Unique Selling Proposition

Marketing Message For Meaningful Client Partnerships

How to Focus Your Marketing Message For Meaningful Client Partnerships

As experts in the marketing industry, we’re reflecting on a few older marketing messages and sales techniques that have faded away over the years. 

For instance, cold-calling and door-knocking are not only used less today, but they are known for being a little too… in your face. 

Sales styles aren’t the only thing that has seen a transformation. 

After years of pitching to potential clients in a way that can be pushy and overbearing, businesses everywhere have stopped to think, “is this what my clients want?”

Spoiler alert: No! 

Our point here? Stop focusing on your offer. Aim more toward the transformation clients see when using your product or service. Whether you use in-person sales tactics or conduct your business online, the way you speak should have notes of empathy and understanding.

Are you still stuck in your old sales ways, but looking for ways to shake it up? 

Read on and find out why you should focus your marketing message for meaningful client partnerships using what is commonly called the “before and after grid” effect.

Build A Relationship Based On Trust

Now, let’s make something crystal clear. Forcing a client to buy something by making them feel uncomfortable or pressured rarely works out long-term. And while you may have made the sale, it probably didn’t leave any positive lasting impression on your client or convince them that their friends need to use you. 

The key to creating lasting client relationships involves trust – cue the salesmen jokes about being dishonest. But seriously, it doesn’t have to be this way if you start your interactions with just a pinch of understanding.

Here are a couple of tips to start building a relationship based on trust:

  • Keep the focus on the client and ask about their life
  • Show your authentic self and don’t be afraid to show off your quirks
  • Give value without expectation of anything in return

The Problem With The Old-School Approach

We’ll go ahead and set the scene with a made-up scenario. Keep in mind: this hypothetical situation can apply to in-person and online interactions. 

Say someone is looking for a blender because they’d like to start living a healthier lifestyle and make more smoothies. They’re looking for something simple, easy to clean, and light enough to move from counter to cabinet.

You may begin your marketing message pitch with the highest-quality (and most expensive) blender you have in stock. But it’s probably best that you don’t immediately get into its milkshake and ice cream blending features. Why? Because that’s not what the customer is looking for.

It also won’t help to describe the thirteen mix settings if your potential customer is genuinely only interested in one or two. Instead of purchasing the expensive blender, they might be put off by your marketing message because they don’t feel like they’re being heard or understood.

After feeling the heat to make a purchase, they are likely to book it and buy their blender somewhere else. 

How to Focus Your Marketing Message For Meaningful Client Partnerships

Let’s imagine we’re facing the same scenario. However, we’ll approach our potential client with a fresh perspective and new marketing message this time.

Now, you take the time to ask them what they are looking for and why they need it. While your prospective customer speaks (or fills out an online form), you’ll use those amazing active listening skills of yours to come up with a solution that meets their needs and isn’t misleading.

While you’re selling your blender, use this opportunity to repeat their problem back to them in a few ways. 

Then, you can simultaneously contrast with resulting solutions when they buy your blender. Give them a few options and communicate that they are the ones in control.

Not only will your customer feel heard, but they’ll also feel they can trust you without the sense of being pushed to make a decision right away.

Engage Your Potential Customer

Aside from your sales copy and the way you speak, you want to do as much as you can to engage your customers. A few other ways you can connect with your client base includes:

Offer Honest And Excellent Customer Service

Clients remember an exceptional experience as much as they can recall a bad one. And with 9 out of every 10 shoppers referring to online customer reviews before they buy, that’s a huge deal! Don’t hold back and go the extra mile for your clients.

That’s exactly why we post reviews on our website here

Absorb And Value Feedback

Your public relations and marketing team can define your brand and get your messaging right where you need it to be. In some cases, they may even be able to monitor your reviews. But clients will only see your business differently if you consider their feedback (especially if it’s negative) and recognize areas where you can improve.

Be Human

Finally, connect with your customers on a human level. Remember our blog covering H2H marketing? It’s right here if you need a refresher. Clients who you’ve made a real connection with are more likely to remember you later on and recommend you to others. 

