Marketing Blueprint – Part 12

12) Determine A Unique Selling Position (USP), And Integrate It Into All Of Your Marketing And Sales Processes

A USP defines and communicates what makes your business new, unique, or different than everyone else in your industry. It’s your competitive advantage.

For example, think of FedEx.

FedEx’s USP is: “When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight”.

That USP isn’t just a slogan. It defines everything about how FedEx operates and positions itself among competitors. No one else on earth is able to use that phrase. Not the U.S. Postal Service, not UPS, not DHL. No one.

Here’s another example: “Fresh and hot and to your door in 30 minutes or it’s free”. Who’s that? Yep. Dominoes Pizza. That USP took a failing community pizza company and made it into the world’s largest pizza franchise.

When you look at these examples, realize that neither of these USP’s are slogans. Slogans are lame. Slogans don’t sell. Oh. Don’t worry if all this sounds a little confusing. Many people who work in marketing full-time don’t fully grasp the difference between slogans and USP.

That’s why there are so many junky slogans out there. Lets sum it up this way…

A slogan is a phrase that nearly anyone else can also claim applies to their business. It doesn’t truly set the company apart.

One of the worst places of slogan “poisoning” is probably the real estate industry. Turn to the real estate section of any major Sunday newspaper and look at the ads.

You’ll see slogans like, ‘we care’, ‘we’re number one’, ‘top seller’ and a slew of other worthless phrases that do nothing to define the company from the buyers perspective.

USPs on the other hand are definitions of what makes a company unique. Slogans are stupid and don’t work at driving sales.

Don’t get confused between the two.

Instead, consider what you can say about your business that will set it apart from your competitors…not only this month but for years to come.

You’ve just seen all 12 steps needed to increase your sales by two to three times what you are seeing now. These steps are not glamorous. They aren’t sexy. But they work!
How do most business owners market their companies?

Most simply copy what their competitors are doing. That’s because they have a difficult time discovering how to attract new clients, sell more to existing clients, or reactivate clients who’ve drifted away beyond what competitors are doing.

If you’re in that boat you may appreciate having a list of marketing methods.

Perhaps reading through this list of more than 101 marketing methods will prompt you to come up with new strategies for increasing your sales.

1. Ad Specialties
2. Advertising in all its forms
3. Advertorial Services (press release services)
4. Advisory Board
5. Ancillary Products/Services
6. Answering Machine Messages Business Cards
7. Audio Recordings
8. Audiocassettes – commercially produced
9. Awards
10. Billboards (Highway bus subway bench)
11. Booths (Trade Shows Conventions Expos etc.)
12. Brochures
13. Bulletin Boards
14. Business Card Ads
15. Calendar Listings
16. Canvassing
17. Car Cards
18. Card Decks
19. Catalogs
20. Celebrity Spokesperson
21. Centers Of Influence
22. Clinics
23. Community Service
24. Conferences
25. Consultations
26. Contests
27. Coop Mailings
28. Coupons
29. Courses
30. Cross promotions
31. Demonstrations
32. Direct Mail
33. Directories
34. Distributors
35. Donations (high-profile non-profits)
36. Door hangers
37. Education
38. Electronic Bulletin Boards
39. Exhibits
40. Fairs
41. Feature Stories
42. Fliers
43. Four-wall marketing
44. Fundraisers
45. Gift Certificates
46. Gifts
47. Group Mailers
48. Inserts
49. Interviews
50. Invitation-Only Events (guest events; breakfast; seminar etc.)
51. Licensing
52. Listings
53. Loss leaders
54. Magazine Ads
55. Mailing Lists
56. Matchbook Ads
57. Movie Theater Ads
58. Networking
59. New Niches/Market Segments
60. News Releases
61. Newsletters
62. Newspaper Ads
63. Parking Meter Ads
64. Party Plan
65. Per Inquiry Ads
66. Personal Contact
67. Personal Letters
68. Placemats
69. Point of Purchase
70. Positive Picketers
71. Postcards
72. Posters
73. Preferred Provider
74. Premiums
75. Pro bono work (for visibility sake and to get closer to key players)
76. Public Speaking
77. Publicity
78. Publishing
79. Radio spots & ads
80. Radio Talk Show/Interviews
81. Recorded Phone Messages/Info-lines
82. Referrals
83. Rolodex Review
84. Sales Reps
85. Seminars
86. Signs
87. Special Events
88. Sponsorships
89. Statement Stuffers
90. Surveys
91. T-Shirt Ads
92. Tabloid
93. Take Ones
94. Tele-prospecting machines
95. Telemarketing-Inbound
96. Telemarketing-Outbound
97. Television
98. Trade Association Memberships
99. Trade Shows
100. Vanity Radio
101. Vehicle Ads
102. Videocassette Box Ads
103. Videotape & DVD presentations (sales messages)
104. Word-Of-Mouth marketing
105. Workshops
106. Write Articles
107. Write Books
108. Write Reports & whitepapers
109. Yellow Pages Ads

Knowing these marketing tactics exist is an eye opener. However, simply having a list of marketing methods is ineffective alone.

Plenty of questions should come to mind as you read this list…

• How are you going to implement these tactics?
• Which methods are most profitable for your business?
• What fatal mistakes can cost you your company while trying to implement these strategies?
• What case studies and examples will you follow to apply these methods?
• Which strategies are useless for your industry in today’s market?
• How can you apply these methods with the least possible risk and least expense, and still get maximum profit for your business?

Coming up with answers to these questions will put you heads above your competitors who sit clueless, wondering what do you know that they don’t know.