvement in health comes much faster. (Translated from Ukrainian).

Scenario number 6. USP with a bow

So we call any advantage that is associated with gifts, bonuses, discounts, guarantees and other consumer "goodies".

• Samsung phones are guaranteed for 5 years. Order a dessert, get coffee as a gift.
• Buy 2 pizzas, the third one is free.
• Make an order for 1000 rubles, and our taxi will take you home for free.

This is a successful scenario for a unique offering, but it is unlikely that such a USP will work with the same efficiency for a long time. Use this formula for seasonal promotions.

Scenario number 7. USP with muscles

Here you need to play with the muscles of your business, show all your friends and envious people the strengths of the company, product, service.

What could it be:

• low price;
• huge assortment;
• free service;
• goods of cool brands;
• support for a bright personality;
• hundreds of awards and diplomas;
• offices throughout the country.

In general, all the characteristics to which you can add the word "most".

It is not enough just to declare one's "self" for the USP. We need facts, figures, evidence.

The absence of a USP is a great grief for business. Look at these sites:

In addition to design, they practically do not differ from each other - everywhere low prices, high quality and quick installation. Pity the people who want to order stretch ceiling- it will take more than one hour to wade through the jungle of clone sites to find a worthwhile option.

Therefore, there must be something that distinguishes the business from total weight- unique selling proposition. It is it that will make competitors afraid of you like fire, and potential customers more often make a choice in your favor.

By the way, prices with it can be slightly higher than those of other companies: if you offer the buyer a product that will solve his problems, he will be ready to pay more for it.

There are only three "buts" - USP works if it:

• unique- competitors do not offer this;
• specific- the user immediately understands what it is about;
• valuable - potential client sees his benefit.

In 2014, we gave a general scenario by which a USP can be created. Today we will share new formulas and examples from practice to make it even easier to come up with or highlight a sentence.

Where to begin?

We analyze the target audience. What is good for an avid fisherman is not suitable for a young woman on maternity leave. Therefore, the development of a USP should begin with getting to know the target audience - what worries your potential customers, what are their problems and interests?

Example: Let's say you need to come up with a USP for an online home goods store. Most often purchase household chemicals, dishes, decor and other things are done by women. Ordering all this online will be those who have no time - which means that your main audience is working women aged 25 to 45 years. What might be of interest to them? Surely you will like it if you deliver goods quickly and free of charge. Therefore, a good USP is "Free delivery in Irkutsk within 2 hours."



Pretty good suggestion. But it can be strengthened - write how quickly the order will be delivered or indicate that delivery is around the clock.

Underwater rocks

Remember: the target audience is not just gender, age, income level and other parameters. You need to realize what and to whom you are selling, what problems you are helping people solve: ideally, you should have a clear portrait of the buyer in your head.

We think about the features of the business. Perhaps the finished USP is under your nose, you just need to notice it. To do this, honestly answer a few simple questions:

• What are your products made from?
• How exactly are the products produced?
• What equipment do you use?
• What kind unique properties at the goods?
• How do you interact with clients?
• How is the work on the order structured?

There is a chance that you will see an important advantage that will allow you to rebuild from your competitors. By the way, sometimes you can make a USP from a disadvantage: “Homemade cakes with short term storage - only natural ingredients.

Example: Suppose you are engaged in laser cutting of metal. Terms, prices and delivery conditions are the same as those of other companies. But on the other hand, you use a modern fiber-optic laser - it allows you to achieve maximum accuracy, up to 0.1 mm. Isn't this a USP? "Accuracy laser cutting up to 0.1 mm - we use the Ruchservomotor LaserCut 3015 fiber optic installation.



And this sentence can be strengthened - add how accurate the result is.

Underwater rocks

No one knows the specifics of a business better than its owner - so think and honestly answer the question why you are cooler. A marketer or copywriter will help you get the chip out of the benefits.

We look at competitors. Conduct a detailed and objective analysis - compare your business with the offers of your main competitors. Here is a sample list of parameters for comparison:

• prices;
• the presence of a loyalty program;
• delivery speed;
• courtesy of the staff;
• ease of ordering;
• regularity of shares;
• guarantee period;
• the possibility of deferred payment.

