Small Business Marketing: Why it’s Critical to be Different
What sets your business apart?
Can you describe it to a potential customer in under a minute?
Is it an engaging statement?
Are there compelling reasons why a customer should choose your business over your competitors?
Does the customer value what makes your business unique?
If you have to think hard about why you’re different from your competitors, so do your prospective customers. And what happens if they can’t think of a reason? They are more likely to seek the lowest cost solution or frequently trade out your brand for another with no long term commitment. With the rising costs of acquiring new customers, your business can’t afford to blend into the background.
Knowing what specific strengths and qualities make your company stand out in a crowded marketplace and effectively communicating that message across your marketing channels is vital to growing your customer base and improving customer loyalty.
What’s Your USP?
The unique selling proposition for your business is all about what you offer that no one else does and why it matters to your customers. Maybe your USP is rooted in how you offer your services, what you sell, why your core business values are different, or a combination of all three factors. The key to a strong USP is that what you identify and communicate about why your business is unique also offers real benefits and value to your customers.
Get Better Insights
To develop an engaging USP, you’ll need to view your company from your customers’ perspective. Mining your online reviews or surveying your customers are two excellent sources of unfiltered viewpoints about your business. Your employees and other stakeholders are also great resources both for insights about your business’s position in the marketplace and also to test and give feedback on your USP statement.
To go a step further, try this exercise to assess how your messaging compares to your competitors:
- Go to your website and print off your homepage in black and white.
- Go to your biggest competitor’s website and do the same with their homepage.
- Grab a black marker and darken all logos, main navigation, brand names, and images on both print outs.
- Now read both over homepages.
What grabs your attention first for each one?
How similar are they?
Who do these businesses serve?
What makes the main message for each business different? (Hint: They might not be very different at all!)
Imagine you’re the customer and you’re selecting one of these businesses. Which one best serves your needs and why? Or why not?
As you review your competitors’ websites, pay close attention not just to how they are positioning themselves, but also to what they are not saying about themselves. You may uncover gaps where customer needs are being underserved or where your business already has a strong competitive advantage that should be included in your USP.
How to Define Your Business’s USP
Once you have a better understanding of how your customers see value in your brand and how you are currently presenting your brand to them, think about the questions at the top of this article again.
Write out your USP with straightforward and concise language. Be as specific as you can in the benefits you offer your customers. Reframe it from the position of their pain points or needs. Tweak the text as necessary to ensure your USP fits your brand values and is emotionally engaging for your customers.
If you have very different customer groups or business lines, consider writing a unique selling position statement for each group or business unit. For example, an electrician or plumber who provides services to other businesses and to residential homeowners would position their business strengths a little differently to both groups. A manufacturer who sells direct to consumers and also to distributors will find that their message resonates better when they position their unique selling points in separate USP statements from the mindset of decision makers in each target audience.
By tailoring your USP to each business line or audience type, you ensure your brand’s promise of value more accurately reflects the priorities and pain points of your distinct audience segments. The act of doing so will further enhance your unique positioning as it will demonstrate a keen understanding of the nuances of your customer groups. As your prospective customers recognize their needs and values represented in your USP, they will build a stronger attachment to your brand, engage more readily with your marketing communications, and are more likely to convert into repeat customers.
It’s Time to Deliver
Now that you’ve crafted a powerful USP that resonates with your target audience and refreshed your marketing materials to reflect why your business is different from the competition, what’s the next critical step?
Ensure that the experience your customers receive matches the expectations you set up in your USP. This consistency in your messaging and in how your customers interact with your brand is essential to maintaining customer loyalty and driving repeat sales. It cements feelings of trust and authority of your brand in the minds of your customers and also fosters another essential sentiment critical to your business growth–the customer’s feeling of success in their decision making.
As your prospects move down the conversion funnel on their journey to becoming customers, they want your business to be the solution they’ve been looking for so that they can have their needs met and enjoy the resolution. When your USP sets up the entire experience with acknowledgment of what’s most important to your customers, how your business is uniquely situated to deliver results, and why they’ll get the most value from your brand, your customers will be highly satisfied that they made the right choice.
Want to know more about what makes Solutions for Growth special? See why our clients have trusted our small business marketing agency for more than 10 years.
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