Each of these sales tactics will keep your customer base close enough to reel them in, make a purchase, and turn to you for their future needs.

Create A Unique Selling Proposition To Refine Your Marketing Message

On top of the different ways you can engage with your clients, you should also figure out how to get your unique selling proposition across. This is also known as a USP.

If you aren’t familiar with this term, there’s no need to worry. A USP represents what makes your business special. You know what sets you apart from the rest and why your product or service is unmatched. But you need to be able to use that information!

There are several ways you can refine what your USP should be. For example, you can target:

  • How your product is made
  • Special certifications or accolades you have in your industry
  • Whether your product is biodegradable, environmentally friendly, organic, or natural

Using any one of these differentiators should point out a stark difference between you and your competitors.

A few examples of USP copy are:

  • 30 Days With Better Sleep Or Your Money Back
  • Keeps Water Ice Cold For 48 Hours
  • Softer Sheets With Every Single Wash
  • The Only FDA-Approved Artificial Sweetener Out There 

The goal of the final round-up of ideas is to create copy that solves the problem quickly, point out why you’re different, and make it snappy.

Have A Winning Brand Voice Guide

There’s a lot that goes behind your messaging in hopes of establishing meaningful relationships with prospects.  

But you can come out on top when you have the tools you need to remain consistent and strong in your messaging.

We use our time to create Brand Voice Guides that lays out your client’s problems and how you can solve them. By doing this before we start on any major projects, we understand exactly who you are and what you offer. 

Each one comes with a before and after grid. Here, we meticulously define what your customers go through before, during, and after they’ve gone through the purchasing process. It shows us the issue they have and how your business can solve it.Interested in your own Brand Voice Guide but don’t have the time to write one yourself? Contact us today so we can get started on building your brand the best way we know how.

Ready To Start Focusing Your Marketing Message For Meaningful Client Partnerships?

If you want to say good-bye to outdated sales tactics and focus on high-converting copy, let’s have a conversation.

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Building a Unique Selling Proposition

During the holiday season, we are bombarded with advertisements, sales, and deals. It can be overwhelming and just plain annoying. This year (2019), I received a staggering 238 emails about Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone. 

As a copywriter, I usually read every email to see what other companies are doing; however, this influx of emails beat me.  

All that being said, there’s a lot of noise. And you have to do something different if you want to stand out from the crowd. Cue today’s topic… You need to start building a unique selling proposition. 

First, what is a unique selling proposition?

What is a Unique Selling Proposition? 

A unique selling proposition or USP is a statement of what makes your business unique and ultimately valuable to your prospective customer or target audience. Essentially, it answers the questions… How are you better than your competition? Or Why should the customer choose you over your competition? 

This is the secret weapon that a lot of marketing strategies forget about or don’t spend enough time on. 

Think of building a unique selling proposition as laying the foundation for your entire business.

Unique Selling Proposition vs Value Proposition

Before we go any further, let’s clear up a few things when it comes to the difference between a unique selling proposition vs value proposition. 

A value proposition describes what your company is offering, to whom you are offering it to, and how it solves your customer’s problem. For example, you can use the following framework to build your value proposition.

We sell [your product or service] to [your customer] to solve [their problem]. We solve this problem by [your solution with the big differentiators].

In comparison, a unique selling proposition is a statement that explains how your product or service uniquely solves your customer’s needs. It is a specific statement that can vary slightly between landing pages, offers, and promotions. It is meant to “move the masses” because it is uniquely better than the competition. 

Although the USP isn’t necessarily “copy”, we do use it as a framework to base our copy around. 

Components of a Unique Selling Proposition

Take your target audience, figure out their big problem, explain how you solve their problem, highlight the big benefits of your solution, and finally define your promise. You’ll want to combine all of that, rework it, and turn it into an easy-to-digest proposition.

You can use the following framework to build your USP. 

Our [company / product / service] is the only one that helps [your customer] solve [their specific problem] by [unique promise or benefit].

