Do You Know What Your USP is?

June 24^th 2010 Sally Ormond copywriter, freelance copywriter, marketing tips

What is unique about your company? What is it that sets you apart from the competition? In other words what is your Unique Selling Point?

Before you attempt to write any marketing materials, you must identify your USP. It can be anything, such as:

Guaranteed next day delivery worldwide
Your product guarantees a boost in intelligence
Your product is guaranteed to make people look younger

OK, some of those may be a little far fetched, but you get the picture. Your USP must be something that makes your product or service stand out from everyone else’s. Plus, it must be of value to your customer.

Flaunt it

Once you’ve worked out what it is, flaunt it for all you’re worth.

Make sure it goes in your headlines because it will be your most important benefit for your customer. It’s red hot news that will grab and hook your reader

What else does your product do?

Don’t just stop there. Your product will have plenty of other features and benefits you’ll want to use in your copy. To get the greatest impact, make sure you use the right information in the right places.

As you would expect, the most important stuff goes in the most prominent areas. Think traffic lights:

RED IS FOR HOT – information unique to you:

USP – Guarantees – Freebies

ORANGE IS WARM – great benefits but also offered by your competitors:

Saves money – saves time – makes you more attractive/younger looking

GREEN IS TEPID – basic features such as:

Colour options – texture options - sizing

Always start with the red, follow up with the orange and end with the green. But don’t forget to finish off with a huge red call to action.

Get this the wrong way round, and you’ll lose your reader!

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter