it’s so critical to turning your computer into the powerful marketing weapon your want it to be. I asked everyone to review their USPs and post them if they felt like it. If you didn’t have a USP, I asked you to create one.  Let’s take a look at some USPs I received in the past for critique.

From Andrea Hoover:

>>>>Placing a person a minute in the Hidden Job Market!<<<<

The only thing that I could think of to change was a slight rewording.

“We help our clients to place a person a minute in the Hidden Job Market!”

From Angela Smith:

>>>>”Photos 2 Puzzles helps you relive your memories one-piece at a time by turning your photos into beautiful jigsaw puzzles.”<<<<

As I told Angela, the only thing I would change here is to add the word “favorite” in front of the word “memories.”

Can you see what makes them winners?

1. Andrea’s USP is very specific. “A person a minute”. (Can’t get much more specific than that.) Angela’s is also specific – “your memories one-piece at a time”. (Man! How much more specific can you get than “your memories”?)

2. Both USPs deliver a real benefit. Andrea is placing people in jobs. The ultimate benefit here is security and all the things I can get with the income from the job. Angela’s benefit is the warm, fuzzy feeling reliving your favorite memories gives you. It’s a little harder to pin down but who wouldn’t to a least check out something as unique as a photo puzzle of your trip to Aunt Mildred’s last summer? Besides, Angela did a great job of using the “you” word more than once. (We’ll talk more about the “you” words later.)

3. Both have the WOW! factor that make you want to ask questions. I couldn’t resist asking Andrea what the “Hidden Job Market” was. That’s exactly what a USP is supposed to do. Angela’s was also something that many people would consider as a unique gift idea.

So now my question to you is – how does your USP stack up against the two samples?

Is it specific? Does it have a real benefit? Does it focus on one benefit?

The main problem I saw with some of the other USPs I’ve seen were that they fell down with one of the three questions listed above. Is it hard work to get it right? You better believe it. Is it worth it? You better believe. Like I mentioned last time, it took me over two years to figure out what my USP was in my first company. With Guerrilla
Computing, I basically started with the USP. Everything else has fallen into place from there.

Alright, enough of that.

Once you’ve created a USP what can you do with it? Well, the options are almost too numerous to mention.

1. A good USP can be used as a book title.

2. A USP can be used as the basis for headlines for your marketing
materials.

3. A USP can actually help you focus on the products and services
you will offer.

4. A USP will help you stay focused on your core strengths.

5. A USP can help you focus on your target market.

The list could go on and on. But it’s item #5 from the list above that I want to talk about today.

One question I keep hearing over and OVER is, “I’ve got this great product, (book, whatever), now how I do go about marketing it?” I’ve got just one question for you. How can you hit the target if you don’t even know what the target is?

For a Hamburger Today, I Would Gladly Pay You on Tuesday!

Before we can even worry about which weapons we’ll use to hit our target market, we’ve got to know what the target is. Which takes us back to where we started. Many of us want to put the cart before the horse. We develop the product then look for the market. Gary Halbert says this is exactly backwards. I really like Gary’s example
about this concept. Suppose you had the opportunity to open a hamburger stand. What would be the one thing you’d want most of all?

Think about that for a minute before answering. What is it? Most people answer with things like plenty of money, location, a good hamburger recipe, plenty of parking space, etc. You know what Gary’s answer is?

A STARVING CROWD! Think about that. Do you see Gary’s point? Without a hot target market, none of the rest of that stuff amounts to a hill of beans!

So here’s the point. You need to do some homework before you develop a hot product. You need to find out if there’s even a market for the product.

So how do you do that? Well, here’s a little known secret that won’t cost you ONE THIN DIME! Here’s what you do.

Take a trip to your local library. Go to the business reference section. Ask where you can find a book called the Standard Rate and Data Service or SRDS. Be prepared for a walk through a gold mine of information. And I do mean a gold mine. Just to familiarize yourself with it, thumb through it for a few minutes. After you’ve gotten an idea what it’s all about, go to the section that would cover your product idea. Next you’ll see all the non-Internet type
mailing lists available for your target market.

Big word of caution here! Don’t see any listings? You might want to think twice about your proposed product.

Once you’ve found a few listings, look at them in detail. You’ll see things like the size of the mailing list, average purchase in dollars, etc.

Ok. So you’ve found some listings in SRDS and it looks like your idea might just work. So we’re ready to start selling our stuff, right? Wrong!!! So what’s next?

Unfortunately, I’m out of room for this post so we’ll have to discuss it next time.

being unique?  Have you ever noticed that?  Well, there’s a reason for it.  Unless you’re IBM, (and look what happened to them), you can’t afford not to answer the following question posed by Dan Kennedy:

Why Should I Do Business with You as Opposed to All the Other Options that are Available to Me, Including Doing NOTHING?

Once you can answer that question, you have your Unique Selling Position, (or UPS – Unique Positioning Statement.  I even saw it called MSP – Magnetic Selling Position.)  

A USP is NOT “because I have the best quality, service, and price in town.”  Well, maybe you do.  But everybody else thinks they have the best price, quality and service as well.  So guess what that means?  
Two things.

1.  This is a dead idea as a USP.

2.  Top notch quality, service, and pricing, (all of which mean value or the best bang for the buck), are the *minimum* for entry into today’s marketplace.

So, again, like Dan Kennedy says,

Why Should I Do Business with You as Opposed to All the Other Options Available to Me, Including Doing Nothing?

Think about it.  Lose sleep over it.  Let me give you some hints.

1.  A USP is your “30 second” commercial.  That’s about all the time
you should take to recite it.

2.  A USP must show a real benefit.

3.  A USP must be specific.

4.  A USP should make the hearer or reader say, “Wow!  How do you do
that?”  That’s your cue to give them more info.

To get you started in the right direction, here’s one I created a while back.

“We help clients competition-proof their businesses in 90 days or
less!”

One other thing. Don’t try to make one single USP fit every product or service your company has. If you have a software product, that might have one USP. A book might have another USP. Your business should have its own USP.

And another thing. This will probably take some time and effort. It’s going to require work and thought on your part. It might come to you quickly but most likely it won’t. You may have over it a bit. That’s OK. It will be worth it. But if you get stuck, post a comment here and we’ll work on it together.

Got it?  Good!  Now the challenge.  Post your USP here in a comment. Then we’ll discuss and critique them.

Go for it!