"Sick, Sick, Sick Of Hearing Get A USP!

By Robert Provencher

I hear it too often and frankly am sick and tired of it. What does it mean, gte a USP? It sounds confusing and most people wouldn't know what it means.

It's like when the presenter pull the techno-garble talk about "light falling off bla bla the square root bla bla...." and tries to confound or impress us with sublime and mysterio talk. Enough already. Who cares!

Tell me what it means. Give me some CONCRETE examples.

The worst use of this concept in my opinion is when you are told to create a mission type statement, designed around your USP. Something you can use to communicate to people, so they not only know what you do, but they can 'see' how it would benefit them.

I can see two people at an after-hours get-together, maybe a Rotary deal or Chamber of Commerce, and when asked what he/she does, the photog replies: "I create beautiful and personal, customized lasting images that my clients will cherish....on an on." As if he or she would actually talk that way.

Besides, it sounds not only fake and unbelievable, but it speaks to the entire industry. You'd be speaking on behalf of every photog out there. We all feel that way. What's so 'unique' about 'creating memories.

I sound kinda harsh, but the truth is, the way to use a USP is not that way at all. A USP is multi-faceted, and shows up in many media or examples of where we promote our photography studio message.

I prefer to call it innovating your message. StarBucks did this with a commodity, coffee! We can do it with our studio as well. Let me be fair about this and give you some examples.

You offer a prospect who just had a baby your baby's first year wall panel. First thing they see is....wait for it...wait for it...tadaaaa!!! Awesome show stopping samples of, you guessed it, babies that wou've photographed in the past!

If she says, "wow, these are awesome, I've never seen such great baby pics". Hey, in her eyes, you're 'unique'. You have just unknowingly created a unique selling proposition. She's asking, perhaps, in her mind: "I like, I want, I wonder..."

So, the selling starts now. You just caught her attention. (The old time acronym called AIDA says it all...A-Attention, I-Interest, D-Desire, A-Action)

Now you move onto interest. You pitch the offer, which not surprisingly also has one or more unique selling angles (another word for proposition). It could be "You baby's first year created in four stages with a wall plaque at the end showing your babies biggest growth year. Only $XYZ.XC and you get two free gifts if you act now."

Wow. More selling propositions. She can hardly resist. That's the whole purpose, to get her eager to say YES! Of course, you need to ask for the sale. That's tha action part of AIDA. Get her on the path. Make her part of your happy family. Keep giving her selling proposition after selling proposition. Keep her loyal. Do all these things, and if is so hooked on your studio, she's start telling her friend about how unique you are.

The biggest mistake in marketing is to be boring. It's not called 'Common, Everyday Selling Proposition' is it?

So a USP isn't something vague, academic or theoretical. It's not something you create once and robotically repeat when you meet someone new. (when I am asked what I do, I simply say I run a busy photography studio that specializes in families, babies and weddings. When asked how's business, it's always "GREAT!", no matter how it is. When you meet people, they assess you quickly enough by your presence and pizzazz. This is part of your personal USP I guess...)

A proposal, or angle, or pitch, is best described as part of an offer, either direct or subliminal (Hey, smells great in this studio. I like it here). Make everything about you, your offers, the media used (that's why I like websites, you get to give them personality and a voice..unless you have, like so many photographers, one of those templated, slow-as-molasses flash sites...and that's why I like direct mail and newsletters...no one uses them, so I'm unique!), the way you say it (always use your own voice and speak in words that expresses the benifits to them) and most of all, create offers, widgets, pitches that are unique and exciting and irresistable.

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