You will get a clear picture - it will become clear in what parameters you are losing, and in what parameters you are superior to your competitors. Winning criteria can be taken as the basis of the site's USP.

Example: Imagine that you are the owner of a tire shop. Delivery takes from 1 to 7 days, because you sell some items from the catalog under the order. There is no loyalty program yet, prices are the same as competitors. But everyone has a guarantee of 1-3 years, and you are ready to give an indefinite one - "Sale of tires with an indefinite warranty: free replacement in case of accidental damage."

Good deal, don't you agree? The only thing you can work on its design is to try to fit the title in 1 line, remove exclamation marks.

Underwater rocks

It is important not to want “like the competition, only better” - if another company has a similar USP, what will prevent it from making it cooler than yours? For example, offer delivery in 30 minutes instead of 1 hour. Be objective and try to find something of your own.

We ask clients. If you have already had orders, ask why people chose your company. Sometimes clients can give valuable clues.

By the way, it is worth conducting such surveys from time to time: this will help improve the service and have a positive impact on the company's reputation.

Example: Let's say you opened a beauty salon a week ago. You can ask employees to ask customers why they chose you. If clients say that you have a convenient working time, make it your thing. Let the salon be open from 12:00 to 22:00, and not from 09:00 to 19:00 like everyone else nearby. USP: "A beauty salon with a convenient work schedule: we are waiting for you daily from 12:00 to 22:00."



A very good USP - few beauty salons can offer this.

Underwater rocks

It's hard to follow this advice if you haven't had any orders at all. But nothing is impossible - go through the thematic forums, social media, talk to potential customers. Your goal is to find out what attracts buyers.

After all this laborious work, you will have at least strong advantages in your hands, as a maximum - an almost finished USP.

Aiming for the bull's-eye: 5 formulas for creating a USP

Even good advantage easy to spoil if the idea is formulated incorrectly. Compare two offers: “Free delivery in Irkutsk in 2 hours” and “We are guaranteed to deliver your order within 2 hours. Delivery throughout Irkutsk. The meaning is one, but the first is read and perceived much easier.

To formulate a clear and beautiful USP, you can safely use one of the templates:

You don't have to follow the patterns exactly. You can safely change any formula or come up with something completely new - it all depends on the specifics of the business. It is important to remember about the benefit of the client: the main task- show what exactly he will receive, and not what kind of white and fluffy company you have.

We look at the USP through the eyes of the client: 6 fatal mistakes

False statement. They misrepresented the facts or used criteria that should be the default. For example, USP “Professional doctors with experience of 3 years or more” is not suitable for dentistry - this is already expected from the clinic.

How to fix: look at the offer as a potential client. What do you expect from professional doctors? Certainly the correct and painless treatment. Try to bring this thought into the USP. "Painless dental treatment with a guarantee of 3 years - professionals work for us" - already better, isn't it?

Lack of benefit. Used dubious advantages. An online bed linen store should not boast of an assortment: "Online bed linen store "Sweet Dream" - we have 1,000 products." There will always be a company that has even more products.

But if the assortment is really unique, it can be emphasized: for example, 10,000 planters handmade from artisans from all over the world. Just be careful - make sure that competitors do not offer this, and will not be able to offer it in the near future.

How to fix: find another advantage. Let's say you sell cotton bedding. So highlight it - "Bedding for people with sensitive skin: hypoallergenic organic cotton sets."

Stamping. We chose a vague wording - “fast delivery”, “true professionals”, “highly qualified specialists”, “low prices”, etc. The list is endless. Similar phrases are found on hundreds of sites and people are so used to them that they simply do not perceive.

How to fix: add specifics - "Bouquets with delivery in 60 minutes", "Porcelain stoneware from 450 rubles. for 1 m² - we are the official dealer of 5 brands. Prove the advantage with facts and deeds, and if it doesn’t work out, choose another USP.

Wrong accent. They told only about one group of goods, while there are ten of them.

