The official definition of Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a specific, compelling statement that communicates a benefit that only your organization can provide to the customer.

I view USP as short, memorable, and compelling sentence that sells.

For online marketing, you must effectively communicate the USP to your website visitors.

If you choose to do online advertising, you must effectively communicate your USP through the text or banner ad.

This article will focus on choosing an effective USP. An effective USP is simple and aligns with the core of your organization.

Aligning the USP with Your Organization

We Keep You Legal For Less.

The core of SafeAuto is the cheapest (legally) possible price.

Yellow Book, Not the Other Book.

The core of Yellow Book is its market dominance and the lack of an alternative.

People are bombarded with advertising everywhere. They are wary.

Credibility is therefore a valuable and essential commodity in marketing. Therefore, it’s best if the core and perception of the organization aligns with the USP.

McDonald’s had an ad campaign about the freshness and quality of their ingredients.

People laughed when they saw the commercials. That’s because the public’s perception of McDonald’s did not align with the message of the ad.

Burger King’s “I Am Man” campaign works much better. That’s because their Whopper is already perceived as filling and indulging.

Keep It Simple

A USP should only make one (compelling) point. It’s more effective than a list of facts that no one will remember.

One compelling campaign that puts forth a clear, believable USP leaves a deeper impression than a confused, changing, and unfocused campaign.

Take McDonald’s. I think they currently do a horrible job of marketing.

They have the “i'm lovin' it” campaign. The meaning of it isn’t clear or compelling, and they haven’t achieved the brand love to have that phrase resonate with the people.

They have the “dollar menu” campaign. And they have “See What We're Made Of,” which claims that they use good ingredients.

The result is the inability of consumers to associate McDonald’s with a clear and compelling USP.

The opposite is SafeAuto. SafeAuto started as a small insurance company in 1993 and became a nationally recognizable brand.

They built that brand on one message.

We keep you legal for less.

Every person who has come in contact with their advertising associates cheap insurance with SafeAuto.

Using Google Analytics

The language of the USP and the words you use to describe the core of your business should align with how the public perceives you.

One way to discover that is using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is an extremely effective (and free) tool for your website that tells you how many visitors you have, where they come from, and what they do on your website.

For the visitors who discovered your website through the Google search engine, Google Analytics can tell you what key phrase they typed.

And that should be a good indicator of how your audience perceives you.

Faithadnet is an “ad network.”

But that doesn’t matter.

What matters is how our target audience perceives us. Are we “banner advertising” or “online advertising? “Advertising” or “marketing”?

To help us find out, we used Google analytics. Obviously, how many visitors each key phrase brings in is a good indicator. In addition, how many pages these visitors saw and how long they stayed are perhaps even more important indicators.

Final Words

Most organizations need USPs to effectively reach their audience.

The USP must be a simple and believable statement that communicates a compelling fact or benefit.

For online marketing, the USP must be featured prominently on the homepage and communicated effectively in ads (and also the landing page).

For questions and comments regarding this article, online advertising, the Faith & Family audience, or Faithadnet, do not hesitate to contact us at marketing@faithadnet.com.