252: What is your USP {Unique Selling Point}?

Discover the secret sauce that makes your business irresistible by uncovering your USP - Unique Selling Point.

Your USP is the special thing that sets you and your business apart from everyone else. In this episode, we are deep-diving how to craft your USP and then incorporate it into your brand and messaging.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey there and welcome to the Girl Means Business podcast, the show where we're all about helping you feel confident, both as a mom and a business owner. I'm your host, kendra Swalls, mom of two, former teacher and full-time photographer and business coach. Each week, we'll discuss the challenges, success and secrets that make you say I can do this, because you absolutely can. So pop in those earbuds, grab your favorite snack and let's dive in, because this girl means business. Hey there and welcome to the Girl Means Business podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Today, I want to talk to you about a fun little acronym USP. And I'm not talking about the brown truck that brings you your packages, that's UPS. We're talking about USP, which stands for unique selling point or unique selling position. So we're going to get into what does this mean, why do you need to know this for your business and how can you figure out your USP? Okay, so let's start with what exactly is your USP? So, like I said, usp stands for unique selling point, unique selling position, whatever you want the P to be, but it's basically what is it that sets your business apart from everybody else in your niche, your industry, your sphere around you? So I'm going to use, for the purpose of this episode my photography business, specifically my business when I was focusing on boudoir photography because this was the point in my business journey that I really, really honed in on a USP and found it to be incredibly, incredibly successful for drawing in my ideal clients, setting me apart from all the other people around me, even though my price point was quite a bit higher than most photographers in my area doing the same thing I was doing. And ultimately, what it all came down to was I had set myself apart as someone who offered something very unique in that industry, and so that's what my unique selling point was.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Obviously, I'm going to get into all of that specifically, but I want to first give you a little bit of a breakdown of the difference between your USP and your niche. So a lot of times I see people get these two confused. So when I ask somebody, well, what is it that makes you special, like what is it that sets you apart, They'll come back and they'll say, well, I specialize in this, or I focus on this, or I offer this, and really that is your niche, that is your specific like genre within your industry that you focus on. That's not necessarily your USP, because there's probably a ton of other people doing the same thing you're doing. So another example I have is the lady who I would go get my hair done from. She owns a salon nearby me and she specialized in blonde. You know hairstyle she was really good at like blonde coloring and blonde upkeep that's what she like, really specialized in, and while that was her niche within the hair industry, it really wasn't her USP. It wasn't the thing that kept people coming back to her time and time again. It wasn't the thing that brought new people in the door. It wasn't the thing that had people really raving about her salon. What really was her USP was the overall experience that she provided.

Speaker 1: 3:44

From the minute you walked into her salon, you felt like you were a VIP, even if you were just there to get like a haircut and nothing else. You were treated like you were a VIP. You were greeted by your name. You were offered a snack or a drink. You were, you know, led to like a little luxury kind of sitting area with big, comfy couch or comfortable chairs. There were magazines and books and things you could kind of sit and enjoy while you're waiting for your appointment. And then you got the full VIP treatment Every time you got your hair washed, you got the scalp massage, you know you got the. She would even bring you, like a little charcuterie tray if you wanted one to your chair while you were getting your style or your cut or whatever you were having done. They would offer you different drinks, whether it was soda or water, or tea or coffee or wine or a spritzer. You were made to feel like you were the most valuable person in that salon. To feel like you were the most valuable person in that salon, no matter what you were there to have done.

Speaker 1: 4:48

That was her unique selling point, beyond just the fact that she specialized in these specific things. She had created this experience that people came back for time and time again. She had created this experience that people were willing to pay extra money for, even though some of her services cost more than other places. For me personally, if I was just going in there to get my hair cut and not get a color, not get any kind of extra treatments yeah, I could have easily gone down the road to a really cheap you know, walk in, get my haircut spot and spend a fraction of what I spent going to her salon, but I wasn't going to have that experience, and so I was willing to pay more to have the experience, to have the treatment that she had provided that she had created within her salon. That was her USP. So the difference between that and her niche is her niche was she was a hairstylist who specialized in blonde hair. You know colors. She specialized in these hand-tied extensions. I wasn't going there because my hair is blonde it's not. I didn't go there because I was getting extensions I don't, but I was still enamored by the entire thing. She had created the entire ambience.

Speaker 1: 6:03

So that is what you want people to have when they come into your business. That is the USP you want to provide for them. And so the goal here is to figure out well, what is that for you? Because if you don't have a physical store they're walking into where you can create a physical experience for them. What else can you offer that sets you apart from everybody else in your industry? So this is where you have to kind of do some work on this, and let me give you some ways that you some homework if you will that you can use to start figuring out what is your USP. So I want you to start by thinking about everybody you've already worked with. If you are brand new to business and you haven't had clients yet, or not very many, that's okay. Just roll with me here and then we'll get to the next part where you'll have a little more you can do here.