For example: "Quick-drying nail polishes: refresh your manicure in 60 seconds." It’s bad if, in addition to varnishes, you sell lipsticks, shadows and mascaras, they risk going unnoticed. If it is nail polishes that make you 80% of the profit, then it is permissible to focus on them. When selling all cosmetics is interesting, you need to change the USP.

How to fix: formulate a USP for the online store as a whole. If there are too many product groups, focus on the service: "Decorative cosmetics with home delivery: we work around the clock."

Bust with volume. We tried and wrote a USP the size of a paragraph: “Tables from an array from 3,895 rubles: prices are low, because we produce furniture from our own materials - there is a sawmill and a carpentry shop in the north of the Irkutsk region. Find cheaper - we will make a discount and return the difference in cost.

How to fix: cut ruthlessly. For USP, one sentence is enough - "Tables from an array from 3,895 rubles: we will refund the difference if you find it cheaper." The rest of the information should be put in the paragraph below - after all, it is important to explain why you have such affordable prices.

Repetition for competitors. We saved time on analyzing competitors and got a clone - an identical or very similar offer. Too bad, because all the work is done in vain.

How to fix: alas, ideally, you need to start all over again - analyze the target audience, think about the features of the business and compare your online store with similar ones. If time is running out, try to expand on a failed USP: replace “Online shoe store with delivery” with “Online shoe store with delivery” free shipping within 2 hours."

No errors were found in the UTP? It's too early to rejoice - the offer may turn out to be ineffective, even if it seems very attractive to you.

How to know if USP will work

Answer a couple of questions to check the viability of the offer:

• Does the offer look realistic? For example, the statement " Language school"Contact" - learn English in 1 hour. But this USP can already be trusted: "Language school "Contact" - English for holidays abroad in 5 hours."
• The USP answers the question why, out of all the similar offers, you should choose this one? If yes - everything is in order.

You can also test the USP on clients - make a newsletter with different options and choose the one that most people responded to. We sometimes use this option - by the way, are you subscribed to our newsletter? If not, you're missing out on a lot of value.

Take the time to create a unique selling proposition - once spending several hours searching for the ideal, you will forever receive the key to the hearts of potential customers. If you need help, please contact us - we will create an effective offer.

Offers like “the most interesting courses”, “the most useful webinars” have not caught on buyers for a long time. To attract your target audience on the Internet, you need to show what exactly you are better than others and why a person should contact you. Let's figure it out how to create a unique selling proposition that will hit the client in the heart!

What is a UTP?

American advertiser Rosser Reeves, author of the M&Ms slogan - "Melting in your mouth, not in your hands" - was sure that advertising should do only one thing - to sell. He formulated this idea in the book Reality in Advertising, which became a bestseller among marketers around the world. In it, he first outlined the concept of USP in order to forever rid buyers of meaningless words like “the best”, “best”, “outstanding”.

A unique selling proposition or USP is what customers will love about you, choosing you among many other companies. According to Reeves, a USP is an advertising message that articulates your main difference from competitors and main reason to buy goods from you. It is used on banners, in contextual advertising, in mailing lists or on product cards, as well as in the description of the store on the site.

A well-written USP makes it easy to sell, because the client immediately sees why the offer is right for him. A good USP avoids price competition and increases repeat purchases.

However, do not forget that if irons from your online store are constantly returned with breakdowns, then no USP will keep dissatisfied customers.

Algorithm for creating USP?

So you've decided to create a unique selling proposition to sell your products online. Where to begin?

Step 1. Analyze your strengths

For clarity, make a table and mark in it all the competitive characteristics that your company has: great experience work, price, qualified employees, etc. Write as many points as you can - indicate specific dates, numbers. Now cross out everything that your competitors have to offer. As a result, you will get a squeeze of unique benefits that only your company and your product can boast. Put them at the heart of your USP.

Analysis of the competitive environment will allow you to find your unique advantages- that's what they need to sell to potential customers.

You will gain a better understanding of your business if you simply answer these questions:

• What are we doing?
• What are our strengths?
• What are our weak points?
• How are we different from other companies?
• What do competitors say about themselves?
• Where are our growth areas, what else can be improved?

