It’s fair to say that I’m very passionate about business generally but 1 area that I get particularly energised over is helping my clients effectively market themselves by finding those little nuggets of information that, when blended together, will create a unique marketing message. This has been a key topic in the Business Growth Clubs that I’m currently running and I wanted to share a way that I sometimes use to help clients find their “business uniqueness”.
How well you distinguish yourself from your competition is vitally important when it comes to successfully marketing your business. Broadly speaking there are a lot of businesses out there which have significant competition such as graphic designers, virtual assistants, accountants, business development consultants, and the list goes on and on. These businesses really do need to focus carefully on how they differentiate themselves from their competition. However, I bet the majority of their marketing material will all say the same thing, which will be very features lead (“I do this…”). I’ve spoken before about removing your competition by creating a niche for yourself; another great way is to focus on your uniqueness.
Let’s focus on you
“I don’t have any USPs because I’m not unique; there are lots of other businesses that do what I do.” Is that something that you have found yourself thinking at some point? Do you believe it’s true? I hope you don’t because it certainly is not true! We are all unique; the challenge is to articulate it in your marketing material.
Well let’s get you out of the “I’m not unique” mindset. For a minute forget that you have your own business and think of yourself as an individual. Do you believe you are a unique individual? You are one of a kind. Your experiences that have lead you to the place you are at today have made you a unique person; your education, your relationships, your values and so on have blended together to create you. Now add on your business “layers”. These layers will contain your training, your knowledge base, your experience of your clients etc. Are you starting to see how you do have USPs that set you apart from other people in the same profession?
Now add in the clients that you love to work with and the exact type of work that you love to do. Now you are becoming very unique. Now that you are thinking about these elements start to write them down. Answer the following:
My background is
Which lead me to
From there I did
Now I have
I love delivering
For clients who
Keep polishing this up and you will have the beginnings of your marketing material that will position you nicely away from your competitors.