Speaker 1: 6:54

But if you already have a handful, or a couple dozen or a couple hundred, depending how long you've been in business if you have enough of a client base that you can go back and say, okay, what are some of the things that I'm seeing as a recurring theme that they are saying about me or about my business or about their experience working with me that I can draw from? So let's say, you are a virtual health and fitness coach, so you coach clients one-on-one or in small groups, online. Maybe you do some in person, but primarily online. You offer coaching packages, you offer recipes, you offer all the things the total health and fitness package. If you go back and you start looking through your past client communications and your past client reviews, what are some trends you start to notice?

Speaker 1: 7:44

Maybe your past clients are saying, oh my gosh, this you know, my coach was so amazing. She made a point to check in every single week and make sure that I was, you know, staying up on my goals. She remembered, you know, even with all the clients that she has, she remembered little, small details about my life. Or maybe they're saying that you you saying that you over-delivered. You promised weekly exercises, weekly recipes, but instead you also gave them food trackers and you checked in with them and you allowed them to message you on WhatsApp or you used the Slack channel and that's where they could stay in touch with you and get extra feedback on things. You use the Slack channel and that's where they could stay in touch with you and get extra feedback on things. You know you allow them to submit their food logs and you would go through and review them. Whatever it is. What are the things that they are saying about you? Is it that your communication was always on point? Is it that you went above and beyond in your delivery of your products and services? Those can be part of your USP.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Sometimes it's not always the things that we recognize in ourselves. A lot of times we have to get feedback from other people to go oh yeah, that's the thing I'm really good at. A perfect example is and I think I've talked with us here on the podcast before I've talked about this. Example is that when I was teaching, there was a teacher on my team one year who was really, really good at spreadsheets and organization and she always had a Google doc or a Google spreadsheet or some kind of like tool, digital tool that she would use for all these different things, and so anytime one of us really needed help with something or needed something you know, an organizational system for something, she was our go-to person. But if you had asked her what her strength was when it came to her job, that is not what she would have told you, but we would have all said no, you like. One of your main strengths is how incredibly skilled you are at organization and using these tools available to you, and so sometimes we need to hear from other people because we can't see the forest for the trees.

Speaker 1: 9:51

So having your audience give you feedback, having your past clients give you feedback, can really help you kind of hone in on what it is that is your USP. Now, if you don't already have past clients, you can also ask your family and friends say, hey, when you think of me, like if you were to come to me for help with something, what would you come to me for help with, or what is the thing that you think I'm really good at? And you know, sometimes if it's for your family and friends, they're going to placate you a little bit and be like, oh, you're really good at, you know, making sure everybody feels appreciated, and those are good things. They may not always apply to your business, but sometimes you'll get some good feedback. Sometimes you'll get some things you can go, yeah, that that works for my business too. If I do that in real, you know, with my family and friends, I'm also doing that with my clients, or I plan to do that with my clients. And so you know, starting off with what are people already saying about you? What are the things that maybe we don't recognize in ourselves but that others recognize in us, that sets us apart from everybody else around us? So that's step one write those things down.

Speaker 1: 11:01

Then I want you to think about your own experiences of working with other small businesses or companies and brands. What are some of the things that draws you in to those places? What are the stores you go back to time and time again, and why? What is it about them that draws you in? Is it something they offer. Is it an experience that you get? Is it a feeling that you get? Is it because they include X, y or Z with your purchases, or when you work with them, like, what is it about them that really makes you go? That is someone I'm going to come back to. I'll give you a great example.

Speaker 1: 11:44

So there is a local florist in you know where I live and I've met this, the owner of this forest, multiple times. We have worked together on past styled shoots, all these things. She's amazing, but honestly, it's just a flower shop. There's a million flower shops around, but yet I love going back to her flower shop for a couple of reasons. One of the main ones is that I know when I walk into her shop, I'm not just buying flowers, I'm not just buying a bouquet, I am getting an education basically on floral design, because a lot of times they really are. Her and her team are making sure that they listen to what it is that I'm looking for. They're not just going to say like if I call them up and I say, hey, um, I need flowers for um, you know a new principal. So I'm on the PTO at my daughter's school, they were getting a new principal. So, as the PTO, we wanted to give her a welcome gift on her first day of school. So I called the floor. I said hey, we're welcoming a new principal into our school. We would love to, you know, have a bouquet for her. Can y'all put something together for us?