It is important to answer the questions as objectively as possible. Happened? Move on!

Step 2: Determine who you are working for

Imagine that you are going to a close friend's birthday party and decide to give him a sweater. How will you choose? you pick up right size, remember his favorite color, do not forget that he loves thin woolen fabrics and thigh length. Knowing a person well, you will surely give him a really desired gift. Now imagine that you are congratulating a colleague with whom you work in different offices. It will be difficult to make a choice, because you are not familiar with his addictions.

A sincere understanding of who your client is will allow you to offer him exactly what he needs. Therefore, personalize the potential client as much as possible. To get started, answer these questions:

• Is this a man or a woman?
• What is the age of your buyer?
• What is he interested in?
• What pleases him?
• What worries?

Complete the list of questions with topics that are relevant to your business so that you have a holistic character in front of you.

Open courses in English? Then it is important for you to know how long the potential client has been studying the language and what is his level of Byron language proficiency.

You should end up with a description like this:

Our client is a housewife, mother of two who loves to cook and previously held a leadership position in big company. She rests 2 times a year abroad, drives a luxury foreign car, is fond of yoga, and is allergic to cats.

The avatar will help describe the client with three parties: based on the situation, focusing on the psychotype and belonging to the generation. So instead of a soulless target audience will appear real man with the peculiarities of perception, character and life circumstances.

Now you know exactly who you are offering your product to.

ACCEL residents, founders of the "Happiness Is" School of Relations Ivan and Maria Lyashenko collected detailed feedback from their listeners and were able to draw up an accurate portrait of a potential client. So they managed to attract new students and make training materials more useful for a narrow audience.

Here is what the entrepreneurs themselves say about this: “We have significantly increased the share of educational content, reduced and made the selling part more understandable, and justified the pricing policy. We explain in detail why we offer this product and how it will help the needs of webinar attendees.”

Step 3: Tell us how you're willing to help

Swap places with your buyer. What do you pay attention to when choosing: price, guarantees, reliability, appearance? Would you personally buy what you are trying to sell?

Surely some of your potential customers for some reason go to competitors. Try to understand what they have, but you don't. Try to emphasize the strengths in your USP, work on "failing" places.

According to Vladimir Turman, an expert on the commercialization of innovations, in the USP it is worth talking about why you, as the owner, decided to start a business. He writes about this in his article “How to increase demand for your products without going to war with competitors”. It is likely that your problem, which you solved by starting a business, is also relevant for other people. The found solution should be emphasized in the USP.

Step 4: Formulate a USP

Now that you've studied your audience, their needs, and your competitors, it's time to formulate a USP.

To compose a not very creative, but working text, you can use the formula of copywriter John Carlton. Substitute the data of your company instead of spaces - and the USP is ready:

With _______ (service, product) we help ______ (target audience) solve ____ (problem) with __ (benefit).

For example: With online adult volleyball training, we will help all women over 18 learn how to play for the beach season.

The text of the USP can be approached more creatively. The main rule - write to the point. Common phrases, literary prettiness, approximate and generalized figures leave potential customers indifferent. Do you provide a 26% discount? Talk about exact numbers, and not about “huge discounts” and “great deals”.

Here are a few more important points worth paying attention to:

• Write simply as for a friend. Your offer should be clear from the first time. Leave abstruse phrases and specific terms for scientific works. The customer must understand what he is buying and why.
• Focus on your strengths. Mention in the USP something for which customers should want to come to you, and not to competitors. If in your educational center Doctors of Science work, you should not tell how convenient your navigation on the site is - in this way you will knock down the focus of attention from the important to the secondary.
• Write short. Your goal is to interest a potential client in a minute. USP - a short message, from one to three sentences.

Use our cheat sheet in order not to forget anything:

• Who can benefit from this product/service?
• What will a person get by becoming your client?
• Why are you better than your competitors and why can't you buy an analogue of your product?

Mistakes in compiling USP

You can't lie about your unique selling proposition. If you promised a 50% discount and gave only 25%, the customer will feel cheated. You will lose your reputation, and with it your customers.

