Make Marketing Easy With a Unique Selling Proposition

Those businesses that seem to have had an overnight success and barely needed to work at promotion? There is something special about them. They know it and their customers know it. Their work can be spotted from a mile off, it’s something that people want, and it’s easy to promote – like a snowball rolling down hill, gathering speed, and getting huge.

Why is it so easy for them? If you have what they have, it will be easy for you, too. If you’re lacking this, it will be like trying to win a race with a bicycle that has square wheels. A crazy amount of work, with few results.

I have a number one piece of advice for new businesses, or businesses that feel like they’ve lost their way. Do this one thing, and everything else will be able to roll into place:

Discover your Unique Selling Proposition

Your Unique Selling Proposition (or USP), is what makes you different from every other company out there. You should be able to immediately tell someone what makes you different from even your closest competitors.

Aeolidia, for example, designs logos and makes websites. There are gazillions of people who design logos and who make websites. Why is Aeolidia special?

We stand out in three very important ways:

• Aeolidia is a collaborative team you can trust, laser focused on ecommerce, with world-class communication & organization.
• We offer a comprehensive and strategic approach, pulling the levers that make for a more profitable Shopify website.
• We’re focused on creative, design-forward brands, with 800+ beautiful, strategic projects made for businesses like yours.

What is unique about your business?

What about you? Of course the most broad description of what you do includes all of your competitors, and is not what’s important about you. You need to narrow down and focus inward and think of your story.

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So, “stationery designer” is not what you’re going for. You want to realize that you’re a “simple, beautiful, sustainable family paper goods company, focusing on minimal bohemian designs” (That’s Eva from Sycamore Street Press’ insight into her branding and finding her style – you can read more about that here).

Here are some questions to help you get to the heart of what’s unique about your business:

• Why did you start your business?
• What makes you passionate about it?
• What is your style?
• How do you design your products?
• How do you make your products?
• Why are your products special?
• What is your mission?
• What problem do you solve for your customers?
• What can your customers get from you that they can’t find elsewhere?

You should be able to take these questions and pinpoint your USP fairly easily. If you can’t, sit back and reassess. Is this what you want to be doing? Why are you doing it? Is it special to you? If so, how can you make it special to your customers as well?

The huge advantage that small businesses have is their story. What is your story, and how can you communicate it to your customers?

If you aren’t able to determine your USP with this exercise, you’ve got a problem! You don’t want to be a copy of an existing business, or have nothing new to offer. If you can’t distinguish yourself, you’re going to be fighting hard for your marketing to give you any traction. If you are able to stand out as unique, marketing will just consist of giving your little snowball a shove, and letting word of mouth, social media, networking connections, and your own hard work in your business take care of the rest.

Some example USPs from Aeolidia clients:

These are my descriptions of the USPs of these great businesses: Project Life, Emily Ley, Robert Mahar, Fernworks, Bamboletta.

What to do with  your Unique Selling Proposition?

Once you know what your USP is, don’t keep it to yourself! You need to make sure that everything you do glows with this, the heart of your brand identity. Examine what you’re showing the world and see if it matches up with what you know about your business.

Does your logo make sense for what your business stands for? Does your website make it clear to your visitors what is different about you? Do your social media interactions, blog posts, and press mentions speak loud and clear to your target audience, instantly letting them know why you’re special and why you’re just what they need?

This, of course, is the part we can help with, and we would be proud to craft a strong brand identity that communicates your unique vision to the world. Browse our brand identity portfolio, learn about brand strategy or rebranding return on investment, and get in touch!