Where To Use Your Unique Selling Proposition

Before you start building a unique selling proposition (USP), it’s important to know where and when you can use the USP. Copywriters use USPs on each advertisement, promotion, or sales letter. In short, your USP is the reason why the customer needs to buy the product or service for a very specific benefit. It helps the copywriter keep focused on that benefit as they are writing the copy. 

Although the USP isn’t necessarily “copy”, we do use it as a framework to base our copy around. As a result, you will see a lot of USPs in the headlines or at least the first few lines of copy.

Examples of Well-Executed USPs

Here are a couple examples of well-executed USPs. 

TOMS Roasting Co. 

You thought they only sold shoes! TOMS has been a long standing, philanthropic company that believes in One for One®. Their roasting company is no exception. Their USP is that in return for your coffee purchase, they provide safe water. Can you name another company that is doing that? It’s unique and admirable. 

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Away Travel 

Away luggage creates suitcases and other travel products. This USP doesn’t directly talk about what they do in addition to creating these products – “building peace in areas of conflict around the world”. But they are unique in that they see travel as something greater.

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

ClickUp

“One app to replace them all.” It’s unique. It’s a huge selling point because if you’re anything like me, you are trying to simplify how you work – and consequently, the number of apps you use. 

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Steps to Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Building a unique selling proposition (USP) may not be easy. It needs to be strong enough to influence a large number of people, but specific enough to be consumed in one bite. It’s the framework for an entire piece of copy. In this blog, we’ve broken down the steps to help you get started. 

1. Who Is Your Target Audience?

This is always always always our number 1 question… Who is the customer or your target audience? If you don’t know that, then you need to figure it out. 

Remember, there is no business without a customer. It’s imperative that you do not skip this step. 

For a wellness coach, it could be a college student that is experiencing new pain and wants to find a solution. 

For a corporate event planner, it could be a real estate broker that sells luxury condos and wants to woo his clients. 

Whoever it is, know who that person is. It will not be everyone, and that’s totally okay. You can scale later. 

2. What Is Their Problem? 

Now that you know who they are, it’s time to assess what their big problem is. What is the one thing that they are missing or gripe about?

For example, a real estate brokerage firm targets first time homeowners. New home buyer’s big pain points are that they have no home buying experience and fear they may invest in a bad property. That fear is crippling, so they don’t buy at the right time or at all.

3. How Does Your Product / Service Solve Their Problem? 

Next, assess how your product or service solves that problem. In the same example above, a real estate brokerage firm could have a program specifically tailored to educating first time home buyers. 

What features and benefits help you solve that problem? 

4. How Are You Unique?

The key of a USP is the unique aspect. Your competition must not offer the same benefits as you because you’re… Unique! Why are you different? How are you special? These questions are helpful when defining your uniqueness.

5. Combine Those Answers In An Easy-To-Digest Sentence

You may be thinking… How am I going to combine all of this into one sentence? You’re killing me, Lauren. Okay, I get it. I said that too when I developed my first USP. But the big reason why you need an easy-to-digest sentence is because you want anyone in your company to immediately recite it without tripping over words. 

Employees Need to Memorize the USP

You also want your customers and prospective customers to buy-in quickly and even memorize it themselves. 

Customers Need to Memorize the USP

Think about it this way… Your customer isn’t that valuable to you unless they’ve bought from you two, three, four, or more times. Right? The more they buy from you, the more valuable they are to you because your customer acquisition costs are decreasing. 

The relationship goal all companies want to reach is when your customers are advocating for you and eventually promoting your product or service. This is GOLD. Your customer, when they reach this stage, are your free promoters. PLUS their network are more likely to buy from your company because they trust that person. 

That’s why it has to be digestible and memorable.

Conclusion Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Every company has a unique selling proposition – whether they have defined it yet or not. If you need help building your unique selling proposition, we just released a 1-hour Brainstorm Session that includes an entire action plan based on our conversation. And it’s completely customizable. Take advantage of this offer here.

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