Every small business is looking to make it big, but did you know that 97% of those small businesses' websites aren't effective in helping them bring in more customers and make more sales? Needless to say, your website may not be enough to get a small business where it needs to be.

This is why having a USP is important, especially for small businesses. USP stands for "unique selling proposition." Keep in mind that a business of any size can take advantage of a USP.

Unique selling propositions help businesses grow in a variety of ways.

To learn more about USPs, keep reading. We've gathered everything you need to know about this important tool for business growth.

 

What Is a USP?

As we stated, USP stands for "unique selling proposition." This is a document that businesses typically compose before starting up. However, it can be a great reset for a business that isn't doing as well as it was intended to.

Basically, a unique selling proposition is a type of business plan. Whether you're more traditional or lenient, you'll need to cover what sets your business apart from every other business out there. This is where the "unique" part of a USP comes in. 

A unique selling proposition puts in writing what sets your products and services apart from your competition. What do you have that the others don't?

Knowing what makes you unique is important. It can help you figure out what your selling point is and help your business grow overall.

You can also use your unique selling proposition to help build customer loyalty based on what makes you unique. By embracing your unique quality or unique qualities, you can build an excellent experience for your customers.

 

What Are the Different Types of Unique Selling Propositions?

When it comes to a business' uniqueness, its chosen trait tends to fall into one of three categories. When you're coming up with your unique trait, you don't have to fall into one of these three categories. However, it may be difficult to make a selling point out of something that falls outside of them.

Products

When a business claims their products to be better than their competitors, they are most likely referring to quality. You can make your business stand out by having higher quality products than your competitors.

If you're looking to make this your unique factor, you need to make sure that you're clearly showing the quality in every single product that you send out.

Prices

Another way to stand out against competitors is through pricing. This aligns with affordability.

Some customers care more about price than quality. However, you should never neglect the quality of your item just so that you can keep the price down.

If you can keep an item affordable while keeping it of serviceable quality, this is a great unique trait to have for your business.

Support

Some customers appreciate a social connection with the stores that they buy from. By showing support to your customers and building a social circle around your company, you can bring in more customers.

By putting your time and energy into customer support and creating a community, you could end up having more loyal customers in the long run. But, to an even further extent, putting your heart and soul into the creation of your company's products will bring more social connections to your brand.

 

How Do USPs Help Businesses Grow?

When a business creates a USP, they set their business up for success. By crafting this unique selling proposition, they're creating a focal point for the rest of their business to run off of.

Whatever the unique selling proposition is, the business can use this to highlight their products and services from then on. 

Your USP will be used as the center of everything that happens for your business from then on. It's an effective tool to help you figure out and center your marketing goals. This can help you set up your brand separate from your competition.

A USP strives to make your business different from others. Make sure you use it.

You know that you're different from your competition. You have to communicate this to your audience using your USP.

Think about how you can make your USP well-known to your audience. Come up with a saying, a slogan, or a rhyme that you can share with your customers.

You know that you've created a successful USP when your customers can recognize what your USP is and how that USP represents your company well. Think about how you can represent your strengths successfully.

 

Steps To Creating a USP

Creating a unique selling proposition can be difficult. Understanding what your strong point is or what you want your strong point to be may not be on your radar yet.

However, establishing your USP may not be as difficult as you think it is.

In fact, we've broken down how you can make your unique selling proposition. Believe it or not, you can create your USP in just three steps.

 

1. Think of Your Customers

It seems that market analysis is always the first step when it comes to doing anything in business. When it comes to creating your USP, this rule still applies.

You can start thinking about who makes up your target audience and what they would want to see from your business and its products. From there, you can figure out how to attract this kind of audience, keep their attention, and grow your business from their loyalty.

Think about the three different types of unique selling propositions that we discussed. Which one would your audience want to see from your business?

 

2. Keep Natural Strengths in Mind

First, think about your own personal, natural strengths. Assuming that you are the heart of your business, your business could have the same strengths that you personally do.

Next, think about the industry that your business is in. Like we said, thinking about this includes thinking about your target audience and target market. What is the industry standard and how can you turn it on its head?

Now, you can think of your business as a whole. Which one of the three kinds of unique selling propositions do you think that you could pull off the best using your business' products and services?

 

3. Add Them Together

Now that you've thought about what your customers want and what you and your business can offer, you can think about how those two things can coexist. Once you've decided what your unique point is, it's time to put it to work.

Use your unique selling point to solve any problems that may come up in the future. Your entire business will depend on this unique quality as you use it to navigate your business through ups and downs.

This unique quality will be the way that you draw all of your future customers in, keep current customers there, and create a unique bubble around your business.

 

What Are Some Examples of Unique Selling Propositions?

There are several businesses out there that have already established effective USPs. Many of these companies have grown from their unique selling propositions and are known for them.

Here are a few examples of companies that have created effective USPs:

  • Domino's Pizza: The company is known for their quality and timeliness. In fact, they've told their customers that they should expect a fresh, hot pizza within 30 minutes or the pizza is free.
  • Target: This big brand is known for quality products at low prices.
  • TOMS Shoes: TOMS is known for giving away a pair of their shoes whenever you purchase a pair for yourself. This creates a sense of charity in buying their product.
  • Colgate: This toothpaste brand is known for its quality. They claim that using their toothpaste can improve your mouth health in just two weeks of use.
  • M&Ms: Even candy companies have a USP. M&Ms references the quality of their candies in theirs.

Looking at how these companies have used their USPs to grow their customer base and improve their businesses overall can help you come up with your own company's USP. Use these companies as a reference point for your own USP and see if you can think of other companies and people that have become well-known for their own unique selling proposition.

 

Creating Your Online Store

After you've made your unique selling proposition, you need to get your business up and running with your very own online store. It's time to let your customers see what makes your online business so different from all of the others.