In addition, you should not include in the USP those benefits that the client receives by default, for example, the ability to return funds within 14 days (this is guaranteed by the Consumer Protection Law). Needless to say, that you have "professional masters of their craft." If this were not the case, would you be able to provide services?

Arguments must be validated real facts. It is not enough to say that your service has no analogues on the market - tell us what is unique in your business, give more specifics.

Conclusion: How to test the effectiveness of your USP

So, you have studied your advantages, competitors, introduced the target audience and prepared the basis of your sales - the USP text. Now check its viability - make sure:

• Your unique selling proposition cannot be used by competitors. They don't provide the same services, don't use the same materials, or can't compete on price. Only with you the client will be able to get these benefits.
• Your USP can be formulated in reverse. For example, an entrepreneur who sells women's shoes large sizes”, it is quite possible to imagine that there is a company that sells small shoes. Only such a USP is competitive. And here is an example of a bad USP: “There is only good music in our club.” It's hard to imagine that someone can offer customers bad music.
• Your USP does not look absurd. It is unlikely that customers will believe that in the X online school you can learn English in 1 hour.
• You have tested your USP on clients. Send by mail different variants suggestions and choose the one that gets the most responses.
• Make sure that your USP is the answer to the question: “Why, among all similar offers, do I choose this one?”.

Drafting a USP is a painstaking analytical work that will take time. But once you invest time in it, you will end up with long-term access to the hearts of your target audience.

Do you want to create your online school, produce yourself or your expert? Register now for a free webinar and receive a PDF plan step by step creation your online school on this

Marketer Andrey Zinkevich - on how to effectively stand out from competitors

If you open any good book in marketing or attend a related training, you are 99% likely to come across the term "Unique Selling Proposition". Why do all marketers talk about the importance of USP? It would seem that the answer is obvious: show the potential customer the differences of the product and the benefits of using it, and he will make a purchase. But here is the main pitfall: how to identify those very unique differences and how to present them in the form of benefits? What if your product or service is no different from the competition? Andrey Zinkevich, a well-known marketer, spoke about how to formulate a USP.

Andrei Zinkevich, Entrepreneur, Marketing Consultant. Project Founder . The geography of clients includes 9 countries of the world. Over eight years of sales and marketing experience with Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation. Author of the booksCustomer pipeline », « Secrets of customer focus" and " Profitable Internet projects ».

Background

Reeves was one of the brightest students of the famous Claude Hopkins and was an adherent of the "selling" style. He believed that advertising can have only one purpose - sales. Not loyalty, not recognition, not popularization and other terms so beloved by advertisers, but sales!

In his book, Reeves emphasized that the effectiveness of advertising (read, sales) depends on one factor: advertising must instantly capture the attention of a potential client with one but very strong offer that competitors cannot make; an offer that will encourage the recipient of the advertisement to perform the targeted action.

This idea formed the basis of the concept that Reeves called the "unique selling proposition." True, today the concept of Reeves has acquired implausible myths; one of them is that now the competition is much stronger and it is almost impossible to find differences between competitive products.

Is it really? Of course not. Look at the most famous trademarks or companies, they all have a unique selling proposition and stand out due to it.

Let's try to figure out how to highlight the distinctive qualities of your products and services and turn them into a USP.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a unique selling proposition

The first step is to determine the most important characteristics for our customers in our products.

The first step in preparing a unique selling proposition is the selection of product characteristics or criteria that influence the decision of the client.

This step is the most important (although it is often skipped), as the characteristics chosen determine the fate of the USP: whether it really shows the benefits of your product or compares you "with the rest."

Therefore, our task at the first stage is to analyze our products or services and determine the ten most important characteristics for customers for each of them. The best way to do this is to ask existing customers what product features are most important to them and what criteria/factors influence their purchasing decision.

If a client base too large, then it is advisable to make a sample of the most loyal or most profitable customers and interview them.

If you are launching a new product and there are no customers yet, then you can brainstorm and independently determine the most important characteristics for the client. Or ask those who most likely could become a buyer of your product.

