Strategy to Hone Your Brand's USP
Welcome to week 3 of our Instagram Success Series! Today, I’m sharing how to hone your brand’s USP (unique selling proposition), so you can better celebrate your brand and its offerings with your audience on Instagram and beyond. If you’re just stopping in, be sure to also peruse our last couple of weeks discussing the Instagram grid layout and commercial content creation. Now let's begin!
USP—what?
Let's start off by defining a USP: "the essence of what makes your product or service better than competitors." (via optimizely.com) Around here, we like to think of the USP as the way(s) your business shines and helps its audience shine—mostly unique to your competition.
When hustling each day on your brand, it's easy to lose sight of what makes your brand exceptional—especially all of the ways your brand leads and loves its community. This is where your USP becomes helpful. In our marketing business, we always start by identifying and studying a brand's USP, so we can then express those unique aspects in a fluid and synergetic way across Instagram and all other brand touch points. When you have a clear and concise USP, your brand can step in front of the competition and confidently beam from a singular, unified message. Your USP can spark intent, leverage passion with practicality, and leave your audience with a better understanding of what your brand can offer them and why they should go with you.
When approaching your USP brainstorming session, reflect on the 7 P's of marketing: price, product, promotion, place, packaging, positioning, and people. Keep this list somewhere safe! You can reference your list of unique ingredients to share about them in new ways as time goes on.
Questions to Help You Hone Your USP:
How does your value compare to your competitors?
Do you fill a gap in the market? What’s that gap?
How do you operate differently from similar brands?
What past experiences cultivate your brand’s unique perspective?
What excites your audience (in context to your industry)? What do they want?
What excites your audience about your brand currently?
Final Assignment: Make/Refine Your USP Statement.
An example for our own agency:
“Helping Brands Consistently Shine Online
We believe everyone deserves to stay balanced and shine bright! Our team of artists is here to provide entrepreneurs and in-house marketing teams the assets and social media packages to help brands consistently shine online.”
Our USP is based on our product, positioning, packaging, and people.
Something to keep in mind regarding the difference between your tagline and USP: "the tagline is form; a value proposition is function." (via resourcefulselling.com) If you already have a tagline, slogan, vision, or mission statement, take a look at them and see if they can help you describe the unique function of your brand. You can choose to focus on one element of the 7P's of marketing, or utilize multiple in a concise and compelling way.
Defining your USP can be an integral step in aligning your internal marketing efforts and converting sales. The best part? The entire process of honing your USP stems from a celebration of your brand's unique mission and energy—how fun!
I'd love to know...what's your brand's USP? Comment below to inspire a friend if you have one defined already. If you plan on creating one with your team, be sure to loop back and share it with us here.
See you next week!
Stay balanced and shine bright.