Welcome to the final part of my mini-series on finding your killer USP.

Step 6 – Creating Personas

Anyone who is authentic, who is true to themselves, will not have any competition. You don’t have to believe me though. Scott Stratten, popular speaker, social media authority and marketing author, says that if you build your business around your website or blog, you will see straight away the common differentiation technique. And you will know that it really does make good sense.

Personal brands are not right for all of us, especially if your plan is to sell your business at some point. Nobody wants to purchase a business that is centered on one person.

Step 9 – Highlighting Your Own Credentials

Sometimes, copywriters don’t have to do anything but allow the facts to speak for them. Accreditations, awards, survey results, official statistics, ratings, reviews; all of these show off your credentials and help you to break down any customer resistance. If your business or website has been voted best of anything, shout about it, tell everyone. If you are the only person in your area to offer your type of business, make it known. Have a look at these famous slogans that really do speak for themselves:

Whiskas (cat food): 8 out of 10 owners say their cats prefer it

Fairy Liquid (washing-up detergent): Lasts 2x longer than the next best-selling brand

Cadbury Dairy Milk (chocolate): A glass and a half of full cream milk in every half pound

Step 10 – Adapting Your Proposition

As a copywriter you have been through every option you have yet still you cannot find that killer USP. That leaves you with just one thing to try – introduce your own USP. Then adapt it to make it something different from the rest, perhaps something like:

Better terms for payment

A much better and more unique guarantee

Better flexibility and customization

A completely new way of doing something

The choice is entirely yours. You don’t have to go as far as creating slogans and straplines; all you need to do is provide your customers with the best reasons why they should choose you and not your competition.

These days, USPs are incredibly important, more so now than they have ever been. The internet has opened up a whole new world and you have so much more competition now than you ever had before. And that makes it easy for you to check out your competition.

The one thing you must bear in mind, no matter what your unique selling proposition, is that whatever you promise, you must deliver it. Customers will soon catch you out if you make promises you don’t keep, if you don’t honor the guarantees you set in stone. And believe me when I say this, they will desert you faster than a rat deserting a sinking ship – that is a fact. Customers are fickle and they will soon find another business that will happily take their money – and they will be happy to badmouth you at the same time. Don’t let it happen.