After real customers appear, you can repeat the analysis and select characteristics based on real data.

All responses received from respondents you need to enter in a separate file.

The second step is to filter and rank the received data.

After Feedback received from clients or brainstormed, our task is to select the 10 most important characteristics for the client and rank them in order of importance.

It is not difficult to do this. Among all the answers received, we need to choose those that are repeated more often than others. Characteristic with the largest number repetitions will head your list, the rest will be located below it in the same way. As a result, we should get something like this table (for example, we will mean a hypothetical online store):

Why do I recommend limiting yourself to 10 characteristics? Large quantity may just confuse you and make analysis difficult. In most cases, you will notice that the most important characteristics for the client will be no more than 5-7.

Step three - compare yourself with the three main competitors.

The next step is to compare the obtained characteristics of your product with three competitive ones. When conducting such an analysis, you should be as objective as possible: if you are inferior in something to a competitor, be sure to mark it.

I recommend scoring on a scale of 1 to 10 each selected feature or criterion for your product, and for each of your competitors. For example, in the previous table, we determined that the most important factor for the client - delivery within a day. If we can deliver the product within a few hours after the order, we can give a score of 10, if not, we lower the score. Next, we analyze competitors and note how quickly they are able to arrange delivery. The longer the delivery time, the worse the score for this criterion.

Step 4 - choose the criteria for the USP: where we are stronger.

Having carried out such an analysis, we get a clear picture: in what characteristics or criteria that are important for the client, we are superior to competitors, and in what we are objectively inferior. The criteria by which we dominate and should form the basis of our USP.

Key rule: for each service, product or company as a whole, a separate unique selling proposition is created!

Auxiliary formulas for creating USP

Now let's see how you can formulate a unique selling proposition based on the selected characteristics. I suggest using one of three formulas.

Formula one: need + result + guarantees. Using this formula, we guarantee to the potential client that we can satisfy his need better than others. Here is an example of a USP based on this formula for our hypothetical online store: "We will deliver your order within a day or refund your money!"

This formula is used by my partner Ilya Rabchenok, CEO SMOpro studios, to create a USP at their service. This is how the unique selling proposition for the service “Attracting subscribers to a group on Vkontakte” and “Odnoklassniki” looks like: “Guaranteed to attract 1000 targeted subscribers within the first month according to the parameters you set, or we will return the money!”

Formula two: important criterion/characteristic + need. The second formula is based on a combination of characteristics that are important for a potential client and his needs. Good example for such a USP, some banks use:

“We will issue a loan in 5 minutes without a certificate of income.” Making a loan is the need of the target audience. The absence of the need to provide a certificate of income and the speed of issuing a loan are important criteria for a potential client that influence his decision.

Formula three: target audience + need + solution. Famous business coach Alex Levitas likes to use this formula. For himself as a consultant, he uses the following unique selling proposition: "I - Alexander Levitas - help owners of small and medium-sized businesses increase their net profit with the help of low-budget and free marketing moves" . In Alexa's USP, the target audience is the owners of small and medium-sized businesses. Their need is to increase net profit. Alex's solution is to use low-budget and free marketing tools (read, use guerrilla marketing tools).

False unique selling propositions

Separately, I want to mention false USPs. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and marketers sin with this.

What is a false USP? This is a proposal based on the distortion of facts or the use of criteria in the USP, which the potential client expects by default.

For example, dental clinic the characteristic "professionalism of doctors" cannot be used as a USP. Why? Because, by default, a potential client expects you to have professional doctors. Otherwise, why would he contact you at all?

The second example is using a 14-day money-back guarantee as a USP. According to the law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights", the buyer already has the full right to return the product within 14 days from the date of purchase. Therefore, there is a distortion of facts here.

Control questions for checking USP

After you have completed the template comparative characteristics and made up a unique selling proposition, one question remains: how “working” is it? Isn't it false?

You can test yourself with the question (your USP should answer it): “Why should I choose your product or service among all the offers available to me?”

The second option is to formulate your USP in the form of a phrase: "Unlike others, we ...".

If both security questions have good answers, then you have indeed created a unique selling proposition.