Speaker 1: 12:52

A lot of florists would just kind of go yeah, yeah, what's your budget? Give them a price point. They'll just kind of go design something. This particular flower shop. She said, yeah, that we can absolutely do that. What's your budget? And then she walked me through like the different types of flowers, the colors. Do you want it to have like more of your school colors, which for us is like reds and whites? Do you want to go with more? Like well, these flowers really symbolize this.

Speaker 1: 13:18

While these flowers kind of symbolize this, like they really made a point to kind of educate us on not only you know what kind of color flowers would look nice together, but like what message these flowers send, and that's interesting. And then, on top of that, that's just like if you call in and you order your flowers, that's the experience you get. They teach classes, you can go in like once or twice a month and they have workshops and they'll have themed workshops. They'll have like a Taylor Swift night where they'll go in and you'll kind of create these different bouquets based on the different eras. You know from her past albums They've done like an all white night where you come in everywhere where's all white and you make an entirely all white bouquet and she teaches you about the process and she teaches you about the flowers and why you know you want to cut them this way or or why you want these grouped together here. But these grouped together this way, it's fascinating.

Speaker 1: 14:14

You don't get that from every other flower shop you go to. That is her USP. It's not just that you're buying flowers from her. You're buying a learning experience. You're buying something you want to come back to, because you're now invested in the fact that she wants you to not only get the flowers. She wants you to feel a certain way when you get the flowers or about the flowers that you're getting. So that's her USP.

Speaker 1: 14:39

So if, when I'm planning my USP, when I'm looking at it going well, what is my unique selling point? And I'm thinking about the experiences I've had with other businesses, I come back to that experience with her flower shop and I go. I want to, you know, embody some of those things in my own business. I want people to come to my photography studio, to come to a session and not just feel like they're posing in front of a camera. You know, maybe I want them to feel like they're empowered, to know, like why I have them posing a certain way. I want them to walk away feeling like I could do this in my real life, everyday life, with my phone. When I'm taking pictures with my iPhone, or when someone's taking a picture of me, now I know how to pose to flatter my own figure or to make my legs look longer or whatever, and so that is part of the USP that I'm offering, based on past experiences with other businesses I've worked with.

Speaker 1: 16:46

So phase one, or part one, is I want you to figure out what other people are saying is part of your unique selling point. Then I want you to look at what other experiences have you had with other businesses, other brands that you can draw from that you can say I like this, this and this kind of cherry. Pick the things you liked. Figure out how that can show up in your own USP. And then the third thing I want you to do is I want you to think about your audience. I want you to think about who it is you're really appealing to, because all the things I've already talked about may not appeal to everybody. When I go back to that experience of you know the hair salon that I go to, there are some people who, if they just want a haircut, they want to walk in, they want it to be quick, they want it to be easy and they want it to be affordable. They don't care about you know the experience. They don't care about the scalp massage and the shampoo and the snacks and the drinks and all those things they care about. How quickly can I get this done so I can go about my day? So when you know who your audience is, you can create a custom experience, you can create a selling point in your business that appeals to those people. And so let me give you an example.

Speaker 1: 18:03

In my photography business, like I mentioned at the beginning of, I know and I've learned from past clients and just life experiences that one of my gifts, if you will, is connection, conversation, connection. It's why I do this podcast, it's why I love talking to people, I love connecting with people and I love connecting people together, saying like, hey, I know this person and this person and y'all would like have a lot in common, or y'all could work really well together in a collaboration of some kind. Like those are my gifts and so with my boudoir sessions I took that information. I said okay, part of what sets me apart is that I'm not walking into the studio and going okay time to put on some lingerie and take some pictures. I'm taking time to get to know them ahead of time. We are having a you know an hour, an hour and a half, to sit down together while they get their hair and makeup done, to build a connection, to build trust, so that when it is time for them to, you know, strip down to the lingerie and pose in front of a camera, it's way more comfortable because now they're doing it in front of a friend. So that was how I took, you know, step one and I said okay, I want to really play on the fact that it's not just you coming into a stranger taking your photos. It's about coming into someone who feels like a friend, who understands. You know where you are in your life, the things going through your head, the emotions you're feeling as you come into the session.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Then I went to, okay, what are some other experiences that I've had as a photography client that I really really wanted to like bring into my sessions? One of them was being the hair and makeup piece. I knew I wanted it to be kind of a one-stop experience. I didn't want them to have to, like, go to point A, get your hair and makeup done, then come to point B and do your photo shoot and then come back a week later and see your photos. I wanted it to be this all-inclusive type thing. Think about, when you go on vacation and you get to go to an all-inclusive resort, how different that feels to know that you can just like, grab a drink, grab food, go do this activity. It's all there together, it's all done for you, instead of having to plan a vacation where you're like, okay, we're staying at this hotel, but then we're going to rent a car, we're going to drive to this place and eat dinner here, and then we're going to drive to this place and have to do this activity, but then we're gonna have to come back to our hotel and do this other thing. Instead of piecing those things together, I wanted it to have this all-inclusive feeling.

