The One Marketing Concept Every Business Owner Should Know
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It’s never been harder to capture attention.
Every month, 430,000 new businesses are started in the US alone.1
Every day, 177,372 new websites are created on the Internet.2
Every minute, 65K Instagram posts, 350K tweets, and 1.7 million Facebook posts are shared.3
The sad reality is that most new projects—whether a brick-and-mortar business, Substack publication, Instagram theme page, mobile app, or something else—fail to capture enough attention to get liftoff. They eventually wither away, and the people behind them wonder why they failed while so many others succeed.
One problem is that many business owners don’t realize that they need to market their business. They think that if they build it, customers or an audience will just appear.
But marketing alone isn’t enough to guarantee success. If your business doesn’t have strong positioning, you’ll still blend into the masses.
To capture attention effectively, you need to know your unique selling proposition.
What Is a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
A unique selling proposition is a statement that summarizes how your product or business is different from other options in the market. Coined by TV advertising pioneer Rosser Reeves in 1940, the concept should succinctly explain how you stand out.
A unique selling proposition describes why customers should choose your company from all the available options.
Reeves observed that many advertising campaigns lacked a clear and compelling message. He believed effective advertising should focus on a single, strong message persuading consumers to choose a particular product or service.
He outlined the key principles of a USP in his 1961 book "Reality in Advertising":
Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer, clearly stating the product's benefits.
The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not offer.
The proposition must be compelling enough to attract new customers.
Whether you’re advertising or not, if you can’t articulate your unique selling proposition, you probably don’t have one. And until you do, you’ll struggle to gain traction with your business.
How to Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition
Think of your unique selling proposition as the intersection of three factors:
What your business does best.
What your customers want.
What your competitors lack.
If you can find a concept that fits all three categories, you likely have a strong USP!
How to Figure Out What Your Business Does Best
Chances are you probably already know what your business does best. This is usually the most straightforward answer to fill in.
If you’re unsure and you have a one-person business, the questions outlined in this article should help.
If your company is bigger, thinking through a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) will help determine where your business excels.
How to Figure Out What Your Customers Want
Figuring out what your customers want takes a bit more work. You may already know the answer, but if not, it’s time to do some research.
If you’re starting a new company and trying to understand what your potential customers want, going through the process of validating demand for your idea will give you a pretty good starting point.
If you’ve already been in business for a while, you can check out your customer support calls, product reviews, and content engagement for ideas. You can also send surveys to your customers or audience for feedback.
How to Figure Out What Your Competitors Lack
For most people, figuring out what competitors lack is the hardest part. If you don’t take the time to figure out how you can set yourself apart from competitors, you’ll always struggle to capture customers with your offer. Even if you already know what your business excels at and what your customers want.
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