Speaker 1: 20:48

The third piece of this was my clientele. I knew that my audience, my ideal client for my boudoir sessions, was a mom in her mid to late 30s, even into her early 40s. She had school-age kids. She was getting back to this point in her life where she could spend time on herself, she could focus on herself. She was wanting to, you know, recommit, to feeling good in her own skin again, even though her body had changed since having kids. She wanted to reconnect with her spouse and reconnect with herself. And so, knowing those things, I could create an experience that spoke to that aspect of my client. And so, knowing those things, I could create an experience that spoke to that aspect of my client.

Speaker 1: 21:29

And so the things that really set my business apart started with the messaging. It started with the fact that when someone landed on my website, they knew exactly who I was talking to. They knew that I was saying hey, I see you, you're a mom, you're busy, you're doing everything for everybody else. It's time to do something for yourself. So you're going to come here, you're going to have this all-inclusive experience. You're going to feel amazing when you walk out and you're going to get to do everything in one sitting. There's no coming back to see your photos. You're going to see them the exact same day. You're going to get your hair and makeup done. You're going to spend an hour to an hour and a half in front of my camera, feeling more confident with every click of my button, and then you're going to get to relax for a few minutes, kind of just soak in everything that just happened, and then you'll get to see your pictures right away. You're going to get to choose the ones that you want to have in a keepsake album or printed to hang on your wall in your bedroom, and you're going to walk out of my door feeling like a new person. That is the experience I was providing.

Speaker 1: 22:38

That was my unique selling point, and when I figured that out, when I put all of those puzzle pieces together to create, everything kind of skyrocketed and I'm not exaggerating when I say it almost happened overnight. It really almost happened overnight. As soon as I started putting the pieces into place, as soon as I really nailed down who my ideal client was, once I changed the messaging on my website and all of my branding and all of my marketing materials and social media content. It's like all of a sudden, I had turned on this switch and this magnet was just drawing people in. And then, once they came in and they got the entire experience, they could not wait to tell their friends about it. The number of referrals that I got from past clients was astonishing, because I had finally figured out what it was that was so unique that I could offer that not everybody else around me was doing so, that, even though my price point was higher than a lot of the photographers around me, I had this kind of this magical thing that they wanted.

Speaker 1: 23:46

And yes, there were people who, you know, inquired with me and they didn't want that experience. They just wanted, you know, to spend $250, have a few photos taken, get the digital files and walk away. Those weren't my people and that's fine. I was okay with that. But the ones who did find me, who were like yes, I want to be pampered, I want to have the complete experience, I want to feel like I'm not just a mom for a little while and I want to have somebody who gets me in that level. And then I want to feel like I'm not just a mom for a little while and I want to have somebody who gets me in that level and then I want to walk away with these amazing photos. That's like the icing on the cake, but the experience was worth more than the actual photos they walked away with.

Speaker 1: 24:35

To draw in your clients when you are struggling to say like I don't know where my next client's coming from. I don't know. You know, I feel like I'm competing with all these people around me. You know, I feel like I am, you know, just another voice in the sea of voices on social media. You need to find your unique selling point. You need to find what it is that is going to make people go. I want to choose her. I want to choose that over everything else, because you're doing something, you're offering something, you're providing something, even if it's something simple. But it is going to be the small little like catalyst that goes. This is the switch that I can turn on and draw people in like a magnet to my business. That is what your unique selling point is and hopefully, through listening to this, you've not only been inspired by the examples I've given, by the stories I've shared, but you also have the steps you can take. You know, looking at what are the things that people are already coming to you, for what are the things that they're saying about you that are that stand out? What are some examples of other businesses that you can draw from? And then, how can you really customize your experience, your product, your services to your ideal client so that they feel seen in your brand and in what it is that you're offering, because that, ultimately, is going to be the overall USP, your unique selling point in your business.

Speaker 1: 26:00

All right, guys, that does it for our episode this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you have questions, if you have topics you would like to hear on the podcast, please, please, please, go down to the show notes, click on the Ask Me Anything link and you can fill out that form. Let me know if you have specific questions you want me to answer here on the podcast. If you have topics you're interested in learning more about or diving deeper into, you can add those in there as well. That always helps me to create episodes that I know you're going to get the most value from.

Speaker 1: 26:31

So again, thank you so much for being here this week. Make sure you head down to that. Um, ask me anything for. Fill that out and I will see you back here next week. Same time, same place. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to take a screenshot, share it to social media, and don't forget to tag. Girl means business and, as always, we greatly appreciate any reviews you leave for this podcast. Thank you,